Angela “Angie” Buck was 37 when two people looking for places to set turtle traps found her near a creek east of Waterloo on August 11, 1995. She was raising four children and had loved horses, violin and radio. Her death was ruled a gunshot homicide. The people who cared about her spent more than three decades waiting for a court to consider criminal charges.

In October 2026, Iowa authorities charged Kelly Joseph Grant and Lindell Jackson separately with first-degree murder. News coverage of their criminal complaints describes interviews reaching back to 1996, possible changes in accounts and several dates that do not line up cleanly across published sources. A reader can ask hard questions about those dates without assuming that an allegation in a complaint is already proved.

Why It Matters

In a cold case, a difference between July 1997 and July 2001 is not a minor formatting issue. A witness’s memory, a recorded interview, an investigator’s summary and a newspaper’s later retelling are not interchangeable. The actual date and wording of a statement may affect how readers understand changes over time. Angie’s story also deserves care: a disagreement among records should never become a reason to speculate about her life or blame her for the violence done to her.

Go Deeper | Which Timeline Can Be Checked?

The January 1996 interview attributed to Jackson

An October 29, 2026 Des Moines Register report described a court document supplied by the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office. According to that reporting, investigators interviewed Lindell Jackson in January 1996, months after Angie’s death. The account says he told investigators he had been in the Linn County Jail when she was killed, reportedly because of a driving offense.

The Register reported that investigators checked custody records and concluded he had been jailed later that August, not on the date of the killing. That is an important reported detail. But this newsroom has not examined the original 1995 intake and release logs or the complete 1996 interview. We therefore cannot independently declare the account correct, false, disproved or complete. A report describing a court document is one step removed from the document itself, and the court’s eventual treatment of it remains a separate question.

What the jail record would need to show

A useful historical custody record would identify the person, facility, intake and release dates, and any transfers. The relevant date of Angie’s death would also need to be grounded in the evidence, not guessed from the day her body was found. Copies of the original interview, any recorded questions and any signed statement would help establish the exact claim investigators were checking.

Only after those records are compared could a reporter accurately describe whether the specific custody dates support or contradict the statement attributed to Jackson. Even then, the result would address a particular claim about whereabouts. It would not alone decide guilt on a first-degree murder charge.

A second mismatch: Grant’s July interview year

There is a separate timeline issue involving Grant. The Register’s October 29 retrospective lists interviews in January 1996, July 1997 and March 2025. FOX 9 and Bring Me The News, describing the complaint, refer to a July 2001 follow-up in which Grant reportedly offered an account of living in Florida during the period of Angie’s killing.

Both versions may have an explanation, such as different interviews or an error in a later summary. This newsroom has not obtained the original dated interview notes or recordings needed to choose between them. Rewriting both years as if they were settled would manufacture certainty. A better case timeline keeps each source’s year visible while recording what remains unresolved.

A third date: August 9 or August 11, 1995?

The Iowa Cold Cases case index labels August 9 as a crime date. Official 2026 announcements establish that Angie was found on August 11. Reporting about the 2026 complaints places an alleged encounter at a Waterloo residence late August 10 into August 11. Those sources do not answer the same question. One gives an index label, another a discovery date, and another an allegation about earlier events.

Until original medical, investigative and witness records are examined, the indexed August 9 date should not be described as a confirmed medical-examiner time of death. The distinction can affect an attempted alibi analysis, making careful wording especially important.

What the 2025 and September 2026 accounts add

KCRG reported that investigators interviewed Jackson again in 2025 and September 2026. The reporter’s account of the complaint describes differences in how Jackson spoke about knowing Grant and his activities in the neighborhood decades earlier. Reporting on Grant’s complaint also describes a March 2025 interview and a separate possible motive learned that year.

Those are descriptions of prosecution allegations. They should be evaluated with the actual questions, context, recordings and any response from the defense. A changed account can be significant evidence if authenticated and properly evaluated, but a summary does not show every word spoken, why a detail differed or how a court will rule on admissibility.

Two prosecutions require two distinct records

Grant was arrested and charged October 15, 2026, according to the Iowa Attorney General’s October 16 announcement. Jackson was charged October 28, according to the Attorney General’s October 29 announcement. The cases involve the same homicide, but they are not the same prosecution. Each man has the right to challenge the allegations, witnesses and evidence offered against him.

No jury verdict in either murder prosecution has been authenticated in the record reviewed for this story. An interview claim about one person should not automatically be attributed to the other. The fact that both were charged does not prove they acted as investigators alleged.

What Happens Next | Three document comparisons

The custody comparison: Match the original Linn County intake, release and transfer records against the precise January 1996 statement and the evidence-supported period of Angie’s death.

The interview comparison: Locate the signed report or recording for the reported July 1997 or July 2001 Grant interview. Record both the date on the original document and how each newsroom described it.

The date comparison: Compare the Iowa Cold Cases August 9 index with the original 1995 investigation, the confirmed August 11 discovery and what the actual complaints allege. Do not turn a search result or date label into a medical finding.

These are document leads, not findings of guilt. The core facts already confirmed are that Angie died by homicide and two men now face charges. The unanswered questions belong on a transparent research ledger until there is something better than an assumption. Remember Angie as the person her family knew, not as a puzzle in which every gap has to become a dramatic theory.