A strange family shooting at an Iowa campground

Felicia Coe of Des Moines told The Washington Post that she, her boyfriend and his children were camping nearby when they heard “two loud thuds” but did not think much of them. But then, she said, her boyfriend and a friend who was also camping there heard a scream and noises that they thought were fireworks. Later, Coe said, she saw a boy waiting near a pair of ambulances wearing a pajama set and one blue shoe.

“He was just standing there,” she said, adding that the boy’s features matched a photograph of Arlo Schmidt. “He was not hysterical.”

Coe, 35, said that her boyfriend’s 16-year-old son went out for a jog at the campground before the incident and that he saw an older couple looking for someone named Anthony — the suspect’s first name. Coe said her boyfriend’s son said the couple knocked on the door while he was in the bathroom and asked, “Anthony, are you in there, buddy?”

Sherwin’s mother, Cecilia Sherwin, told the Omaha World-Herald in an email that she and her family were camping at the park Friday when she heard yelling and two gunshots. She said a boy came up to her and told her that a man had shot his family. She said her family was legally traveling with a gun in a secure container.

“We think (Anthony) might have sensed trouble and grabbed the gun for safety,” Cecilia Sherwin wrote. “We refuse to believe the news. We are deeply saddened as he had so much to live for and gave us no indication that anything was wrong.”

Anthony Sherwin was from La Vista, Neb., where he lived in an apartment complex with his parents, and had no criminal history, La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten told the Des Moines Register.

Cecilia Sherwin said in a second email to the World-Herald that she and her family “cooperated fully with the police and investigative team from the get-go.”

“I didn’t think we had any tears left but we still find ourselves breaking down and care deeply for the little boy and the loss of his family,” she said, adding that her son “gave us no warning that he was planning anything of this sort.”

She again expressed doubt that he had killed the Schmidts. “Anthony was not capable of this sort of violence,” she said.

She told the Des Moines Register in an email, “Why would he throw everything away when he was looking forward to going home? It makes no sense.”

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What say you, datasleuths?

[quote] he saw an older couple looking for someone named Anthony — the suspect’s first name. Coe said her boyfriend’s son said the couple knocked on the door while he was in the bathroom and asked, “Anthony, are you in there, buddy?”

Was this the couple who were shot? And they were looking for their eventual killer and they called him "buddy"?

Red state crime wave!!!!

I wonder if Anthony was a relative - nephew, perhaps? This story is eerie.

It just seems so random.

Drugs? Bad trip?

Any boiled rabbits found?

Thanks for the thread, OP! Yeah this is really weird, I can't believe these people never met and then the finality of him shooting himself before we could find out why he did it. I can see this being a "soft butch sous-chef" thread, let's keep the guesses coming!

That article is very strangely written.

Here's a pic of the suspect. Looks like alt-right incel face to me.

I googled searched that pic R9, He looks like someone who would do something weird

He probably just wanted to feel like he was going out in a way that would make him relevant to get on TV. What a loser.

Clearly the little boy did it.

The nine year old did it.

The kid did it

I’m going to withhold judgment until our very own Gayle King weighs in on whether these deaths were a result of natural causes.

I'm going to withhold judgment awaiting a better written news article.

The 23-year dead suspect, his mother, and other family members had travelled 4 hours from their apartment complex in La Vista, Nebraska to some campground in Cedar Falls, Iowa....it's a story that begins with a tragedy.

[quote]“Why would he throw everything away when he was looking forward to going home? It makes no sense.”

Fucking hell, what 23-year-okd living in a shitty apartment complex in Nebraska would want to travel with his mother and family 4 hours to a campground in Iowa? Of course he was looking forward to going home and potentially getting away from his family for 10 minutes.

Among other questions.

I wonder how hot it was out there. The temperature has been like 105 degrees or more in much of the US, and some people get delusional and easily angered if they get too hot. The fact that this was a camp ground in the middle of a heat wave might need to be investigated.

About 72F to 75F in Maquoketa IA, R17, yesterday and for the several days to follow.

I wonder if the parents caught him acting inappropriately with their young son and he killed them to prevent them from telling anyone else, especially his family?

It’s obviously 4 unrelated, coincidental deaths. There is no mystery. Move on folks.

Arlo and Anthony planned the family-cide together, then there was an argument and Arlo emerged victorious. He lost his shoe in the scuffle.

They didn't specify, r2, but it appears to be the shooter's parents looking for him.

R9 he just looks batshitcrazy to me.

Interesting that he didn't harm the little boy. I wonder why he allowed him to live.

Kayla Lyon had to get that Iowa State Parks boosterism in.

The couple looking for him called him 'buddy'. I've noticed that people address in this way mentally ill individuals who are having a crisis of some sort (threatening suicide, for example) and they are trying to placate them. Like: "You okay, buddy? Let's calm down and get off that ledge". You wouldn't address a normal grown man this way.

R26- I agree. It seemed as if they were trying to calm him.

The mother is trying to cover her family’s ass. The couple knew their son was agitated and went looking for him. Stating he probably grabbed the gun because he sensed trouble is ridiculous. Even though she denies it, she knows her son did it.

R24 maybe it was just happenstance. The boy may have jumped behind a cot or something - in any case, the killer didn't seem to be in his right mind, maybe even psychotic. So who knows? I guess it's possible he had a plan about just killed three of them but I doubt it.

"I wonder if the parents caught him acting inappropriately with their young son"

Or their little daughter?

He let the young son live and bear witness.

[quote]Interesting that he didn't harm the little boy. I wonder why he allowed him to live.

He got the one blue shoe. That was all he ever wanted.

R30- True and good point. It is just odd that he allowed only one to live but maybe the boy hid when the shooting started. He is one lucky little boy to have lived, on the other hand he witnessed his family being shot to death and had lost them. He will need a lot of therapy and support.

He got lucky, just like me!

Tyler and Anthony were fucking. Monkeypox was involved.

Freaky guy had a shitty life and I'm sure we'll hear more about him NOT be all normal and well adjusted. His Facebook pic is a black box...that says a lot.

R35- That is both sad and disturbing.

R36 I agree. I have a feeling there was some interaction prior to the murders

He looked “special “.

This entire story is very odd. There is a lot that they aren't telling.

This is absolutely appalling. I mean, people actually live in Iowa?

R40- The horror!

[quote]He looked “special “.

I wonder if he liked blue? 🙁

WW for R42! I miss our Joey threads.

The police have an idea for the motive but say they won’t release it to the public. I wonder why?

The little girl was the only one strangled.

This is what happened -

The murderer’s parents lived in an apartment with their adult son, who likely had behavioral or mental issues. From the way his mother talked to the Post, I suspect at least she was deeply in denial about his issues or used to pretending to people outside the family that he was a lovely person, but he wasn’t. He was dangerous enough that his parents traveled with a (supposedly secured) weapon.

The parents took their son camping and he had some kind of crisis and stole the gun. They proceeded to freak out and search the camp because they knew their messed-up son was armed and dangerous. That’s what one of the other campers witnessed.

Meanwhile, the son ran off and killed two strangers and one of their children, and then himself, with the gun that his idiotic and in-denial parents allowed him access to. He was probably having some kind of breakdown at the time. Maybe he couldn’t have stopped himself. But his parents surely knew of the risk.

The poor surviving child whose entire family is now dead, was probably coincidentally elsewhere, and now has to go on with his life without his parents and sister.

The killer did have very pretty lips, though.

Tyler Schmidt, 42, was killed by a gunshot wound and “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to an Iowa Dept. of Public Safety news release. Sarah Schmidt, 42, died of multiple sharp force injuries, and 6-year-old Lula Schmidt died from a gunshot wound and strangulation.

Investigative sources have told the Des Moines Register that Sherwin allegedly used a ghost gun in the shootings, and on himself. Ghost guns are untraceable homemade guns.

Sherwin's parents told the Register that their son built his own weapon. His mother, Cecilia Sherwin, said the family didn't want him to purchase a gun, but thought building one made sense given an increase in crime around where they lived in Nebraska.

"He only had an interest in guns for a few months before he grew tired of it. By the time we took our trip he told us he was going to get rid of them. We were relieved as we never owned a gun of any kind before this year. We only had one in the car on the trip. He didn't have a fascination as much as it was a challenge to build it," she said in an email.

"He did not want to bring the gun on the trip but we thought it would be ok considering crime and bears," she wrote, adding a bear did invade their camp on at least one night of the trip.

These people are fucking nuts.

Despite police reports, the presumed shooter's parents said they believe their son is innocent and "a victim of homicide," too.

"We're devastated by all of this and still believe our son was murdered," Cecilia Sherwin wrote in an email to the Register. "He had too much to live for to throw it all away like this."

She said that after the family was infected with COVID-19 in April, "we began having health issues. We also had neurological problems we were hoping and praying would work themselves out." She did not share more about those issues.

Cecilia Sherwin said her son was working on a computerized system that would support a business, which she said was "worth millions." He planned to use the business to support his parents and help them — and Sherwin himself — retire early, she said. She did not elaborate on the type of business Sherwin was working on, but said in emails that he needed "tight security" because of it.

"I honestly can say he was the best son a parent could wish for," his mother wrote Thursday.

R49 Wow that mother is loony

The mother has likely been delusional about the son for many many years. I wonder if she ever even got him diagnosed or any mental help.

The parents sound Q Q for cocoa puffs.

Tight security for emails? Living at home at 23? Stabbed the parents but strangled the little girl?

Pedophile.

Wouldn't be surprised if there is child porn on Anthony Sherwin's computer. It's weird he strangled the little girl.

The authorities have said they know the motive, or are at least fairly certain, but will not release it to the public.

It's not random. The murdered family knew him. Definitely something weird going on there that came to a head at the campground.

The mother sounds delusional. I wonder if she is mentally ill and/or if she shared the delusions of her son.

Can this really be blamed on COVID? The mother implied as much. Has COVID driven some people mentally ill to this degree,? Or perhaps for those who are already mentally ill, it pushes them over the edge? Or is the mother full of it?

Maybe the parents thought he was a creeper and told him to stay away from the girl and he snapped.

Or maybe the parents caught him acting strangely with the girl and threatened to report it, so he silenced them all.

So he killed 3 people with a homemade gun from a 3-D printer???

[quote]I wonder if the parents caught him acting inappropriately with their young son and he killed them to prevent them from telling anyone else, especially his family?

Save it for Nifty, you weirdo.

The killer's parents should be charged with murder. They knew their son was nuts but allowed him to carry a gun.

R62 apparently

Does anyone understand why she says he didn’t want to bring a gun but “we thought it would be ok”.? What does that mean? He didn’t want to bring it but the parents made him bring it? It doesn’t make sense and seems like she tripped over her own lies,

My kingdom for a picture of the killer’s mother

Hope this link works

That's not her, r67. It's a picture from a linked story on the same page as an interview with the mother. Scroll down to the bottom.

I’m fascinated by that frau’s hair. I want to give her an old fashioned patterned wet set and brushout.

MARY!

Volume for days!

"The mother sounds delusional. I wonder if she is mentally ill and/or if she shared the delusions of her son."

She's probably subconsciously terrified of her whackjob son, and her conscious mind has spent the last decade or more trying to deny it, and as a result she's completely lost touch with reality.

Face it, parents with dangerous young adult children who are evil and dangerous don't have any good options. Therapy doesn't work on the evil and dangerous, you can't keep them locked up in mental hospitals any more. The only thing to do is to throw them out or have them arrested, and that means living in fear of the day they'll come back for revenge. And yes, sometimes when faced with an impossible situation, the mind takes comfort in irrational beliefs, because there's no comfort and no good options in reality.

I can't find updates