Des Moines man arrested for allegedly throwing girlfriend off third-floor balcony to her death
04/06/2022 2:04 pm PDT
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (TCD) -- A 27-year-old man was arrested over a month after police say he threw his girlfriend off a third-floor balcony in February.
According to a statement, West Des Moines Police Department officers responded to a call on Feb. 12 at approximately 11:45 p.m. at the Sun Prairie Apartment Complex on Vista Drive regarding a female who had "fallen from the 3rd story apartment balcony."
Officers began performing lifesaving measures on the woman and EMS transported her to a nearby hospital, where she later died. She was identified as 23-year-old Trisha Kunze.
During their investigation, police determined Kunze’s death was not an accident and instead an "intentional act causing the death of Kunze." Detectives arrested Nathen Cameron on April 1 on charges of first-degree murder, willful injury — causing serious injury, domestic assault with strangulation, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, and drug tax stamp violation.
According to the criminal complaint cited by WHO-TV, Cameron was reportedly waiting for Kunze at her apartment the day she died. He reportedly followed her inside, and 15 minutes later, he called police to say Kunze jumped off the balcony.
The criminal complaint reportedly notes Kunze’s injuries were "found to be inconsistent with a fall."
Text messages between the couple also allegedly show Cameron "threatening to kill Kunze if she is not home before he gets there."
KCCI-TV, which also cites the criminal complaint, says police wrote Kunze suffered a "broken patella and extensive abrasions on [her] arms, hands, legs and feet" as well as "petechial hemorrhages indicat[ing] asphyxia caused by strangulation."
Police said Kunze was the victim of a "violent domestic assault."
KCCI reports Kunze and Cameron had been in a relationship for four years and lived together at the Sun Prairie Apartment for one year.
According to WHO, Cameron was accused of domestic abuse in June 2020, but the charges were later dropped.
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