An early morning shooting at Maquoketa Caves State Park campground in eastern Iowa left three members of a family dead Friday morning, a children’s summer camp evacuated, the popular park closed and a state in mourning.
Law enforcement said Friday evening that the victims were Lulu Schmidt, 6, Tyler Schmidt, 42, and Sarah Schmidt, 42. They lived in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Local and state police found them shot to death inside a tent shortly after officials arrived, following a 6:23 a.m. call to authorities, they said.
As law enforcement were canvassing the area Friday morning and evacuating the park for the investigation, they learned one person registered at the park was unaccounted for, said Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation.
The man, Anthony Orlando Sherwin, 23, “was known to be armed. That, of course, heightened our awareness as well,” Mortvedt said. Nebraska authorities and a records search show that Sherwin is from La Vista, Nebraska.
Using an aircraft to search the area, authorities found Sherwin’s body “some distance from the campsite but still in the park,” dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mortvedt said. Law enforcement officials said Sherwin is presumed to be the person who shot and killed the three victims.
More:Recap of the Friday shooting at Iowa’s Maquoketa Caves State Park
Authorities closed the park, known for its 1,100-foot Dancehall Cave, as investigators worked Friday to determine what happened and any relationship between Sherwin and the victims, and as authorities prepared to do autopsies on the people who died.
The state mourned what Gov. Kim Reynolds called an “unimaginable tragedy.”
“I’m horrified by the shooting this morning at Maquoketa Caves State Park and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives,” the governor said in a statement.
Nearby Christian camp evacuated
The shooting rocked otherwise peaceful summer plans for Iowans. Friday afternoon, areas near the state park’s entrance and sign were lined with state pickup trucks and SUVs, television trucks and other media vehicles.
Camp Shalom, a Christian summer camp for young people, is about a mile and a half from the Maquoketa Caves park, and campers frequently take trips to the caves throughout the week.
But Fridays are the days when families pick up their children, said Beth Sallak, the camp’s executive assistant, so all campers were on the camp property when law enforcement notified supervisors of the shooting,
“At 9:15 a.m. is when we told campers, ‘Hey, we’re going to do pickup at Little Bear Park. We are going to all load up into buses, and we’re going to do it quick as little bunnies into the bus.’ Staff was very efficient in making that happen, and we transported all the campers to Little Bear Park in Maquoketa,” Sallak said.
“We moved forward in a very calm, calculated way to keep campers happy, not stressed. And the staff, our camp counselors, are stellar,” she said.
More:Maquoketa Caves shooting victims included 6-year-old and 2 family members from Cedar Falls
Camp staff does “alert training for situations like this,” she said.
“This is the world we live in now. ‘What would we do if this happened?’ And so that’s what they exercised today was the evacuation process,” she said.
On Facebook, families thanked Camp Shalom staff for handling the situation in a way that kept children safe and not traumatized.
Investigation continues; park closed into next week
Armed DNR conservation officers monitored the eastern entrance to the park, which was blocked off with reflective tape Friday afternoon. It will remain closed through at least Thursday, DNR spokesperson Tammie Krausman said.
“All camping reservations have been canceled and refunded from last night through Thursday at this time,” she said. “Campers have been notified.”
Mortvedt said law enforcement did not have any reports of an earlier altercation at the park.
Neither a Des Moines Register nor Associated Press search of public records turned up any criminal records Sherwin may have had. La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten said that he lived in an apartment complex with his parents. Lausten said that Sherwin had no history of criminal conduct.
“The Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner will conduct autopsies of all three victims. Once completed, the findings will be released,” Iowa Department of Public Safety said in a release Friday evening. “Additionally, the State Medical Examiner will perform an autopsy on suspect Anthony Orlando Sherwin, 23.
“Law enforcement would like to thank the public for their assistance with the investigation and their concern for the Schmidt family,” the release said.
As investigators continued to pursue answers, public officials issued statements expressing dismay about both the tragedy and where it happened.
“Our long standing tradition of enjoying Iowa’s natural wonders was shaken today, but the legacy for the millions of families that recreate at Iowa State Parks will continue. This heartbreaking incident hits home for the DNR family; not only as people who are passionate about getting folks outside, but as people who regularly camp with our families at these same parks,” said Iowa DNR Director Kayla Lyon.
Joe Cress of the Iowa City-Press Citizen, Daniel Lathrop, Francesca Block, William Morris, Grace Altenhofen of the Des Moines Register and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism