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FORT DODGE, Iowa — Pat Preston says his older brother Don was well known and well loved in the Fort Dodge community. “He had a big circle of friends,” said Preston. When Don failed to show up for Christmas dinner with the family this year, Pat knew something was wrong. “…as much as he liked to eat and we have a big Christmas dinner, for him not to attend the dinner made us all wonder,” said Preston. “That`s when I kinda knew something was wrong. I mean, I felt something was wrong, you know, because he`s never, ever missed a meal, Thanksgiving, nothing,” said Preston.

And then Pat heard from Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation. “I got a call to come down to the police station and look at a couple pictures and went down. They said a body was found in a cornfield, which they believed to be my brother Don, and I looked at the pictures and confirmed it was him,” said Preston.

The day after Christmas Don was found dead in a field southwest of Fort Dodge. Pat says Don’s body was discovered by a farmer who was out spreading fertilizer, and that based on his body temperature, Don had only been there for nine or ten hours. The state medical examiner determined manner of death was homicide and the cause of death was a gunshot wound.

“If you know anything, if it`s an accident, whatever it is, step forward and tell us what you know,” said Preston as he pleaded with anyone with information about what happened to say what they know. Pat says Don didn’t have any known enemies, and wasn’t fearing for his life for any reason and so he doesn’t know who could have done this to his brother. What he does know is that his brother will be missed. “Every Saturday, Sunday, he`d be over watching football and we`d joke about him being a Raiders fan. He was the only one out of the family that was not a Cowboys fan. He was the only Raiders fan, but he rode us like he had the whole crowd with him, but that`s just the way he was, vocal. I`m gonna miss that out of him,” said Preston.

The investigation is on-going and anyone with information regarding this case is asked to contact the Webster County Sherriff’s Office or Webster County Crime Stoppers information listed below.

Crime Stoppers can be contacted anonymously by calling (515) 573-1444 (STOP), online at www.wccrimestoppers.com or by texting “LEC” and the tip to Crimes (274637).