Suspect in Iowa woman’s killing arrested in South Dakota

SHELDON, Iowa (AP) — A suspect in an Iowa killing was arrested Friday outside a marijuana dispensary in South Dakota, authorities said.

Nathanial Byron Kessel, 41, of Rock Rapids, Iowa, is now awaiting extradition. He was taken into custody on the first-degree murder warrant after the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe police chief noticed a vehicle that Iowa officials were seeking at the Royal River Casino and Hotel in South Dakota, KDLT-TV reports.

The police chief then alerted other agencies and Kessel was apprehended outside the Native Nations Cannabis Dispensary, a spokesman for the tribe said.

Kessel also is accused in the arrest warrant of being a felon in possession of a firearm, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said in a news release.

The search for him began after a 911 caller alerted authorities about the slain woman late Wednesday afternoon. Officers responded and found her body inside her Sheldon, Iowa, home.

The woman’s name and cause of death weren’t immediately released. The release said that an autopsy is scheduled for Saturday.