Ashley Flowers

This was actually the first house that Dawn had run to for help, but when no one answered the door quick enough, Dawn said that she ran to the next house that was Mark and Mary's.

But as it turns out, that first neighbor was home.

She was just too scared to answer the door.

But about an hour after Dawn had come looking for help, this same neighbor said that she saw a blondish, lighter-haired man wearing jeans approach her back porch and like rattle the door handle.

Terrified, she grabbed her son and ran to the bedroom and called the sheriff's office.

Now, investigators didn't ignore these leads.

Starting on the 30th, they conducted an exhaustive overnight search with a four-mile radius of the Mather farmhouse, looking for anyone who fit these descriptions.

Fifty law enforcement officers from about 10 different agencies, search dogs, and a helicopter were brought in.

But as Tom's cousin Catherine explained, a manhunt in Iowa during corn harvest season proved to be difficult.

But it wasn't just a mystery man they were looking for.

There was also a mystery car that was in the area around the same time.

A man on his way to work reported that he spotted a light-colored, possibly gray, Chevy-type car in the same area at around 9 p.m.

the night of Tom's death.

When the witness approached in his vehicle, the car turned its lights off.

And interestingly enough, police found tire tracks in curtilage north of the Mather property.

Then there was a local woman who told police that she was home at around a quarter to seven that evening when she saw a dark blue two-door vehicle, possibly a Grand Am, drive east past her house, which was awfully close to the description of a shiny blue Pontiac Grand Am other witnesses saw between 8 and 8.30 p.m.

sitting in the Mather driveway.

Those witnesses saw a white man and a woman walking toward the Mather home, and they said that the woman had been wearing a mint green or perhaps like turquoise colored dress.

Now on the surface, this sounds like the kind of detail investigators live for.

An unfamiliar car showing up right before a homicide.