By Andrew J. Nelson
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
She was 50 years old and lonely, going through a divorce.
He was 54 and said he was no longer with his wife. That wasn't true.
She is Dawn Allen, a longtime resident of Carroll, Iowa, and the manager of a Subway restaurant there. She is missing.
He was James Snovelle, 54, of Rolfe, Iowa. The two had been dating. He had met her family. Police wanted to talk with him, but now he's dead.
Snovelle killed himself Monday in rural eastern Kansas as authorities closed in. And with him went the best link investigators have to Allen's disappearance.
They don't know if she is alive or dead. They don't know if Snovelle had anything to do with her disappearance.
“At this point it's like one of those games you play at the fair, where you turn things over and hope something is underneath it,” said Carroll Police Chief Jeff Cayler.
The uncertainty weighs on Allen's family.
“The anxiety is just unbelievable. It's like it's not even real. It feels like a movie. These are not the things you think actually happen to people,” said her son, Gregg Taylor, 29, of Carroll.
Allen is a longtime employee of and manager of the Subway on U.S. Highway 30 on the east side of town. Locals could count on a first-name greeting from her.
“She's just happy. Just really outgoing. I would venture to say she probably knows 99 percent of the people who come through there,” Cayler said.
But in 2010, much wasn't going well for her. Allen and her husband of more than two decades separated, though they remain friendly. And in September, younger son Michael Allen died suddenly at 26.
“It was definitely a rough couple of months,” Gregg Taylor said. “Especially through Christmas.”
At some point, her family believes, she met Snovelle online. It began as a friendship, her son said. Snovelle was someone to share a movie or dinner with.
“She wasn't looking for a boyfriend. She wasn't looking for a husband,” Taylor said. “She was just looking for someone to share time with, to be normal.”
She introduced Snovelle to Taylor at an outing for her 50th birthday in February.
“He would open doors for mom or offer to cook food. He even helped her mow the lawn a couple of times. He just seemed like an average guy. He never really got upset about anything,” Taylor said.
He said he had been separated from his wife for several years, something that Allen, Taylor said, believed to be true.
It wasn't.
Cayler said that although Snovelle traveled a lot, he was married and living with his wife in Rolfe at the time of his death.
Snovelle told Allen his job involved making deliveries. But investigators are not really sure what he did. He had been unemployed since at least February.
“We've just uncovered so many inconsistencies it's hard to tell what might be accurate and what is not,” Cayler said.
Members of Snovelle's family declined to comment when reached by The World-Herald on Wednesday. Cayler said they are cooperating with the investigation.
Allen was last seen at her home on May 4. The next day, she was reported missing.
Authorities began looking for Snovelle, describing him as “a witness,” saying he could be traveling in Iowa, Missouri or Kansas. On Monday evening, they found him in Coffey County, Kan., on rural land his family once owned.
He took off on foot but was soon spotted crossing a stream. He then pulled a gun and shot himself. Officers searched the property, but did not find anything helpful, Cayler said.
On Wednesday evening, the police chief once again walked through Allen's home. He found no signs of foul play. Cayler is hopeful but also fearful. There are a lot of miles between Carroll and eastern Kansas.
“If he had done something bad to Dawn, it's hard to tell where he would have ultimately left her.”
Contact the writer:
402-444-1310, andrew.nelson@owh.com
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