Episode 33: MURDERED: Marie Lisa Peak (The Waverly Three) – Waverly, Iowa

Three young women. Three strangulations. One small Iowa town. Was Lisa Peak’s murder part of something far more sinister?

Episode Summary

In September 1976, 19-year-old Wartburg College student Marie Lisa Peak left her dorm on a quiet Labor Day afternoon to run a quick errand for school supplies. She told friends she’d be back soon and that she had a date later that evening. Lisa never returned.

The next morning, her body was found just outside the city limits of Waverly, Iowa. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled, and left nude in a rural ditch beneath a lone cottonwood tree. Her clothing and belongings were never recovered, and no one has ever been charged with her murder.

Lisa’s story is especially haunting because just months earlier, she had bravely helped bring down a sex-extortion ring, becoming a key witness in a high-profile case that put a dangerous man behind bars. As investigators searched for answers, they began to notice chilling similarities between Lisa’s murder and the unsolved killings of Julie Benning and Valerie Klossowsky. Three young women, all strangled and discarded in rural Iowa, are now known as The Waverly Three.

This week on True Crime Unwind, we walk through who Lisa Peak was, the events leading up to her murder, the unanswered questions surrounding her final hours, and the disturbing pattern that connects her case to two others that remain unsolved nearly five decades later.

If you know anything about the murders of Lisa Peak, Julie Benning, or Valerie Klossowsky, even if it feels small or uncertain, please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Cold Case Unit at 515-725-6010, or you can leave an anonymous tip with the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

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