Trial set for man charged in 1983 Sioux City death
Terri McCauley vanished after entering a vehicle outside a West 7th Street bar, and her body was found near what is now Trinity Heights
Thomas Popp, 63, will stand trial in Woodbury County District Court on a first-degree murder charge in Terri McCauley’s September 1983 death in Sioux City, according to reporting from Iowa Public Radio. A day after a Woodbury County grand jury indicted him in January 2025, authorities arrested Popp in Washington state.
McCauley, an 18-year-old member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, disappeared after friends last saw her enter a vehicle outside a bar. Her body was found 10 days later near what is now Trinity Heights.
Police suspected Popp at the time, but prosecutors did not believe there was enough evidence for a conviction, according to Iowa Public Radio.
If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole. McCauley’s nephew, Josh Taylor, told Iowa Public Radio that relatives feel anxiety and are seeking answers. Their advocacy grew into Red Sky Nation, an organization that works with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives families in Sioux City and beyond.
- 1.43 years after a Native American woman was killed, a Sioux City murder case goes to trial. Iowa Public Radio, .
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