DEDICATED TO SERVING OTHERS

    COUNTY – Mention the Dixie Shanahan case, and Mark Hervey can’t help but express a twinge of sadness about the whole situation.  In his 42 years of law enforcement work, never had he been involved in such an emotionally-charged case that divided the Shelby County community back in 2003-04.
    “I honestly felt for Dixie and the abuse she endured over the years,” Hervey said.  “It was an investigation I got personally involved in.”
    Shanahan, from Defiance, was sentenced in 2004 to 50 years in jail for the murder of her husband, Scott Shanahan.  Her sentence was commuted in 2007 by then governor Tom Vilsack, who shortened the mandatory time behind bars to 10 years citing the abuse Dixie had suffered at the hands of her husband.  Dixie remains at the Iowa Correctional Institute for Women, recently denied parole, and the Iowa Board of Parole will re-visit the release in June, 2017.