By Frank Bender and Paul Plevakas
The Head in the Bucket:
The Murder of Gregory May
On August 27, 2001, sitting beneath a trailer at the
Kearney Truck Plaza in Kearney, Missouri, a head was
discovered encased in hardened concrete by the Plaza’s
owner, Steven Rhodes.
The police were notified and an autopsy was
performed on the head. The medical examiner had hopes
that the concrete retained the facial features of the victim.
Upon careful removal of the concrete, the medical
examiner was disappointed to find out that a hat had
been placed over the head before the concrete was
poured. This left no recognizable impression in the
concrete.
The Kearney Police department posted information
about the head on their website in hope of identifying
the victim. The investigators knew the head was that of
a 40-60 year old man with teeth in good condition and
extensive dental work.
Winter 2007
The Head in the Bucket: The Murder of Gregory May
In January, 2001, Don May had not been able to
contact his father Gregory May. Gregory did not reply
to his son’s telephone calls. It was customary for May
to call his son several times a month. Calls to friends of
his fathers did lead to any information on his father's
whereabouts. Gregory May had not called his daughter
or ex-wife Sheila, as was customary.
After three weeks of fruitless efforts to learn of their
father’s whereabouts Don and his sister Shannon
traveled to Bellevue, Iowa, to file a missing persons
report with the Bellevue Police Department.
Gregory May, 55 lived in Bellevue, Iowa. He was a
collector of civil war memorabilia and Indian artifacts
and a tattoo artist. He was divorced with a son and
daughter. In January 2001 Gregory May rented his
basement to his best friend of 30 years Douglas DeBruin
and his girlfriend Julie Miller.
Gregory and Sheila May were married in Kenosha,
Wisconsin, November 1965. They separated in 1976 and
were divorced in 1978. The divorce was amicable; there
was no custody battle over their two children or struggle
over property. Gregory stayed in touch with his ex-wife
by telephone and would visit her on holidays. Sheila
last saw Gregory on Christmas 1999. That is when he
told her he had moved to Bellevue.
A police investigation found that Douglas DeBruin
and his girlfriend Julie Miller were the last people to
see Gregory May. DeBruin and Miller were seen packing
May’s civil war memorabilia collection into a used Ford
F750 Ryder truck Debruin had purchased. They had also
gave away some of May’s furniture to a Bellevue
resident, Jackie Cram.
Investigators spoke with Jan Buman who had been
dating Gregory May since July 2000. She knew Douglas
DeBruin and his girlfriend Julie Miller as May’s friends.
The night of May’s murder, Buman was suppose to
meet May at his house at 8 p.m. She went to the back
door and rang the doorbell, then tried the door with no
reply. She peered through the window and through a
space below the shade she was able to see the lower
half of Greg May sitting in a kitchen chair motionless
and Julie Miller wiping something off the floor. She
went to the Frontier restaurant and called the house. The
answering machine picked up. Buman returned from
the Frontier Restaurant and heard the sound that
"reminded her of drawers banging." She then went to
the property manager, George Volrath, and asked him
to let her in the house. He declined because she did not
live at the residence. She called the following Sunday
and Julie Miller answered, telling her that Greg May
had gone to Chicago. The following Wednesday, Buman
returned to Bellevue and found the house empty the
furniture and civil war memorabilia were gone. She
never heard from Greg May again.
On March 1, 2001, Rick Rahn, special agent for the
Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was
called into the investigation by the Bellevue police
Chief, Lynn Schwager. The investigators found Greg
May’s 1996 red Chevrolet Blazer at an impound lot in
Aurora, Illinois. It was turned over to criminalists at the
DCI for analysis.
As the investigation continued a fellow collector
notified Police Chief, Lynn Schwager that pieces from
May’s civil war collection were coming up for auction
at the Rock Island Auction Company in Moline, Illinois.
Armed with a list of the stolen items Police Chief, Lynn
Schwager and Special Agent Rick Rahn notified Patrick
Frances Hogan, the owner of the auction house, that the
items were stolen. Schwager arrived with a search
warrant to seize the items.
The seller of the items was Mary Klar. She said the
items were her uncle's. Whenever the auction house tried
to contact Mary Klar they always got Julie Johnson who
said she was handling the auction for her mother. Julie
Johnson in reality was Julie Miller and Mary Klar was
her mother.
Debruin and Miller were arrested in Flagstaff,
Arizona in April 2001 on outstanding warrants. Debruin
was still driving the Ryder truck. Investigators searched
the vehicle for evidence and found a weigh station ticket
that put them in close proximity to Kearney, Missouri
where the head was found.
Evidence against Debruin and Miller mounted.
DeBruin was charged with first-degree murder and first-
degree theft. Miller was charged with transporting stolen
property across state lines.
The Vidocq Society Journal
Winter 2007
Page 5
The Head in the Bucket: The Murder of Gregory May
During DeBruin’s trial Miller testified for the
prosecution that DeBruin had strangled May with a
yellow nylon rope on January 11, 2001. Calmly she
recalled the murder and subsequent dismemberment of
May: After he was killed, May’s body was carried to
the basement. The throat was cut draining the blood into
the laundry tub. May’s body was then cut up with a
knife and electric chainsaw. The body parts were
wrapped in plastic. The torso was weighted down and
thrown off the Savanna-Sabula Bridge in Illinois. The
other body parts were scattered north of Bellevue along
Highway 52. The head was placed in a five-gallon
bucket. DeBruin covered the head with his knit cap and
poured cement into the bucket and inserted a blue
reflector in the cement. Miller admitted participating in
the dismemberment using a knife she would later discard
with the body parts.
DeBruin testified in his own defense claiming that
Miller had killed May. His memory of the dismember-
ment was “gray” and he could not recall the details of
what took place.
After deliberating for two hours and 15 minutes the
jury returned a verdict of guilty in the murder of Gregory
May. DeBruin was convicted of first-degree murder and
first-degree theft. Miller is serving a three-year sentence
in federal prison for transporting stolen property across
state lines.
The identity of the skull found at Kearney Truck
Plaza, in Kearney, Missouri remained a mystery. The
tie between the murder of Gregory May and the skull
was not made until four years after his murder. Famed
forensic sculptor Frank Bender of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania was asked to create a likeness from the
skull in the hopes of identifying the victim. The bust
that Bender created was placed on the Doe Network
website. The Doe network is an organization of
volunteers dedicated to helping law enforcement
connect missing persons with John/Jane cases. A
volunteer from the organization helped connect Frank
Bender’s sculpture with a photograph of Gregory May.
The identity was confirmed through a comparison of
dental records.
Photo of Gregory May
Frank Bender's Bust
