Iowa Murder-Suicide: Woman Found In Bathroom After Being Shot Multiple Times

The Iowa City Police Department ruled Tuesday the deaths of two people Sept. 15 were a case of murder-suicide. Authorities said a 49-year-old man shot and killed a 45-year-old woman at their home before killing himself.

On the day of the incident, officers responded to the house after concerned family members saw through a window Latoya Smith laying on the bathroom floor. Officers broke open the door and found Smith and Floyd Rush dead, the Press-Citizen reported. The relation between the two remains unclear.

Police said Rush shot Smith with a handgun multiple times before killing himself. According to the police, no one else was home at the time of the incident.

Iowa City Police Capt. Denise Brotherton said the Johnson County Medical Examiner’s office and the Johnson County Attorney's Office have not officially closed the case. Iowa City police were assisted in the investigation by the Johnson County Attorney’s Office and Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office.

"I cannot provide further information, but it will not change that this was a murder-suicide," she wrote in an email to the Press-Citizen.

According to court documents, Rush was arrested for domestic assault causing an injury or mental illness following an incident in November 2018. In this case, Smith was not a victim but was named a protected party, The Gazette reported.

An officer was dispatched to the home hours before family members called 911. Brotherton said an agency requested the police check Rush's home after he hadn't shown up for work. However, when an officer arrived at the house, no one answered the door, the Gazette reported.

"There was no other information provided to indicate that there was anyone in danger or other issues at play besides a person who did not arrive at work," she wrote in an email to the Press-Citizen, adding that the department's routine practice is to leave and follow up if no one answers the door and nothing else is suspicious.

"We would not have had enough information at the time to force entry into the home or search around the residence," she wrote.