GUILTY IA - Esther Neunaber, 80, beaten to death, Akron, 9 July 2014

An autopsy shows a man whose body was found with his slain wife in their Akron home in July died of natural causes...

It adds to the mystery of what happened at the home Donald and Esther Neunaber. The bodies of Donald, who was 83 and Esther, 80, were found in their home July 9.

An autopsy showed Esther died of blunt force trauma. Her death was ruled homicide. Their son 44-year-old Jonathan Neunaber is charged with first-degree murder.

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Police say the couple... may have been dead for up to two weeks before the bodies were found.

The Neunabers raised crops and livestock on the plot they owned on 180th Street. They retired there. They would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer.

Jonathan Neunaber, who lived with his parents at the farm... identified himself in court documents as their caretaker.

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Neunaber had pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and willful injury causing serious injury for the 2014 death of his mother, Esther Neunaber, whom he beat to death with a steel pipe.

A plea agreement spelled out the 60-year prison sentence he would receive.

It came as no surprise, then, that District Judge Steven Andreasen sentenced Neunaber, 46, of Akron, Iowa, to serve those 60 years, reminding him that he wouldn't be eligible for parole until he had served 35 years of his sentence.

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