Parents charged in young boy’s death

MAQUOKETA, Iowa — The adoptive parents of a 4-year-old Andrew, Iowa, boy who died last weekend were charged Thursday in his death.

Danielle Lynn Holdgrafer, 29, was charged with first-degree murder and Andrew W. Holdgrafer, 31, was charged with child endangerment resulting in the death of a child, Jackson County Sheriff Russ Kettmann said.

Danielle Holdgrafer was being transferred Thursday afternoon to Jones County Jail, while her husband was held in the Jackson County Detention Center in Maquoketa.

The two are accused in the death of Collin Parker William Holdgrafer.

The cause of the boy’s death has not been determined, Darrell Simmons, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent, said. Autopsy results have not been released from the State Medical Examiner’s Office.

Simmons said he couldn’t comment on why the investigators began looking into the child’s death as a homicide.

According to Maquoketa police reports, Andrew Holdgrafer called police on his way to Jackson County Regional Health Center from Andrew at 5 p.m. Saturday. He told dispatchers the child was not breathing well after a possible drowning in the bathtub.

A Maquoketa Ambulance crew met Holdgrafer’s vehicle at Pershing Road at the edge of Maquoketa and took the boy to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:15 p.m.

Collin was adopted by the couple, who are his aunt and uncle, authorities said. The boy’s biological mother, Jodi Holdgrafer, 30, is Andrew’s sister. She was sentenced to prison in April 2009 after multiple drug convictions in Dubuque County, according to records from the Iowa Department of Corrections. She is incarcerated at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Michellville and has a tentative release date of June 3, 2020.

Simmons said the couple and their four children live an apartment at 204 N. Franklin in Andrew. Three of the children are biological and Collin was adopted. Simmons said the Iowa Department of Human Services removed the other three children from the home Saturday night and put them in foster care. Ages of the children range from Collin at 4 years up to early teens.

The investigation is continuing, Simmons said.

The child endangerment charge is a Class B felony, punishable by up to 50 years in prison. First-degree murder is a Class A felony, which carries a mandatory life in prison sentence.