A $1.25 million gift to Northwest Missouri State from an anonymous donor will impact students, faculty and the leaning environment.

A portion of the gift announced today will increase a fund for scholarships that will be awarded to students starting with 2014-2015 school year.

While the donor requested to remain anonymous, the school did say the donor recently passed away and was a former member of the Northwest Foundation Board of Directors.

“This significant gift, which we are so grateful to receive, is trans formative in nature, and we wanted to ensure it directly impacted students and faculty,” said Northwest President Dr. John Jasinski. “Gifts such as this – unrestricted in nature – celebrate legacies and change the learning landscape for the better.”

The funding will also help improve classroom learning environments and provide support to the new Teaching and Learning Center.

“The timing of this gift couldn’t be better and will be a welcome enhancement to the learning environment,” said Northwest Provost Dr. Doug Dunham.

An escaped convict was shot and killed early Tuesday morning in a rural Taylor County Iowa home.

38-year-old Rodney Eugene Long escaped Friday from a minimum security facility and was found dead inside the rural home just after 2:00 am Tuesday morning.

Long allegedly broke into the home overnight, and was shot by the homeowners after a four hour non-confrontational hostage situation.

He had disabled their phone-lines, used their cellphones and was apparently gathering supplies to further his escape, according to Mitch Mortvedt, Special Agent in Charge with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s office received a 911 call at 2:11 am from the home of Jerome and Carolyn Mauderly, 71 and 66.  Authorities described the couple as retired farmers who lived west Bedford, Ia.  Jerome was reportedly a retired prison guard who worked in Maryville, Mo.

The couple was held against their will in their home by the escaped convict, Mortvedt said.

“We know that he was in the residence for about four hours and he was armed with a semi-automatic handgun,” Mortvedt said.   “As the situation wore on, a decision was made by the Mauderly’s that they were going to defend themselves.”

The Mauderly’s had a shotgun in the home, according to Mortvedt.

At 2:11 am, a 911 call was made from the residence, at 2:12, that information was relayed to officers and  at 2:13am, dispatchers were told by Carolyn Mauderly a man had been shot at that moment.

An Iowa State trooper who was on a rural road nearby responded immediately and found Long face down in the kitchen, Mortvedt said.

Long had one wound and officials had yet to name who shot the man.

Long was wanted for escaping Friday, and for fleeing officers Sunday night in a pursuit that included the suspect shooting a Taylor County Deputy and stealing his patrol car.  The vehicle crashed during the pursuit and Long was able to escape on foot.  He was sentenced earlier this year for third degree burglary and was due to get out September, 2014.  Clarinda Police filed a warrant for Long’s arrest for escape and a Saturday burglary in which a firearm was taken from a home.

The injured deputy, Dan  Wyckoff , was listed in stable condition Tuesday morning.

The Mauderly residence and property was searched three times during the search that included a 16 square mile area.  Their home sits less than a mile from where the crash ending the pursuit occurred.

The area was well prepared and warned about the escapee considered armed and dangerous, according to Mortvedt.

“I believe from what we heard throughout the community, that several members of the community if not everybody, went to bed or was armed in some fashion in their immediate surrounding.”

The Mauderly’s were not injured in the incident and Mortvedt asked their privacy be maintained.

An autopsy is planned for later this week.

A dentist office in town celebrates bringing the state’s second dental assisting training program to St Joseph.

Elmore Family Dentistry was recognized today with a ribbon cutting for the new Midwest Dental Assisting Academy located on Sherman Avenue.

The academy is just the second of it’s kind in Missouri. The other training program is in St Louis, Dr. Benjamin Elmore said.

“Our offices were always constantly hiring and bringing on more staff and you could see that we just needed some more people trained in this area,” Elmore said.

Eva Thompson will be the instructor for the dental academy which will accept 12 students per session. Each session will last for 10 Saturdays and Thompson expects to hold 2-3 sessions each year. The first session starts September 28th.

Prior to the first session, the dentist office will hold the St Joe Cares event, a free dental care day for the community. The event starts at 8am Saturday, Sept. 7th.

“It’s such a heart-filled day. People will call in November anxious to know the date for the following year,” lead Hygienist and Marketing Director Jahana Anderson said.

You can find out more about the academy, or St Joe Cares, by calling 816-279-3300.

A manhunt continues in southwest Iowa for man who escaped Friday morning and is believed to be the suspect from a pursuit overnight.

38-year-old Rodney Eugene Long escaped custody in Clarinda Friday.

Long is described as a white male, 38 years old with brown hair and brown eyes. He is 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs 144 pounds and has tattoos on his wrists.

Deputies started the pursuit after responding to call about a man walking along Highway 2 in Taylor County around 11:30 last night.  As the first deputy rolled up, the suspect shot and hit him twice, resulting in non-life threatening injuries.

The second deputy arrived on scene as the suspect was pulling away in the other deputies patrol vehicle.

“The second deputy helped out the first one, got him in his car and they started the pursuit.”  Mitch Mortvedt of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations said.  “It ended with the suspect rolling the stolen patrol vehicle several times in rural Taylor County on a gravel road.”

The pursuit lasted 40 minutes and included law enforcement from roughly 12 dozen different agencies, like the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office from Missouri.

The suspect fled on foot and has yet to be located.  A manhunt is underway in the area.  Iowa authorities are not releasing the exact location, but did say it was near Highland Avenue and 265th Street in Taylor County.

“At this time we haven’t had any reports of stolen vehicles or any residence being burglarized so we are kind-of concentrating are efforts on that general area,” Mortvedt said.

Authorities are not trying to cause panic, according to Mortvedt, but do want citizens in the area to be on a heightened awareness.  He added that includes locking your doors, keeping keys out of vehicles and reporting anything suspicious .

The wounded deputy was flown to an Omaha hospital where he remains in stable condition.  His name has not been released.

The suspect was serving a five year sentence for Third Degree Burglary.   His sentence started in March and he was transferred the facility in Clarinda in April.  Authorities believe he escaped over the recreation yard fence between 4:00 and 10:00 am Friday morning from the minimal security facility.

The suspect is described as armed and dangerous.  If you see him, you are asked to call 911 immediately and Mortvedt urged citizen not to take matters into their own hands.