'It's Never Too Late to Seek Justice': Tip from College Student Leads to Sex Offender Pleading Guilty To 1983 Iowa Cold-Case Murder

Four decades after a college student was murdered in western Iowa, a man pleaded guilty to the crime.

Bud Christensen, 69, recently was sentenced to a maximum 50 years in prison under a plea deal for killing Firozeh Dehghanpour in August 1983.

Dehghanpour was 27 and attending the University of Nebraska-Omaha when she disappeared. Her naked body was eventually found under a bridge on the Missouri River north of Council Bluffs.

An autopsy determined Dehghanpour was stabbed four times, had several cuts to her throat and had been beaten.

Front Page Detectives reported on the arrest of Christensen in May 2021. Authorities said they received a tip from a former UNO business student in late 2020 which reopened the cold case. A review of evidence using DNA testing led to Christensen.

The Daily Nonpareil quoted prosecutors as saying Christensen had a stroke two months before his arrest, putting in question his ability to stand trial.

Christensen was known to law enforcement for years. He was convicted of second-degree sexual assault in 2014, so he was a registered sex offender in Iowa.

"Let Firozeh's case be an example that it's never too late to seek justice," crime scene technician Hadley Kava told KETV.