Lang
6/23/23
A transient faces charges that she broke into an Iowa City funeral home to sleep.
Employees at Gay & Ciha Funeral Home on Muscatine Avenue report arriving to work around 7:00 Wednesday morning to find 24-year-old Shyawna Collins sleeping inside one of the offices. Collins fled the scene once awakened, leaving only a light bulb and rusty razor blade behind on the floor where she’d been sleeping.
The building had been closed and locked overnight. However, security video reportedly shows Collins climbing on the roof of the building from a back staircase and climbing through a second-story window that had a broken lock.
Iowa City Police responded to the nearby Town & Campus Apartments just after 11am and just before 4pm the same day for Collins reportedly trespassing there. She was removed from the premises on both occasions, including an arrest during the second visit. A one-hitter pipe with residue was reportedly found on her person.
Collins is charged with two counts of 3rd offense Trespassing and one count each of first offense Trespassing and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. If convicted on all charges, she faces a maximum of 30 days in jail.
Records show Collins has multiple previous trespassing and other criminal convictions.