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Families Of Slain Iowa Clerks Ask Why

ALGONA, Iowa (AP) -- The families of two clerks killed during robberies at convenience stores in northern Iowa are grasping for answers about why they died.

Vicky Bowman-Hall, a mother of 11, was shot at a gas station in Algona Monday night and died at a hospital. Sheila Myers was shot and killed about an hour later at a store in Humboldt.

Seventeen-year-old Michael Richard Swanson, of St. Louis Park, Minn., is charged in their deaths.

Bowman-Hall's daughter, Jillian Bowman, told The Des Moines Register that she remembers holding her mother's hand in the hospital and telling her that she would "take care of everybody."

Myers' daughter, Mandy, told the newspaper that news video of her mother's alleged killer smiling after his arrest left her disturbed and asking "a lot of whys."

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HUMBOLDT, Iowa (AP) -- Hundreds of people are mourning the deaths of two clerks who were killed at different convenience stores in northern Iowa.

KCCI-TV of Des Moines says a big crowd braved the cold for a candlelight vigil Wednesday night at the Kum and Go in Humboldt, where clerk Sheila Myers was shot during a robbery Monday night.

About an hour earlier, Vicky Bowman-Hall was shot during a robbery at a convenience store in Algona.

Residents say one of the toughest things is the loss of innocence in the community.

A Minnesota teenager, Michael Richard Swanson, of St. Louis Park, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the women's deaths.

(© Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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