'No body, no case': 2 men linked to death of teen who went on 'day trip' and was never seen again heading to prison

A 48-year-old Kansas man who a federal judge said intentionally killed an 18-year-old Nebraska woman before covering up the crime, along with his former brother-in-law who threatened a key witness into silence, has been sentenced to a combined 45 years in federal prison.

Floyd Clifford Coates Jr. was sentenced Monday to 35 years in prison after being convicted of drug trafficking, firearms and obstruction-related offenses, while Dennis Lawson, 60, received a 10-year sentence for threatening a witness, authorities announced. Although neither man was convicted of murder, U.S. District Judge Leonard T. Strand made clear at sentencing that he believed Coates was responsible for Sunny Sramek's death, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa.

"Coates intentionally caused the death of Sunny Sramek" and then "covered up the crime," the judge said, according to prosecutors.

Evidence presented during the pair's 11-day federal trial showed Coates arranged a methamphetamine resupply trip over Easter weekend in 2019, convincing an Iowa woman to drive him from Blair, Nebraska, to Kansas City, Missouri. Coates traveled separately to Blair with Sramek, who told friends and family she was only "going to be on a day trip to Omaha with Coates" and apparently had no idea he planned to continue to Kansas City.

When the woman arrived in Blair, she found Sramek motionless inside Coates' wife's white Ford Explorer, prosecutors said. The witness testified the teen appeared to have overdosed, with fluids running from her mouth, one bare foot propped on the dashboard and the vehicle's front window shattered from the inside as though she had kicked it while dying.

According to prosecutors, Coates told the woman he had given Sramek methamphetamine and claimed she had overdosed. Instead of continuing to Kansas City, he directed the woman to drive to the rural Iowa home of Lawson near the Missouri River.

The witness testified that Coates and Lawson disappeared together for a time after arriving. When they returned, Sramek's body was gone.

She also testified that she helped Coates clean out the SUV before Lawson warned her, "If you talk, it's your funeral."

Prosecutors said Coates later gave conflicting accounts of what happened, at times claiming Sramek overdosed and, at others, telling fellow inmates he killed her after raping her. In both versions, however, he allegedly said he disposed of her body in the Missouri River to conceal the crime.

According to trial evidence, Coates later boasted, "No body, no case," and asked another person, "You can't get charged with murder if there is no body, can you?"

Investigators never recovered Sramek's body, but prosecutors said forensic testing found her DNA inside the Ford Explorer, along with evidence suggesting she struggled inside the vehicle. An FBI geologist testified the broken window was consistent with being kicked from inside the SUV, while a medical examiner said the convulsions described by witnesses were consistent with a fatal methamphetamine overdose.

"Seven years and three months after Sunny Sramek left home, a thuggish coward and a cowardly thug are going to prison for their roles in her death," U.S. Attorney Leif Olson said after sentencing. "Although today's sentencings will not bring Sunny back, we hope they will bring some measure of comfort and closure to everyone who knew and loved Sunny."

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