One of Nohema Graber’s students was failing – and the Spanish teacher would pay the ultimate price
GAIL SHORTLAND
Spanish teacher Nohema Graber was a firm favourite at Fairfield High School in Iowa. She was popular with the students and her colleagues loved how she inspired others to try to achieve their best.
Nohema was born in Mexico and had never been afraid of following her dreams. After graduating, she became a flight attendant – then surprised everyone by studying to be a commercial airline pilot. Nohema would be one of the first women in Mexico who was trained to fly passengers.
After meeting her US-born husband Paul when he was travelling on business, they married and settled in Mexico City. After having their two sons, Christian and Jared, in 1992 they moved to the small town of Fairfield, Iowa, where Paul had spent his childhood. There, they had a daughter, who was also called Nohema. Mum Nohema passed her love of travel and language on to her children and as they blossomed with their own lives, she looked for another challenge.
In her fifties, Nohema pursued yet another career. She studied for an English degree and a teaching certificate at university. The idea was to be an English teacher but there was a shortage of Spanish teachers at the time, so she secured a job in a nearby school before settling at Fairfield High School. By 2021, Nohema had worked there for a decade. She was known for going the extra mile for the students and loved to have fun. Even after they graduated, students would write grateful cards and send letters years later.
Nohema’s marriage to Paul had ended five years earlier, but they remained close. It was Paul who reported Nohema, then 66, missing on the morning of 3 November 2021 when he couldn’t get hold of her.
It triggered a missing person search but, within hours, Nohema’s badly beaten body was found in Fairfield’s Chautauqua Park, where she liked to go walking. She had been hidden under tarpaulin, railroad ties and a wheelbarrow.
Nohema had serious head injuries and experts determined she’d been killed the day before. When news of her death spread, people were devastated. She had been days away from her 67th birthday. Several hundred people held a candlelight vigil outside the school to remember her.
No one could understand who would want to hurt Nohema and speculation was rife. Was it racially motivated? She
