CLARINDA – A convicted Iowa sex offender died in prison this week.
Joseph Charles Pray (pictured above) was pronounced dead due to natural causes at 2:38 p.m. on Wednesday, December 27, 2023 at Bryans East Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska where he had been housed due to chronic illness. Pray was 66 years old at the time of his death.
Pray had been serving a 45-year maximum term for the crime of Sex Abuse 2nd Degree and Sex Abuse 3rd Degree from Polk County. His sentence began on May 24, 2021.
Police say Pray abused the female victim from 2011 until 2018, beginning when she was only 5 years old. He also possessed photos of his victim.