UPDATED: Prison Break.....Two Convicted Murderers With Ties To The Ozarks On The Loose:

Jeffery Grinder, 32, (l.) & Calvin Adams, 39

A nationwide manhunt is underway for two escaped murderers out of Arkansas that have ties to the Ozarks.

Cops say that 32 year-old Jeffery Grinder and 39 year-old Calvin Adams ditched their prison issued clothing and changed into guards uniforms, which are made at the prison, just after early evening head count at the Cummins Unit in Grady, AR.

Both Grinder and Adams were serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole.

Video surveillance shows the men put them in the prison library after the 6 p.m. headcount and walking out of the prison in them during a shift change less than 20 minutes later. Officials realized the men were missing after during the 10 p.m. inmate headcount......giving the escapees at least a three hour jump on law officials.

On Septemeber 2, 2003, Grinder kicked in the door of an elderly man who was asleep on his couch. In 2004 he pleaded guilty to robbing and beating 77-year-old Pat Gardner to death with a dry-wall hammer. Gardener, a widower, couldn't hear what was happening because he was sleeping without his hearing aid when Grinder attacked him.



In 1994 Adams (a.) was 24 when he kidnapped 25 year-old Richard "Richie" Austin and his pregnant wife, Cassandra. Austin was a vice-president at Leachville State Bank. Adams was originally going to force Austin to open the bank's vault, but when he found out the vault was opened by time release he decided to kill the couple.

Adams drove the Austin's to a remote levee just east of Leachville where he shot Richard three times in the head. Cassandra was shot in the head and arm but managed to get up and stumble to a farmhouse that was over a mile away for help.

It appears that Grinder and Adams had help with their escape because they duo made their way to a 2003 four-door burgundy or maroon Hyundai Sonata, AR plate 595-NYM that had been in the prison parking lot since Thursday.

Grinder has family ties to Baxter County, Arkansas. Sheriff John Montgomery say that Grinder has made implied threats to two people in Baxter County and another person in Marion County, Arkansas. Marion County adjoins Baxter County to the west.

Sheriff Montgomery says that, "those individuals have been notified, and precautions for their safety have been put in place."

Adams has father and stepmother live in Thayer, Missouri, which is not far from Baxter County, Arkansas.

Both were spotted in southeast Missouri yesterday (05-30-09) afternoon and are believed to be headed for Minnesota or the Canadian border. Police say the pair are armed and extremely dangerous.

If you see them call 9-1-1 or your state police.

UPDATE (06-01-09):

Authorities in Arkansas believe that Grinder and Adams are in the boot heel of Missouri. Tips of sighting of the convicted killers have come in from Hayti and Braggadocio. They say that leads in Arkansas and Texas have not panned out to be the escaped convicts.

Adams was spotted about an hour west of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Adams, who is from Fennville, was spotted talking to a male relative about 11 a.m. this morning.

Prison officials believe that Grinder and Adams are still on the run together.

2:30 p.m.

Authorities are concentrating their search for two convicted killers who escaped from an Arkansas prison last Friday (05-29-09) in the western part of Michigan

Cops say that someone saw Calvin Adams talking with a male relative about 11 this morning near Fennville.

A tracking dog picked up on Adams scent in a wooded area nearby the relatives house but quit tracking at a paved road where cops believe a getaway car was parked.

UPDATE (06-02-09):

Three people have been arrested on charges of helping two convicted killers escape from an Arkansas prison last Friday.

Authorities say that Little Rock residents Deana Davison and Ryan McKinney and Michael Stephenson of Jacksonville left a 2003 Hyundai Sonata for Jeffery Grinder and Calvin Adams in the parking lot of the Cummins Unit in Grady Thursday.

Grady is about an hour from Little Rock.

The three were arrested and charged on Saturday with furnishing an implement for escape, a felony, according to Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler.

UPDATED: Man Charged With Murder In Wife And Daughters Disappearace 23 Years Ago:

An elderly man living in the Ozarks has been charged with murder in connection to his wife and daughter vanishing 23 years ago.

Ronald Wrisinger was indicted by a grand jury yesterday on two counts of first degree murder in the disappearance of Sherry Wrisinger, 40, and Johnna Wrisinger, 16, of Richmond, MO., on or about June 7, 1986.

Richmond is northeast of Kansas City.

No probable cause statement was issued with the arrest warrant and charging documents because the indictment was sealed until cops arrested Wrisinger.

What that means is that because the charges were brought by grand jury Wrisinger was automatically arraigned in Circuit Court so we will have to wait until Wrisinger's trial to see what evidence the state has against the 67 year-old man.

Ray County Prosecutor Jim Thompson said that investigators have been pouring over new evidence and old evidence over the last four months in an effort to piece together the puzzle of what happened to Sherry and Johnna on June 7, 1986, for grand jury members.

Friends told authorities that Sherry had been playing cards with friends earlier that evening, and Sherry had been on a date but returned home to make curfew. They have not been seen or heard from since about midnight June 6, 1986.

Ronald Wrisinger never reported his wife and daughter missing.....his brother filed a missing persons report with police three months after they went missing.

When cops finally did question Wrisinger, he told them that his wife had run off with a wealthy veterinarian and taken their youngest daughter with her.

Authorities say that story is bogus, as there is no veterinarian with the name Wrisinger provided them.

A neighbor who lives next door to the Wrisinger's Richmond home says she often looks over the fence and wonders what happened. "I remember rumors about him pouring concrete she says.....no one around here has ever forgotten this."

Wrisinger, who has remarried, was arrested yesterday (05-27-09) in Marble Falls, Ark., on what would have been Johnna's 39th birthday.

Wrisinger waived extradition to Missouri and was arraigned on the murder charges this afternoon (05-28-09.) He entered a plea of not guilty.

He is being held on $500,000 bond. His next scheduled court appearance is June 3rd.

Retired Lebanon Attorney Bound Over For Trial On Charges Of Witness Tampering:

A retired Lebanon attorney has been bound over for trial on three felony charges of tampering with a witness.

The Missouri Attorney General's office is helping in the prosecution of James E. Baldwin in connection to a 2003 statutory sodomy case involving Kevin Sinclair (b.)




Prosecutors say that Baldwin allegedly offered money and threatened the victims and the victims mother in Sinclair's case. Sinclairs father, Phillip, is also facing witness tampering charges related to the case.

Kevin Sinclair pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree sodomy in 2007 and was sentenced to five years in prison.

A probable cause statement written by Missouri State Highway Patrol investigator Sgt. H.J. Folsom says that the patrol was contacted by the Attorney General’s Office in September 2007 and asked to help investigate possible witness tampering.

The victim's mother told investigators that she was first contacted by the father of Kevin Sinclair who asked her to recant her testimony and that he would, "make it worth my while."

Phillip Sinclair then told the woman she would be receiving a letter from Baldwin explaining what she would need to do, wrote Folsom. Authorities say that Baldwin wrote a letter to the victim’s mother on July 27, 2007, asking her to recant her previous testimony in Kevin Sinclair's sodomy case, "if she received immunity from prosecution for perjury."

In the letter, which is part of the probable cause statement, Baldwin told the woman it would be “financially advantageous” for her to recant her testimony...."in the event that we agree upon a figure, same would be placed in escrow to be delivered to you upon the recanting of your testimony,” Baldwin wrote.

On Aug. 24, 2007, the victim in the sodomy case received a letter from Baldwin that told her that in order to avoid a new trial for Kevin Sinclair and “dirty laundry being aired in public, such as your known drug abuse, your testimony can be recanted (disavowed).” That letter also indicated the victim would only have to recant her testimony if she received immunity from prosecutors.

An undercover highway patrol officer, who posed as the victim's mother, met with Baldwin on Oct. 16, 2007. During that meeting, Baldwin allegedly offered to pay the woman $700 and said he would speak to an unnamed party about paying more than what she wanted, Folsom wrote in the statement.

Baldwin was a partner in Donnelly, Baldwin, Wilhite & Mebruer, PC, at the time of the alleged offenses. He retired in December 2007.

Assistant Missouri Attorney General Ted Bruce has been appointed special prosecutor in the case, and Barton County Associate Circuit Judge Charles Curless has been assigned by the Missouri Supreme Court to hear the case after LaClede County judges recused themselves because they handled Baldwin's cases.




https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do

08LA-CR01446-01 - ST V JAMES E BALDWIN

26R030400783 - ST V KEVIN L SINCLAIR

Repulic Man Will Stand Trial For First Degree Murder In Ex-Wife's Stabbing Death:

A Republic man charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action for allegedly killing his ex-wife will stand trial for her death.

Lawrence County Prosecutor Robert "Bob" George says that attorneys for Robert Duda, Sr., 60, waived his preliminary hearing this afternoon (05-28-09) in Lawrence County.

A neighbor of 59 year-old Kathy Duda's called Marionville police on March 12th when they witnessed Robert Duda chase his wife around the front lawn of her home with a knife and repeatedly stab her. Witnesses say that as Kathy Duda lay dying Robert Duda turned the knife on himself, slashing his writs and stabbing himself before running back into the century year-old house.

When cops made entry into the house they found a bleeding Robert Duda lying on his former wife of forty years kitchen floor. Court documents show that the only signs of struggle in the house was the blood in the kitchen and a broken window on one of the home's doors.

Duda,who is also charged with burglary in the case, was unable to make his original preliminary hearing date because he was still hospitalized from his self inflicted wounds in April.

He is scheduled to be arraigned in circuit court on June 8th.

On Memorial Day Kathy Duda's house went up for auction but failed to bring in the required minimum of $100,000 in order for it to sell.

Funeral Services Set For Slain Nevada Girls:

Funeral arrangements have been set for two Nevada teens who were stabbed to death last weekend.

Services for 18-year-old Annie E. Reed (r.) will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Ferry Funeral Home in Nevada. Visitation for Annie began yesterday and will continue until services begin tomorrow.

Reed was a senior at Nevada High School who was completing summer school classes in an effort to graduate in August. Reed is survived by her parents, Robert and Carol Reed, brother Joe and a host of family and friends.

The family formerly lived in Kansas City and moved to Nevada five years ago.

Reed's family has asked that memorial contributions honoring their daughter be sent to:

Vernon County People for Pets
In Memory of Annie Reed
c/o Ferry Funeral Home
301 South Washington
Nevada, MO 64772

Services for 14-year-old Kylie M. Leyva are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Ferry Funeral Home in Nevada. Visitation for Leyva began Wednesday and will continue until 1 p.m. Saturday.

Kylie had just completed her freshman year at Nevada High School. She would have turned 15 yesterday (05-27-09.)

Kylie is survived by her mother Danielle Stephenson and the stepfather Steve Stephenson, of Nevada; and her father, Rick Leyva, of Walnut, Calif., brother, Joey Stephenson, and a sister, Destiny Stephenson of Nevada and other family and friends.

Her family moved to Nevada three years ago.

Following services, the Leyva family will receive friends at 608 E. Cherry St., Nevada, MO.

Memorial contributions made in Kylie's name can be sent to:

Kylie Leyva Memorial Fund
c/o Ferry Funeral Home
301 South Washington
Nevada, MO 64772

OR

Kylie Leyva Fund/Danielle Stephenson
c/o US Bank
200 E. Cherry St.
Nevada, MO 64772-3320


Reed and Leyva were stabbed inside of Reed's apartment about 6:15 Sunday evening (05-24-09.) Witnesses say that Reed was able to make it to a neighbors house where she allegedly named Garrett Matthew Mason as the person who attacked her and her friend before collapsing on the front step.

Reed and Leyva were taken to a hospital in Nevada then transported by air ambulance to St. John's hospital in Joplin where they died a short time later.

Mason has been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action in connection with Reed and Leyva's deaths.

Very few details surrounding the crime have been released by authorities and no motive has been released as to what may have led Mason to allegedly kill the girls.

Mason is being held in the Vernon County jail on $2million bonds. He is scheduled to appear in cour on June 11th.

Laclede County Prosecutors Office Reviewing Reports Related To Teens Death:

The LaClede County prosecutors office is reviewing investigative reports related to the alcohol poisoning death of a Lebanon teenager last month.

The sheriff's department turned over video surveillance and receipts that allegedly shows two adults not related to Perry McClenahan buying booze for a group of minors.

Perry McClenahan was 16 years-old at the time of his death and a junior at Lebanon High School.

Laclede County Sheriff Richard Wrinkle said authorities have conducted interviews with the two they believe provided beer and vodka to McClenahan and his friends.

The two could face charges ranging from supplying alcohol to a minor to involuntary manslaughter. The prosecutors office says that charges could come as soon as next week in the case.

County Official To Stand Trial For Child Molestation:

The former Emergency Management Director of Licking has been bound over on child molestation charges after waiving his preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors allege that 25 year-old Ryan Ferguson touched a twelve year-old girl in her "bad spot" and taught the girl to mimic the motion of intercourse over a six month period last year.

In several interviews with detectives, Ferguson admitted that he purposely touched the girl through her clothing several times, and at least one time when she was naked in the bathtub. He also told detectives that he, "fantasized about having sexual intercourse" with her.

Ferguson graduated from Licking High School in 2002, and according to the mayor of Licking, Ferguson's position as Emergency Management Director is on a volunteer basis.

Ferguson is scheduled to be arraigned in Texas County circuit court on June 2nd.

Kindergarten Teacher Will Stand Trial In Sex Case Involving Student:

A Hartville kindergarten teacher will stand trial for of allegedly sending naked pictures of herself to a student tutor for her class.

Attorney Dee Wampler waived the preliminary hearing for Katherine "Katie" Hicks, 39, today (05-27-09) and she was bound over for trial on one felony count of sexual contact with a student on public school property and one misdemeanor count of furnishing pornographic materials to a minor.

Investigators say that Hicks, 39, of Niangua allegedly sent nude photos of herself to the 17 year-old A+ tutor for her classroom.

Detectives in Wright County began investigating Hicks when the boys mother went to police after hearing reports of inappropriate behavior between her son and Hicks.

The probable cause statement says that when investigators interviewed the boy he told cops that he and Hicks had an ongoing personal relationship that included, "kissing, him touching her breast, both of them grabbing each other on the butt, and an exchange of nude pictures and dirty text messages by cell phone."

Hick's didn't admit to anything other than exchanging text messages with the student when questioned by authorities. When asked about the "naked pictures and dirty messages" that the duo had allegedly sent each other, she declined to answer any more questions and requested her attorney.

Hicks is scheduled to be arraigned in circuit court on June 4th.

https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do
09W1-CR00166 - STATE V KATHERINE DANENE HICKS

09W1-CR00167 - STATE V KATHERINE DANENE HICKS

UPDATED : (probable cause) Nevada Teenager Arraigned For Allegedly Killing Two Friends:

A Nevada teenager has been arraigned for allegedly killing two of his friends Sunday (05-24-09.)
- 

Garrett Matthew Mason made his initial court appearance in Vernon County Associate Court this afternoon where two counts each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action were formally read. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
-

In the probable cause statement filed with the charges Nevada Police Officer Pamela Miller writes she and two other officers found Kylie Leyva (l.) and Anne "Annie" Reed (r.) suffering from multiple serious stab wounds about 6:25 p.m. Sunday at Reed's North Cedar Street apartment.

Just a few hours before the attack, Kylie called her mother to tell her she was having fun watching movies with Annie.

Court documents reveal that Mason told investigators that he spent several hours with the girls at Reed's apartment (b.) before he allegedly stabbed them.



One of the girls (Reed according to friends,) was able to get out of the apartment and run to a neighbors house for help.
-
The document says that she was able to tell the neighbor that Garrett Mason stabbed her and her friend.
-

Three other witnesses told authorities in written statements that Mason (b.) came to their home with what appeared to be fresh blood on his body and his clothes. The witnesses told cops that Mason changed his clothes and put them in a backpack, which he placed in the trunk of his car......and that he wanted them to tell cops he spent the afternoon with them.



When cops got to Mason's mother's house he was sitting on the curb waiting for authorities.





Officers recovered a backpack and clothing that appear to have blood on them.

The probable cause statement does not include a motive or indicate what may have led up to the fatal knife attack.
-

Mason lived across the street from from Reed who was just completing her senior year of high school. Leyva was a freshman.
-

Before getting her own apartment Reed lived with her friend Elizabeth Short and her family. Shorts father, Clifford Short, says that he's been told that the suspect had a hit list of people that he was targeting, and that his daughter was next on the list.
-

Leyva is listed as a "friend" on Garrett Mason's MySpace page.
-

Reed and Leyva were taken by ambulance to Nevada Regional Medical Center Sunday evening and then life-flighted to hospitals in Joplin, where they were pronounced dead at about 11 p.m.
-

Mason has little criminal history....he pleaded guilty to possession of pot and drug paraphernalia in March of this year and was placed on probation.

Tomorrow (05-27-09) would have been Kylie Leyva's 15th birthday. Kylie (b.) had planned to spend her special day with her father and other relatives in Riverside, CA......now those relatives will be traveling to Nevada, MO, to bury their loved one.




Leyva did not have life insurance. The US Bank in Nevada has a fund set up to help her family with funeral costs as Kylie Leyva had no life insurance. If you would like to donate here's the address of the bank taking donations.


Kylie Leyva Fund/Danielle Stephenson

c/o US Bank

200 E. Cherry St.

Nevada, MO 64772-3320


Mason is due back in court on June 11th.

*****Link to Garrett Mason's MySpace page.


-
UPDATE FEBRAUARY 2011:

New Details Emerge In Text Message Murders Of Nevada Teens:

Kylie Leyva (l.) and Anne "Annie" Reed

-
Nearly two years after two teen aged girls from Nevada were allegedly stabbed to death over text messages, new details are emerging in the case.

Leviathon Lee Dipman, 20, of Nevada has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of fourteen year-old Kylie Leyva and eighteen year-old Anne "Annie" Reed and court documents indicate it was a conpiracy.
-

Leviathon "Levi" Dipman (mug shot VCSO)

-
Garrett Matthew Mason, now 19, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for the May 24, 2009, murders of his classmates.

Authorities say Dipman's arrest was due to information received from a confidential informant. Officer Pamela Miller with the Nevada Police Department writes in the probable cause statement against Dipman, "Prior to Mr. Mason leaving the residence (Allan Harper's) to go to Ms. Reed's residence, Mr. Dipman, Mr. Mason and Mr. Harper had conversation on how Mr. Mason was going to kill both Ms. Reed and Ms. Leyva."

Garrett Matthew Mason (mug shot VCSO)

-

The informant says that Dipman made the comment, "To go kill them, cut them up and make their blood decorate the walls." She [the confidential informant] says that Dipman, Mason and Harper, "Spoke about a butcher knife" that was in the trunk of a vehicle the group had taken on a camping trip to Stockton Lake and that "the keys to the vehicle were still in the car and all he had to was get the knife when he left."

At Mason's preliminary hearing in August of 2009 Amanda Sandoval testified that she, Mason, Harper and Dipman had been camping and that when they returned Leyva and Reed began sending insulting text messages to her and that Mason had gone to Reed's apartment to get them to stop.

Sandoval, who at one time lived with Annie Reed and Mason, said Harper was a former boyfriend and Dipman was her ex-fiance. Dipman and Leyva had also once been boyfriend and girlfriend but had broken up. Sandoval testified that Leyva had been one of her best friends.

Sandoval said she and Leyva had made a pact never to date Levi again, but she broke that promise when she went camping with him.

Sandoval, Dipman and Harper testified that as they were leaving to return a beer keg, Mason came running back to Harper's home as authorities with their sirens blaring were making their way to Reed's apartment.

A few hours before she was found stabbed to death Leyva had sent her mother a message saying she was having fun at Reed's watching movies. Witnesses say Reed ran from her apartment after the attack and named Mason as the person who killed her and her friend.

Friends left momentos on the steps of Reed's apartment

Mason allegeldy told his friends he needed to change clothes because he had been in the same ones all weekend. Harper popped the trunk and Mason changed behind the car then slipped into the backseat.

Sandoval said Mason initially acted like he didn't not know what was going on, asking them what was up with the police, but then told the group they needed to say he had been with them the last few hours.

Dipman testified “That’s when I turned around and noticed there was blood on his arm."

Officer Miller interviewed Garrett Matthew Mason again on February 16, 2011, about Reed and Leyva's murders. He stated, "Mr. Dipman, Mr Harper and the informant were involved in the planning of the murders of Ms. Reed and Ms. Leyva.

When asked if Dipman perjured himself on the stand at Mason's prelim and if would affect his case against Mason, Vernon County Prosecutor Lynn Ewing said, "I don't see how....he just didn't give a full and complete disclosure of what happened."

Ewing says the investigation into Reed and Leyva's murders is ongoing and would not comment on whether any charges would be filed against Sandoval or Harper.

Mason's trial was scheduled to begin in April, but that trial setting has been canceled and replaced with a motion hearing on March 7th. When asked if Mason was going to plead guilty and testify for the state, Ewing responded, "Ethically, I cannot comment on that."

UPDATE:

Mason pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to two life terms.  Life in prison is thirty years in the state of Missouri.

Those sentences will be served concurrently (at the same time.)

Death Certificate Of Ozark Dodge Co-Owner Amended From Homicide To Pending Investigation:

Final autopsy results are in relating to the case of an Ozark businessman that was found dead inside the car dealership he co-owned.

Christian County Coroner Arthur Adams says, "I amended the original death certificate that I signed regarding Rufus Church from homicide to pending investigation after information was brought to me by the Highway Patrol and the Ozark Police Department."

Adams would not discuss toxicology or other lab results related to the case saying, "I will only release those to the family or the family's lawyers."

The Ozark police department called in the Highway Patrol to help in the "homicide investigation" into Church's death and has been released very little information about the investigation.

Ozark police chief Lyle Hodges is out of the office until next week, however in the past he has said," the case is ongoing and they have not ruled out if it was a suicide or homicide," adding "that the public shouldn't be worried that there is a killer on the loose."

Church was found dead from a single shotgun blast to the chest inside the garage/service bay area of Ozark Dodge on March 23rd.

UPDATED: Murder Charges Filed Against Teen Who Allegedly Stabbed Two Nevada Teens:

Police in Vernon County are investigating a double homicide in a small southwest Missouri community this Memorial Day.

Authorities found 14-year-old Kylie M. Leyva (b.) and 18-year-old Anne E. Reed, both of Nevada, with multiple stab wounds to the neck early Sunday evening in a house in the 600 block of North Cedar Street.

Garrett Matthew Mason, 17, (link to myspace page at bottom) has been charged with two counts of first degree murder and armed criminal action. He is being held in the Vernon County Jail in lieu of $2 million bond.

It appears that Mason and Leyva knew each other as she is listed as one of his friends on his MySpace page.

Mason lived across the street from from Reed who lived in her own apartment; Kylie Leyva, was visiting her friend when the alleged attack took place.

Sources say that Reed was able to get out of the apartment and run next door for help. She told her neighbor who attacked she and Leyva, before she collapsed on the front step.

WDAF is reporting that Reed lived with a friend, Elizabeth Short, and her family before getting her own apartment.

Clifford Short says that he's been told that the suspect had a hit list of people that he was targeting, and that his daughter was next on the list.

The two victims were taken by ambulance to Nevada Regional Medical Center Sunday evening and then life-flighted to hospitals in Joplin, where they were pronounced dead.

Mason has little criminal history....he pleaded guilty to possession of pot and drug paraphernalia in March of this year and was given probation.
-

New Details Emerge In Text Message Murders Of Nevada Teens:

Kylie Leyva (l.) and Anne "Annie" Reed

-
Nearly two years after two teen aged girls from Nevada were allegedly stabbed to death over text messages, new details are emerging in the case.

Leviathon Lee Dipman, 20, of Nevada has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of fourteen year-old Kylie Leyva and eighteen year-old Anne "Annie" Reed and court documents indicate it was a conpiracy.
-

Leviathon "Levi" Dipman (mug shot VCSO)

-
Garrett Matthew Mason, now 19, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for the May 24, 2009, murders of his classmates.

Authorities say Dipman's arrest was due to information received from a confidential informant. Officer Pamela Miller with the Nevada Police Department writes in the probable cause statement against Dipman, "Prior to Mr. Mason leaving the residence (Allan Harper's) to go to Ms. Reed's residence, Mr. Dipman, Mr. Mason and Mr. Harper had conversation on how Mr. Mason was going to kill both Ms. Reed and Ms. Leyva."

Garrett Matthew Mason (mug shot VCSO)

-

The informant says that Dipman made the comment, "To go kill them, cut them up and make their blood decorate the walls." She [the confidential informant] says that Dipman, Mason and Harper, "Spoke about a butcher knife" that was in the trunk of a vehicle the group had taken on a camping trip to Stockton Lake and that "the keys to the vehicle were still in the car and all he had to was get the knife when he left."

At Mason's preliminary hearing in August of 2009 Amanda Sandoval testified that she, Mason, Harper and Dipman had been camping and that when they returned Leyva and Reed began sending insulting text messages to her and that Mason had gone to Reed's apartment to get them to stop.

Sandoval, who at one time lived with Annie Reed and Mason, said Harper was a former boyfriend and Dipman was her ex-fiance. Dipman and Leyva had also once been boyfriend and girlfriend but had broken up. Sandoval testified that Leyva had been one of her best friends.

Sandoval said she and Leyva had made a pact never to date Levi again, but she broke that promise when she went camping with him.

Sandoval, Dipman and Harper testified that as they were leaving to return a beer keg, Mason came running back to Harper's home as authorities with their sirens blaring were making their way to Reed's apartment.

A few hours before she was found stabbed to death Leyva had sent her mother a message saying she was having fun at Reed's watching movies. Witnesses say Reed ran from her apartment after the attack and named Mason as the person who killed her and her friend.

Friends left momentos on the steps of Reed's apartment

Mason allegeldy told his friends he needed to change clothes because he had been in the same ones all weekend. Harper popped the trunk and Mason changed behind the car then slipped into the backseat.

Sandoval said Mason initially acted like he didn't not know what was going on, asking them what was up with the police, but then told the group they needed to say he had been with them the last few hours.

Dipman testified “That’s when I turned around and noticed there was blood on his arm."

Officer Miller interviewed Garrett Matthew Mason again on February 16, 2011, about Reed and Leyva's murders. He stated, "Mr. Dipman, Mr Harper and the informant were involved in the planning of the murders of Ms. Reed and Ms. Leyva.

When asked if Dipman perjured himself on the stand at Mason's prelim and if would affect his case against Mason, Vernon County Prosecutor Lynn Ewing said, "I don't see how....he just didn't give a full and complete disclosure of what happened."

Ewing says the investigation into Reed and Leyva's murders is ongoing and would not comment on whether any charges would be filed against Sandoval or Harper.

Mason's trial was scheduled to begin in April, but that trial setting has been canceled and replaced with a motion hearing on March 7th. When asked if Mason was going to plead guilty and testify for the state, Ewing responded, "Ethically, I cannot comment on that."

UPDATE-

Mason pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison, which is thirty years in the state of Missouri.  Those sentences will be served concurrently (at the same time.)
-
*****Link to Garrett Mason's MySpace page.

https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do

09VE-CR00399 - ST V GARRETT MATTHEW MASON

Murder Victim's Home Auctioned Today:

The Marionville home of murder victim Kathy Duda went on the auction block today.

Kathy Duda, 59, was allegedly stabbed to death on the front lawn of her home in mid-March by her ex-husband, Robert. Police found Robert Duda inside his former wife of forty years Victorian home with self-inflicted knife wounds.

Robert Duda Sr. was unable to make his original preliminary hearing date as he was still hospitalized in April; he has since recovered.

Auctioneer Ralph McKnight says he thinks people will show up out of curiosity. The home which was built in the 1890's according to the website is well maintained and will offer glassware and other items at the auction.

Robert Duda is charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and burglary and is scheduled to appear in Lawrence County Associate Circuit Court on May 28th for his preliminary hearing.

UPDATE (05-27-09):

The house failed to sell at auction despite a crowd estimated at six hundred according to Raph McKnight. The family would have accepted a $100,000 minimum......bidding stopped at $80,000 according to McKnight.



https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchDockets.do
09LW-CR00422 - STATE V ROBERT E DUDA

Hall Sentenced To Twenty Years In Prison For Heyn's Death:

A woman from Sparta has been sentenced to 20-years in prison for the 2003 golf club beating death of an elderly Oldfield woman.

A jury found Paula Hall guilty of second-degree murder on February 9th of this year of killing Freda Heyn (b.). Hall had been charged with first-degree murder, but the jury took about five hours to convict her of the lesser crime. Hall's case had been moved to Taney County on a change of venue.

During today's sentencing in Ozark, defense attorney Rita Sanders said any prison time is like a death sentence for Hall, because the 41 year-old woman suffers from many health problems -- according to Sanders, Hall has heart and cholesterol issues.



During the victim-witness impact statement portion of today's sentencing, Freda Heyn's husband, Fred Heyn said he believes Paula Hall knows where Freda's remains are... "All I have in the casket are Freda's skull and one bone that was found near the skull... to me that just isn't right... we've had trouble eating, sleeping, and really living going through all of this."



Heyn was last seen alive at the post office in Oldfield. Prosecutors say that she was abducted from her mobile home by Paula Hall's former brother-in-law, Billy Wayne Hall, and brought to the trailer of David Epperson (b.) which was is approximately a mile-and-a-half away.


Epperson (a.) testified at his former girlfriends trial that it was outside his house that Paula Hall swung a golf club, "roundhouse style," at Heyn--who hit the woman several more time before she fell face first to the ground.



Epperson told jurors that Billy Wayne Hall (b.) helped him move Heyn's body to the side of the trailer, then the trio went inside to get high on methamphetamine.


Heyn's skull was found by hikers south of Chadwick in the Mark Twain National Forest in the spring of 2004 -- the rest of her body, which authorities believe was cut up -- has never been found.


Modern science is what led authorities to the Hall's and Epperson. Epperson's DNA was left in Heyn's trailer when he cut his hand on a piece of glass as he helped Paula and Billy Hall clean the 68 year-old woman's trailer.



Sanders, who represented Paula Hall pro bono (free) says that, "I've lost faith in the jury system after this verdict....if not for her dating David Epperson, we might not be standing here."


Epperson had been charged with second-degree murder in Heyn's death but was offered a deal by prosecutors in exchange for his testimony. He got five years probation for his testimony.



Christian County Prosecutor Ron Cleek says (a.), "we believe in a justice system in this country and I believe it worked in this case."

Freda Heyn's grandson, who asked not to be identified by name, says that "a person who steals can get ten years, but a person who murders someone gets twenty....it's just not fair.

Charges against Billy Wayne Hall were dropped last year because of lack of evidence, however, after hearing new evidence during the Paula Hall's trial Cleek filed new murder charges against him.....this time adding kidnapping.

Billy Hall had been on the lam for a couple of weeks after being newly charged in Heyn's death......authorities eventually captured him at a friends house in Taney County.

Sanders is representing Billy Hall in his murder case....this time his mother is helping to pay for his defense. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 19th.

Sanders says that She will file an appeal in Paula Hall's case.


****Greg Brock contributed to this story

Trooper Shooter Sentenced To Death:

Lance Shockley has been sentenced to death for killing Missouri Highway patrol trooper Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in 2005.

That sentence was handed down this afternoon (05-22-09) by Carter County Circuit Judge David Evans. A jury found Shockley guilty of killing Graham in March, but deadlocked during the penalty phase of the trial.

Prosecutors say that Shockley gunned down Sgt.Graham, who was 37, when the trooper returned home from his shift the driveway because he was investigating Shockley as the driver in a fatal car crash that killed his best friend, Jeffrey Bayless.

Defense attorney Bradford Kessler says he will file an appeal in the case.

Former Greenfield High School Teacher Facing New Sex Charges:

A former Dade County high school band teacher accused of having sex with one of her students in Dade and Lawrence Counties, is in trouble again for the same thing---this time in Greene County.

Another statutory rape charge was filed against Alison M. Peck this morning (05-22-09). The probable cause statement says that friends of Peck arranged for a meeting to take place between the former Greenfield school teacher and the victim in the other cases at the American Inn in Springfield on May 15, 2009.

Peck, 23, could also face charges for tampering with a victim or witness in a case.

Prosecutors say Peck had sex with the student numerous time at Fiddler's Ford in Dade County and at her Lawrence County apartment in early 2009.

This is the fourth statutory rape charge filed against Peck who is also facing one count of statutory sodomy.

She is being held in the Greene County jail on $200,000 bond.

https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do

0931-CR03118 - ST V ALISON M PECK

Trooper Shooter To Be Sentenced This Afternoon:

The man convicted of gunning down Highway Patrol trooper Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in 2005 is scheduled to be sentenced this afternoon in Carter County.

Lance Shockley was convicted of first-degree murder in March of this year.

Chastain Charged With First Degree Murder In Girlfriends Death:

A man accused in the shooting death of his girlfriend is being arraigned this morning in Boone County, Arkansas on first-degree murder charges.

Authorities write in the probable cause statement filed with charges against Ernest Doyle Chastain Jr., that allegedly shot Susan "Susie" Powers once in the chest after she threw a glass of whiskey in his face during a fight.

Investigators say that Chastain told his mother that Powers was suffering and cussing him so he shot her twice in the head and then covered her body with an Indian blanket.

Cops found Powers dead under a blanket in her home on the southern tip of Table Rock Lake near Omaha on Tuesday after Chastain's mother, Barbara Burk, who lives in Hollister, MO., called them and told them that Powers was dead. When Chastain dropped some of Powers pets of to his mother for safekeeping he said, "Momma, I really killed her."

Cops had been looking for Chastain and a red S-U-V taken from Powers home for about a day and a half before they got a lucky break.

Deputies caught up with Chastain after a viewer of a KY3 news broadcast Wednesday night alerted the manager of the Shoals Motel in Galena, MO, informing her that he believed he had gotten directions from the man police were looking for who was also staying at the motel.

Stone County authorities took Chastain into custody a little after 7 a.m. yesterday (05-21-09) as he was returning to the stolen S-U-V.

In addition to the murder charges, Chastain has been charged with possession of a firearm by certain individuals and felony with a firearm.

He is being held on two million dollars bond in the Boone County, Arkansas jail.

UPDATED: Arkansas Murder Suspect Apprehended In Missouri:

A man authorities in Boone County, AR, have been searching for as "a person of interest" for his alleged connection to the murder of his girlfriend near Omaha on Tuesday has been apprehended in Missouri.

Working on a tip, authorities in Stone County started watching the Shoal Motel near a local campground where they believed Ernest Doyle Chastain Jr, was holed up in.

Stone County Chief Deputy Quirt Page says his office got a call from a the manager of the motel who was alerted by a guest who thought another guest could be the man authorities were looking for after watching the 10 p.m. news.

Quirt says that deputies waited until daylight in a room right in front of a red Isuzu S-U-V with Arkansas plates.

Their wait paid off....a little after 7 a.m. Chastain was taken into custody as he walked toward the S-U-V that was stolen when 53 year-old Susan Powers was shot to death in her home.Chastain and a woman who was in the motel room were taken into custody without incident.

Quirt says the woman really didn't know Chastain, "we determined that she was someone he picked up in Taney County. Quirt added that the woman, "was pretty surprised and shocked," after authorities questioned her. Once they determined that the woman had no role in Powers death she was released.

Chastain waived extradition and was released to Boone County Arkansas authorities for transfer to their facilities.

Boone County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Wes Bradford says a murder warrant was issued against Chastain, but it had not been returned to the circuit clerks office as of 3:30 p.m.

Bradford says, "I believe he will be arraigned on charges sometime tomorrow."

Search warrants were served on the motel room and the S-U-V Chastain was driving for any possible evidence that could be connected to the homicide.

Fired Pharmacist Continued Filling Prescriptions:

A Nixa pharmacist who was indicted in federal court for allegedly diluting prescription cough medicine and illegally possessing a powerful narcotic pain killer was still working in area pharmacies for over a year after his termination from the Christian County pharmacy where the alleged theft took place.

Jeffrey M. Gregory, 54, was arrested May 19 on a sealed four-count indictment by a federal grand jury, according to a statement from Acting U.S. Attorney Matt J. Whitworth.

The indictments allege that while Gregory worked for Family Pharmacy’s Nixa location in April 2008 he tampered with a prescription for the cough suppressant Tussionex by diluting the liquid--reducing its its quality and strength, and represented that the strength of the drug, and its purity and quality, were greater than they actually were; it is also alleged that he created fake prescriptions for Hydrocodone for his personal use.

Gregory was fired from Family Pharmacy on April 4, 2008, the day after the company was notified by a customer that their Tussionex prescription didn’t “look right,” according to Family Pharmacy President Lynn Morris.

The Christian County Headliner is reporting that after being terminated by Family Pharmacy, Gregory immediately went to work as a temporary pharmacist with Ivanrx4u, Inc., working in several Springfield area pharmacies.

The president of Ivanrx4u president says his company fired Gregory the same day the federal indictment was unsealed (05-19-09.)

*****Gregory image Christian County Headliner

UPDATED: Cops In Arkansas Looking For "Person Of Interest" In Womans Death:

Authorities in Boone County, Arkansas are searching for a "person of interest" in the death of 53 year-old Susan Powers. Powers was found shot multiple times in her home near Omaha on Tuesday (05-19-09).

Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to Powers home on Old Cricket Road shortly after 3 p.m. following a 911 call made in Hollister, Mo, by a female relative of the suspect, who reported that Powers was dead.

Cop's say the man they are searching for, 43 year-old Ernest Chastain, who had been dating Powers for a few months.

Chastain is described as a white male, 5-foot-11, 225 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Neighbors told investigators that they heard gunshots between 10 and 11 a.m., and a little after 3 p.m.

Chastain is believed to be driving a red 1996 Isuzu Rodeo S-U-V they believe was recently purchased. The Rodeo is believed to have some damage to the front, with either no plates or an unknown plate.

UPDATE (05-21-09):

A man authorities in Boone County, AR, have been searching for as "a person of interest" for his alleged connection to the murder of his girlfriend near Omaha on Tuesday has been apprehended in Missouri.

Working on a tip, authorities in Stone County started watching the Shoal Motel near a local campground where they believed Ernest Doyle Chastain Jr, was holed up in.

Stone County Chief Deputy Quirt Page says his office got a call from a the manager of the motel who was alerted by a guest who thought another guest could be the man authorities were looking for after watching the 10 p.m. news.

Quirt says that deputies waited until daylight in a room right in front of a red Isuzu S-U-V that had Arkansas plates.

Their wait paid off....a little after 7 a.m. Chastain was taken into custody as he walked toward the S-U-V that was stolen when 53 year-old Susan Powers was shot to death in her home.

Chastain and a woman who was in the motel room were taken into custody without incident.

Quirt says the woman really didn't know Chastain, "we determined that she was someone he picked up in Taney County. Quirt added that the woman, "was pretty surprised and shocked," after authorities questioned her.

Once they determined that determined the woman had no role in Powers death she was released.

Chastain waived extradition and was released to Boone County Arkansas authorities for transfer to their facilities.

Boone County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Wes Bradford says a murder warrant was issued against Chastain, but it had not been returned to the circuit clerks office as of 3:30 p.m.

Bradford says, "I believe he will be arraigned on charges sometime tomorrow."

Search warrants were served on the motel room and the S-U-V Chastain was driving for any possible evidence that could be connected to the homicide.



***image of Powers home--Harrison Daily Times

Church Arson Suspect Waives His Prelim:

A 19-year-old suspect in last February's arson that destroyed a 104-year-old church in Barton County will stand trial for the crime after waiving his preliminary hearing.

Investigators allege that John Manco took $200 from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lamar, which is two doors from his own home, poured an accelerant on the altar and throughout the historic church then set it on fire.

Court records indicate that Manco confessed to the break-in and arson to a state investigator.

Merriam Woods Police Chief Charged With Third Degree Assault:

Court documents filed in Taney County show Merriam Woods Police Chief Jerry Pagan was charged with misdemeanor third-degree assault in March after being arrested by Rockaway Beach Police.

Attorney Souder Tate has been assigned as special prosecutor in the case.

Pagan, is alleged to have assaulted Debbie Carpenter, wife of former Rockaway Beach Police Chief Bobby Carpenter at the Rockaway Beach Police Department on May 13, 2008... a year ago.

The misdemeanor third-degree assault charge comes with the notation of physical injury being added. Pictures filed with the case show that Carpenter had a bruise from the alleged incident on her arm.

No details are available as to what took place leading to the alleged assault or why it took a year to see charges filed.
The charges were filed on March 27th of this year, and Tate says he was assigned the case on April 17th and did not see any actual documents until April 27th. The statute of limitations would have run out on May 13th, last Wednesday.

Pagan is scheduled to be arraigned in Taney Associate Court on the charge June 8th in Forsyth.


****Greg Brock contributed to this story.

https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do
09AF-CR01162 - ST V JERRY PAGAN

Former Greenfield High School Teacher Charged With Statutory Rape:

A first year band teacher at a Dade County High School is facing several sex related charges involving one of her students.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Investigator, Sgt. Dan Nash, writes in the probable cause statement filed with the charges that the 16-year-old boy started texting Greenfield High School music teacher, Alison M. Peck, over last years Christmas break.

Nash says the teenager admitted to him that a "sexual relationship" began when the Peck picked him up near his home in Dade County and the two traveled in the teachers car to Fiddler's Ford Road and engaged in oral and vaginal sex.

In January, the teenager says that he began visiting Peck's home in Mt. Vernon and that the two had sex at the teachers residence on numerous occasions.

Prosecutors in Dade County filed two statutory rape charges against Peck last Friday and the Lawrence County Prosecutor filed one count of statutory rape and another statutory sodomy charge against the teacher today.

Peck filed for divorce from her husband in January, it became final in March.

If the 23 year-old teacher is convicted, she could be sentenced up to seven years on each of the charges.

Peck, who has resigned her teaching position, posted $100,000 bond and was released from custody.

UPDATE (05-22-09):

A former Dade County high school band teacher accused of having sex with one of her students in Dade and Lawrence Counties, is in trouble again for the same thing.....with the same student---this time in Greene County.

Another statutory rape charge was filed against Alison M. Peck this morning.

The probable cause statement says that two female friends of Peck, J.F. & B.A., arranged to pick up the 16 year-old at a Willard McDonalds and then take him to rendezvous with the teacher at American Inn in Springfield on May 15, 2009 where they had sex and spent the night together.

One of the friends told Highway Patrol investigator Dan Nash that she rented the room in her name because Peck told her she was being watched by authorities.

Pecks friends may be charged with crimes related to the case as early as next Tuesday.

Peck, 23, is also facing charges of tampering with a victim or witness in a case. Prosecutors say Peck had sex with the student numerous time near his home at Fiddler's Ford in Dade County----and at her Lawrence County apartment in early 2009.

This is the fourth statutory rape charge filed against Peck who is also facing one count of statutory sodomy.

She is being held in the Greene County jail on $200,000 bond.

https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do
0931-CR03118 - ST V ALISON M PECK

https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do
09DD-CR00070 - ST VS ALISON M. PECK
09LW-CR00821 - ST V ALISON M PECK