The 66-year-old businessman who’d once been a local city council member became a person of interest in the disappearance of his 50-year-old employee.
The missing man’s daughter checked with her father’s boss about where her father was. He claimed to not know. He informed her he had fired her father, given him $1,000 severance pay, and dropped him off at a laundromat. The daughter’s gut instinct told her to do a screenshot of the messages between her and her father’s boss. Good thing because he deleted them.
The missing man’s girlfriend said the last communication she had with him was when he waited for his boss to pick him up for a septic tank install job. This was the same day the boss had told the daughter he’d fired the man.
According to the boss, the missing man had a violent demeanor, and that was why the boss had fired him. During the investigation for the location of the missing man, the boss gave the authorities false information about where his job site was on the day he’d ‘fired’ the missing man.
When the authorities searched the boss’s property, they found his statement book showing the true job site location on the day the man went missing. They executed a search warrant at the job site property, dug up the recently installed septic tank and found the missing man underneath. He’d been buried with his wallet still in his pants pocket. During the autopsy, a medical examiner found a bullet in the man’s chest cavity that had entered his body through his upper back.
Also found by the authorities during the investigation was video footage showing the boss driving past the laundromat—not stopping. They also had video from the property owner where he’d installed the septic tank. The video showed two men arrive in the boss’s truck. When the job was done, only one person left the job site.
The authorities charged the boss with first-degree murder and desecration of a human. At his trial, the defendant took the stand to tell his story. He said he was guilty of burying the body but not murder—he’d shot the man in self-defense. He also said he’d freaked out, and it was a case of “my bad”—that his fight-or-flight response had taken over.
The eight men and four-women jury took two hours to deliberate and convict the accused on both the first-degree murder charge and the desecration of a body. Two years after the crime, a judge sentenced the 68-year-old man to life in prison without parole for the murder, seven years and $8,000 fine for the desecration of a body—sentences run concurrently.
At the sentencing, the victim’s brother spoke about his brother and vowed to the murderer,
“I will find out the truth about why you killed him.”
Also at the sentencing, the murderer gave a statement not of regret for the crime, but to list all the reasons he was not guilty, how poorly his attorney had done, and how poorly the authorities had conducted the investigation—most likely preparing for an appeal.
Source: County District Court, Law & Crime, Guthrie News Page
All data and information provided is for information and research purposes only and not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. Criminal cases may have been appealed or verdicts overturned since I researched the case. All information is provided on an as-is basis.
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