Pursuit of Proof: The Lawless Murder

The special prosecutor in the Angela “Mischelle” Lawless murder investigation has set up a Facebook page and private Facebook group seeking tips regarding the 1992 murder. Lawless was murdered Nov. 8, 1992, having died from three gunshots and found in her car on the exit ramp of Interstate 55 at Benton, Missouri. The original prosecution convicted the wrong man, who was found innocent in an exoneration in 2009...

Wednesday, Nov. 8, marks the 31st anniversary of the murder of Angela "Mischelle" Lawless. Lawless was a 19-year-old college nursing student who was killed on the Interstate 55 exit ramp less than a mile from her home near Benton, Missouri. She was the oldest of Marvin and Esther Lawless' three children. The outgoing, diminutive teenager was also a waitress at Shoney's in Sikeston, Missouri, and a graduate of Kelly High School...

A special prosecutor has been appointed to review evidence in the 1992 murder case of Angela Mischelle Lawless, according to documents obtained by the Southeast Missourian through a public records request. The move is the most significant procedural decision in the case since Scott County Prosecuting Attorney Don Cobb’s predecessor, Amanda Oesch, announced in January 2022 she was handing the case files over to the state Highway Patrol and Missouri attorney general cold case unit...

A new book examining the injustice that sent Josh Kezer to prison for the 1992 murder of Angela "Mischelle" Lawless will be published in May. Kezer, who was charged with Lawless' murder in March of 1993, was exonerated in 2009 with a rare "actual innocence" ruling...

A Scott County prosecutor said this week three law enforcement entities are providing new focus on a cold case murder. Prosecuting Attorney Amanda Oesch released a statement Monday saying she has enlisted help from state agencies in the 1992 murder of Angela Mischelle Lawless, who was found shot to death in her vehicle near Interstate 55 at the Benton, Missouri, exit. The Southeast Missouri State University nursing student had been shot three times and had suffered a blow to the head...

Bob Miller, former editor of the Southeast Missourian, announced a serial podcast and website that digs deep to uncover the details of the 1992 Benton, Missouri, unsolved murder case of Angela Mischelle Lawless. Miller launched a trailer for the new podcast, titled "The Lawless Files," today — the 29th anniversary of the murder. The first full episode will launch Nov. 15...

It was just days after Rick Walter had reopened the Mischelle Lawless murder case, when, he said, Kevin Williams walked into the sheriff's office. Josh Kezer was still in prison for the murder that a judge would rule later he did not commit. At that point in 2006, it was not widely known that Walter, then the sheriff, had reopened the case. He had only told those in his department. He now knows someone must have leaked information from his office...

On the night Mischelle Lawless was killed in 1992 along Interstate 55 near Benton, a man named Dallas Butler said he arrived at the murder scene, before police arrived. He was riding his motorcycle, he said, toward his mother's house in Mississippi County, crossing over on Highway 77 when he saw a car pulled over on the northbound exit ramp near the overpass. He turned his motorcycle toward the car, illuminating the car with his headlight...

Former Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter believes he solved Mischelle Lawless’ murder, and had enough evidence to prove it. DNA tests proved, he said, that one of the suspects was lying about his version of events on Nov. 8, 1992, the night Lawless was found bludgeoned and shot to death in her car at the Benton exit on Interstate 55. ...

The Angela Mischelle Lawless murder case from Nov. 8, 1992, is complicated with many wrongdoings and missteps. Here is a list of 9 reasons where the original investigation went askew, and why the wrong man, Joshua Kezer, was sent to prison. (Compiled by Mark Bliss and Bob Miller from new reporting, court records and previous reporting)...

The events below come from pretrial depositions in the Mischelle Lawless murder. In some cases, information changed from original interviews and police. The events below are essentially what Josh Kezer's defense knew before trial. Evening, Nov. 7, 1992...

Scott County Prosecutor Paul Boyd and former sheriff Rick Walter remain at odds over how the grand jury system was used in the Mischelle Lawless murder case. Walter said, as sheriff, he sought a grand jury in 2015 and again in 2016 after new evidence came to light but both times he was rebuffed by the prosecutor...

Matt and Mark Abbott, identical twins who are subjects of interest in the investigation of the 1992 killing of Angela Mischelle Lawless, completed lengthy polygraph tests Tuesday in Cape Girardeau in an attempt to clear their names. Certified tester Lee Boyd tested and interviewed Matt Abbott for about 2 1/2 hours in the morning. Boyd tested and interviewed Mark Abbott for about three hours in the afternoon...

Two men at the center of the Mischelle Lawless homicide investigation since the beginning of the case in 1992 will take polygraph tests Tuesday in an attempt to clear their names. "I'm tired of all the bulls---," Matt Abbott said. Twin brothers Matt and Mark Abbott will undergo a two-hour polygraph session with certified polygraph practitioner Lee Boyd of St. Louis under the supervision of private investigator John Mackey beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Cape Girardeau...

Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter soon will be leaving the elected office he has held since 2005, but he said he will continue to investigate the slaying of 19-year-old Mischelle Lawless -- a closed case he reopened two years into his tenure. Incoming Sheriff Wes Drury also said he intends to continue the Lawless investigation when he takes office in January...

In 2008, a young but talented cops and courts reporter stepped into my office and told me she wanted to dig into the Angela Mischelle Lawless murder case. A young managing editor myself, I knew this was an important decision, and I was apprehensive to pursue the subject. ...

Josh Kezer has found that people have gone out of their way to express their opinions to him on "Making a Murderer" and the Steven Avery case. To them, the similarities between Kezer's case and Avery's case -- as presented in the documentary -- are striking, particularly institutional misconduct. ...

The man exonerated of Angela Mischelle Lawless' murder has donated $10,000 to the Scott County Sheriff's Department, earmarked only to fund the investigation of her death. Josh Kezer was exonerated of the murder in 2009 and has sought to bring her killer to justice since he was released. With his donation, Kezer said he is helping Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter examine leads...

Angela Mischelle Lawless has been dead for almost 20 years, but authorities say they are still receiving and researching leads in Lawless' death and may be getting a new investigator to lend the case a fresh perspective. People with information about Lawless' murder continue to call the Scott County Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Rick Walter said. Lawless was murdered in 1992, and Josh Kezer was found guilty of murdering her the same year but was exonerated in 2009...

Joshua Kezer did a lot of praying while he was imprisoned for 16 years. He still does. Kezer, wrongly convicted of the 1992 murder of Benton, Mo., college student Angela Mischelle Lawless, read the Bible a lot and wrote in a journal, too. He watched television sometimes also, cheering on his favorite NFL team from his childhood and and teen years -- the Chicago Bears...

The road to finding Angela Mischelle Lawless' killer continues to be bumpy for Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter and detective Branden Caid. They haven't hit a dead end though, Caid said Wednesday, just detours in solving the 1992 Benton, Mo., murder...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Death penalty opponents and the attorney for a southeast Missouri man convicted and sentenced to death in a 1994 murder-for-hire plot are asking Gov. Jay Nixon to stop what would be the state's first execution in nearly two years...

Although he's ending the year without an arrest in the 1992 murder of 19-year-old Angela Mischelle Lawless like he had hoped, Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said he's not stopping the search for her killer. And with the help of Dr. John Bond, a scientist from England who has invented a technique for fingerprint detection, Walter and his lead investigator, detective Branden Caid, have found even more incentive not to quit...

Joshua Kezer received $4 million to settle his federal lawsuit against Scott County, a former sheriff and a former deputy, a source close to the lawsuit said Wednesday.