Briefly 1/16/18

Missing man's body found

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- A missing Bloomfield man was found dead Sunday.

The Bloomfield Department of Public Safety reported its officers and the Stoddard County Sheriff's Office responded to a report of a deceased male in a creek bed northwest of Bloomfield. The body was identified as Jerry Hornback, 41, who had been reported missing Tuesday. Hornback was an insulin dependent diabetic who was believed to have taken a higher than normal dose of insulin before leaving his residence Tuesday. He was last seen walking north on Viola Street in Bloomfield. An autopsy is scheduled, but at this time no foul play is suspected.

Mo. mother forgives son's murderer

ST. LOUIS -- Shaunte Harris lost her son to one of the many homicides that plague St. Louis, but the man who pleaded guilty in his death has her forgiveness. Charles Cornet Napper was in court last week to be sentenced for the January 2016 killing of Nathaniel Stansberry III. Stansberry was shot to death inside the Northway Market. "You took my baby away from me," a tearful Harris told Napper, now 31, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. "He was a good kid. And I forgive you because you was man enough to plead guilty."

In response, Napper apologized to Harris. Circuit Judge Mark Neill accepted guilty pleas of second-degree murder and armed criminal action. He sentenced Napper to 25 years in prison.

Two-headed snake found, put on display

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A rare two-headed snake is on public display at the Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery in Branson. The juvenile Western ratsnake, which is not venomous, was discovered under a house in Hurley. It's still not clear if the snake is male or female.

St. Louis ACA facility closing

A large suburban St. Louis employer -- one of a handful of major Affordable Care Act processing facilities -- is closing. The Post-Dispatch reported Serco, a British-based company with U.S. headquarters in Northern Virginia, runs the processing facility in Wentzville. Three years ago, it employed as many as 1,500. The closing will see about 850 employees laid off, the newspaper reported. The company won a $1.2 billion, 5-year contract in July 2013 to process applications for the Affordable Care Act, the national health care law passed in 2010. The Wentzville center was one of three the firm opened nationally to handle the deluge of people expected to sign up for health insurance.

-- Associated Press