MOTHER SAYS SHE ISN'T SURPRISED

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Anna Marie Urhahn isn't surprised that her son, Richard Meyer, admitted he killed a woman in Peru, Ill., last week.

But she never would have conceived he was capable of the gruesome dismemberment and dumping of the body parts in a cornfield near a pipeline trench where he had worked.

"I've been telling him for several years he had some problems," said Urhahn, who lives in Scott City and works for the 33rd Associate Circuit Court probate division. "I'm not surprised he got violent enough to kill someone, but I can't see the dismemberment. That's not Rick at all."

Meyer, 42, of Scott City, is being held at the La Salle County Jail in northern Illinois, where he had been working as a pipeliner. On Tuesday he told police he stabbed to death and dismembered Ernestina Hinojosa, 43, of Kennewick, Wash., last week in the Peru, Ill., hotel where he had been living.

Urhahn said her son has a history of self-destructive behavior and had been taking medication to treat a manic-depressive disorder. She characterized her son as a well-liked but nonsocial person who acted completely out of character when he committed the gruesome crime.

"I personally believe he was on drugs or an alcohol drunk," she said. "Richard Meyer was not in his right mind when this happened."

Scott City residents and police officers who knew Meyer said he appeared to be a mild-mannered person who kept to himself and was very cooperative. Outside of an arrest by Scott City police for driving while intoxicated last June, he had no known criminal record.

"I didn't have any conversation with him except he'd say 'Hi' and I'd say 'hi,'" said Chris Rhymer, who has lived next door to Urhahn for the past seven years. Urhahn "always told me she wished he had more friends."

Urhahn, who has legal custody of her son's two oldest children from his first marriage, filed an order of protection against her son several years ago after she filed for full custody of the children. She had kept the boys for several years but sought legal custody after her son became addicted to methamphetamine.

Meyer also had a drinking problem, Urhahn said, that caused him to become "a completely different person."

"There was something inside of him that would sabotage him," she said. "He loved his kids, but he wasn't in control of himself."

Urhahn said she thought her son's life was on another upswing after he had returned to work as a pipeliner in April. Just one week before the killing he had spent "the best week ever" with his sons, she said. The week included Meyer's purchase of a hatchet and hunting knife for a camping trip he had planned with the boys.

"I was kind of leery about letting them go because Rick wasn't as stable I would have liked, but the boys called me nearly every day, and they had a good time with him," she said.

A bloodied hunting knife and hacksaw were found in Meyer's second-floor motel room after motel staff summoned police to the room last week. Staff had entered the room to investigate blood that was dripping from the ceiling in the room below.

Urhahn believes marital problems between Meyer and his estranged second wife, Polly Meyer, may have been a factor in her son's actions last week. The relationship had been through a series of ups and downs before Polly Meyer informed her husband of a new relationship she was involved in recently, said Urhahn.

"I really thought he would come after Polly" and her new companion, Urhahn said. "I don't blame Polly for all this. She's been through a lot of hurt."

Polly Meyer said her husband had accepted her new relationship and they had spent several weeks together last month at his motel room with their two daughters.

She said her mother-in-law "must be in shock" to believe Richard Meyer is capable of committing any violent crime, regardless of marital or other problems.

Said Polly Meyer: "He already had one failed marriage and lost custody of his kids to his mother. If something was going to affect him like that, it would have affected him then, I'm sure. We agreed just because we couldn't make it as husband and wife doesn't mean we couldn't make it as friends and be good parents to our children."

Polly Meyer said she doesn't doubt her husband committed the killing because "he always came clean with anything that he ever did." However, murder was completely out of character, she said.

"He was always trying to be nice to everybody. I don't even know what could have triggered anything," she said. "There isn't anyone who has ever met him who would say anything bad about him.

"He never did anything that would indicate he would ever hurt someone else, nothing to indicate he would physically hurt someone," she said.

Polly Meyer has no interest in talking to her husband about the crime because "I wouldn't have an idea of what I would say to him." But her mother-in-law wants to see him and have a number of questions answered.

"I want to know why. What caused him to be so angry?" Urhahn said. "He has to be accountable. We didn't do anything to push him off the edge."