Murderer Clay Waller transferred back to Missouri

Convicted murderer Clay Waller was transferred Sunday by Cape Girardeau County sheriff's deputies from a federal prison in Marianna, Florida, and is in the custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections to serve the remainder of a 20-year sentence.

Cape Girardeau Sheriff's Capt. J.P. Mulcahy could not disclose Waller's exact location because of security reasons.

"He was dropped off in a location in the system, and he was going to be taken somewhere," Mulcahy said. "He most likely would not be kept in this area."

Waller pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in June 2013. He admitted to killing his estranged wife, Jacque Waller, on June 1, 2011, and burying her body in a secluded area near Devil's Island in Alexander County, Illinois, in a hole he had dug ahead of time. Law-enforcement officials stated in a Southeast Missourian story from June 2013 that evidence showed Jacque Waller was lured to her house to pick up one of her three children, then was strangled and beaten to death.

Clay Waller previously was serving a 5-year sentence for making online threats against his wife's sister, Cheryl Brenneke, in 2011. The sentences were scheduled concurrent, and Clay Waller's federal sentence was scheduled to expire Sunday. By Missouri law, Clay Waller is obligated to serve 85 percent of the 20-year sentence.

Under the plea agreement, Clay Waller led law enforcement to Jacque's body, which Major Case Squad members were unable to find despite using tracking dogs in the area at one point, Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan said for a Southeast Missourian story at the time of sentencing in 2013.

Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh said in that same story Clay Waller's involvement was crucial to finding Jacque's body.

"Obviously it was something we weighed -- is it more important to give him what he deserves or to give Jacque what she deserves? -- and ultimately, Jacque won out," said Angel Woodruff, assistant prosecuting attorney for Cape Girardeau County in June 2013.

Clay Waller told law enforcement the motives behind his wife's murder was the threats of bankruptcy, divorce and losing his children. Jacque Waller was the mother of 5-year-old triplets at the time of her death. Woodruff said in 2013 she believed Waller lied to her when he was obligated by the plea to disclose how he killed Jacque and the location of his wife's body.

Brenneke adopted the three children -- Addison, Avery and Maddox now 10 -- in November 2013.

"I did not want this deal. My mother and father and those children deserve to bury her, though. Jacque was in heaven the second you killed her. I personally did not need that," Brenneke said to Clay Waller during the sentencing hearing. "I needed you to suffer the rest of your life is what I needed, but I loved them enough to give them what they needed."

bkleine@semissourian.com

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