State News

BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- A Missouri man who shot and killed two jailers nearly 23 years ago during a failed bid to help an acquaintance escape from a rural jail was executed Tuesday evening. Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted of the June 22, 2000, killings of Leon Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph County Jail...

UNION, Mo. -- A 67-year-old man has pleaded guilty to strangling a woman in Missouri and leaving her bound body in the woods three decades ago, a newspaper reported. Kirby R. King pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter and felonious restraint in the death of 22-year-old Karla Jane Delcour, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday. She was found dead with her wrists and neck bound by a cord in Franklin County woods near the city of St. Clair...

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday declined clemency for a man who faces execution Tuesday evening for killing two jailers in an ill-fated effort to free someone else from a county jail. Michael Tisius, 42, would be the third person in Missouri, and the 12th person nationally, to be executed in 2023. He's accused of killing officers Leon Egley and Jason Acton in June 2000...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A former history professor at Missouri State University charged in the stabbing death of a colleague was found not guilty Friday by reason of insanity. Greene County Judge David Jones announced his ruling in the case of Edward Gutting, who was charged with first-degree murder in the 2016 killing of Marc Cooper inside Cooper's Springfield home. Cooper's wife, Nancy, was injured but survived, the Springfield News-Leader reported...

ST. LOUIS -- A federal appeals court has vacated a stay of execution for a Missouri inmate who is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for his role in the deaths of two jailers. Michael Tisius, 42, was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing Randolph County jailers Jason Acton and Leon Egley during a failed escape attempt...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A doctor in the Missouri Ozarks went missing for over a week until his body was found in an Arkansas lake. But the case remains shrouded in mystery as investigators have released few details to his family or the public. Dr. John Forsyth, 49, was last seen alive May 21, when security cameras in the parking lot of a public pool in Cassville show him getting into a vehicle, after leaving his own car unlocked with his wallet, two phones, a laptop and other items inside. ...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- The family of a Black Kansas City teenager who was shot by a white man after he mistakenly knocked on the man's door is frustrated with the prosecutor's handling of the case, attorneys for the family said Thursday. The complaints came after a preliminary hearing for 84-year-old Andrew Lester was set for Aug. 31-Sept. 1 and just days after a Clay County judge approved a request by Lester's attorney to seal documents in the case...

A federal appeals court has put on hold an Environmental Protection Agency regulation aimed at reducing air pollution in Missouri, drawing criticism from environmentalists but praise from the state's attorney general who called the proposal "unconstitutional overreach"...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A missing emergency room doctor from Missouri was found dead in Arkansas from an apparent gunshot wound, authorities confirmed Wednesday. But they are still investigating what happened in the week since he was last seen. A kayaker discovered the body of 49-year-old Dr. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A federal judge on Wednesday halted next week's scheduled execution of a man convicted of killing two Missouri jailers amid questions about the literacy of a juror in the case. U.S. District Judge Stephen Bough ruled that Michael Andrew Tisius' execution at the state prison in Bonne Terre should be delayed to give the court time for a hearing on the juror...

CASSVILLE, Mo. -- The body of a Missouri emergency room doctor who has been missing for more than a week has been found in northwest Arkansas, his brother told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Dr. John Forsyth was last heard from in text messages around 7 a.m. May 21. His brother, Richard Forsyth, said authorities called the family Tuesday night to say his brother was found deceased. He provided no other details...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Ralph Yarl -- a Black teenager who was shot in the head and arm after mistakenly ringing the wrong doorbell -- walked at a brain injury awareness event in his first major public appearance since the shooting. The 17-year-old suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was shot while trying to pick up his younger brothers in April, the Kansas City Star reported...

GOWER, Mo. — Hundreds of people flocked to a small town in Missouri over the last two weeks to see a Black nun whose body has barely decomposed since 2019. Some say it's a sign of holiness in Catholicism, while others say the lack of decomposition may not be as rare as people think...

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones on Thursday signed an executive order designed to make transgender people feel more welcome in the city. The order calls for city agencies to pursue policies that will reduce the impact of transgender laws restricting gender-affirming care and sports participation passed earlier this month by Missouri lawmakers...

WASHINGTON -- A Missouri man flew to Washington, rented a U-Haul truck and drove straight to the White House, where he crashed the truck into a security barrier and began waving around a Nazi flag in the culmination of a six-month plan to "seize power" from the government, authorities said Tuesday...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- A jury has recommended a Missouri woman, whose two young daughters died inside a hot car in 2018, be sentenced to more than 50 years in prison. A Clay County jury found Jenna Boedecker guilty Friday of two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two misdemeanor counts...

MADISON, Mo. -- The driver of a semitrailer died when his vehicle struck a train in rural northeastern Missouri. The accident happened Sunday afternoon near the town of Madison in Monroe County, about 150 miles northwest of St. Louis. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Russell Minnis, 65, of Higbee, Missouri, was traveling on U.S. 24 and failed to stop at a train track that was equipped with a crossbar, warning light and bell...

ST. LOUIS -- Two former clerks in a small, poor town in St. Louis County have been sentenced to prison after writing hundreds of checks to themselves while the town struggled to provide basic services to its residents. Maureen Woodson, 68, the former city clerk in Flordell Hills, was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison and ordered to repay the $487,673. Her assistant, Donna Thompson, 76, was sentenced to a year and a day for stealing $159,903, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

ST. LOUIS — Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Friday named Gabe Gore, a former assistant U.S. attorney, as the new chief prosecutor in St. Louis, three days after Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s sudden departure. Gore is a partner in the St. Louis law firm Dowd Bennett. ...

A Missouri high school teacher who was videotaped repeatedly using a racial slur in class has resigned from the district, while the student who took the video finishes serving a school suspension. Mary Walton, a 15-year-old sophomore at Glendale High School in Springfield, will be allowed to return to school Wednesday after a three-day suspension for what the school district said was improper use of an electronic device...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- A Missouri prosecutor is asking a judge to carefully consider the public's right to information while determining whether to seal court records in the case of Andrew Lester, a white homeowner accused of shooting a Black teenager who mistakenly came to his home...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Missouri officials on Tuesday abruptly terminated an unusual emergency rule proposed by the Republican attorney general that would have placed limits on transgender care for minors and some adults. The move was announced without explanation on the Missouri Secretary of State's website, which said "This emergency rule terminated effective May 16, 2023."...

ST. LOUIS -- Embattled St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who this month announced she would resign effective June 1, said Tuesday she is leaving office immediately, ending a turbulent tenure marked by frequent criticism, especially from Missouri's Republican leaders...

A Missouri high school teacher who was videotaped repeatedly using a racial slur in class has resigned from the district, while the student who took the video finishes serving a school suspension. Mary Walton, a 15-year-old sophomore at Glendale High School in Springfield, Missouri, will be allowed to return to school Wednesday after a three-day suspension for what the school district said was improper use of an electronic device...

ST. LOUIS — St. Louis' top prosecutor has asked a court to set aside the conviction of a man who has spent 33 years in prison for a killing he says he didn't commit, after witnesses who testified against him later said authorities had pressured them to lie...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A sophomore at a Missouri high school who recorded a teacher using a racial slur during class was suspended for three days. Mary Walton, a student at Glendale High School in Springfield, said she was told Friday that she would not be allowed to return to school until Wednesday because she violated district policy on inappropriate use of electronic devices, the Springfield News-Leader reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Chaos in Missouri's Republican-led Senate on the final day of session Friday meant the failure of a longtime GOP priority to make it harder to amend the state's constitution, which lawmakers predicted could ease the path to restoring abortion rights in the state...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The family of a man killed by police officers in the Kansas City suburb of Independence, Missouri, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit Thursday, accusing the officers of shooting the man without justification. The lawsuit on behalf of Tyrea Pryor's relatives names two officers and the city of Independence. It seeks at least $25 million in damages...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Officials in Missouri's largest city approved a resolution Thursday to declare it a sanctuary for people seeking or providing gender-affirming care, defying state lawmakers who voted a day earlier to ban such care for minors and restrict it for some adults...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers approved two bills Wednesday that ban gender-affirming health care for minors, and prevent transgender girls and women from participating on female sports teams. But Kansas City was preparing to defy the state, with its City Council set to vote on creating a sanctuary for people seeking gender-affirming treatment...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri's Republican governor Wednesday officially opened the application process to replace St. Louis' embattled prosecutor, Kim Gardner, who resigned last week amid pressure from Republicans who have called her negligent. Gov. Mike Parson said he's looking for a "member of the St. Louis community" with "strong managerial experience," a "commitment to the rule of law" and a record of "fair and just" application of state and local law...

ST. LOUIS -- A doctor from Kansas admitted Tuesday to a role in a telemedicine fraud scheme for unnecessarily ordering genetic testing and orthotic braces, defrauding Medicare of about $16 million. Gautam Jayaswal, 64, of Overland Park, Kansas, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. He could face up to five years in prison and must repay the money...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's senior homeowners would be spared from rate hikes on property taxes under a bill passed by state lawmakers Monday. If signed by Gov. Mike Parson, it would be up to counties to approve the property tax breaks. The freeze on property tax rates would only apply to the primary residences of people age 65 and older...