Subjects of interest in 1992 killing take polygraph tests; results not revealed

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.

Boyd said taking time on the tests is important for producing an authentic result.

“My tests run from an hour and half to three hours,” Boyd said. “A test has to be more than 90 minutes, or it’s not a valid test.”

The Abbotts paid Boyd for the tests.

A Southeast Missourian reporter was not allowed in the room at Mackey Client Protection office off Kingshighway as the tests were being conducted.

Matt Abbott and John Mackey said last week a reporter would be allowed to witness the testing.

Matt Abbott declined an interview request Tuesday. Mackey, a private investigator who has interviewed the Abbotts, said Mark Abbott did not wish to be interviewed.

The results of the test were not available Tuesday. Mackey and Boyd said they would release the results to the Southeast Missourian, but Boyd did not know a date.

Mark Abbott found 19-year-old Lawless dead Nov. 8, 1992, on the exit ramp of Interstate 55 toward Highway 77 in Benton, Missouri, according to trial testimony. She had been shot three times and struck in the head with a heavy object.

Mark Abbott got out of his vehicle and touched Lawless on the shoulder, according to his statement to investigators.

Matt Abbott said he was in Sikeston, Missouri, the night of the killing.

Lawless was known to have spent most of that evening in Sikeston, according to former Scott County sheriff Rick Walter, who reopened the case that ultimately led to the exoneration of Joshua Kezer after Kezer spent 16 years in prison.

Mark Abbott called police from a nearby gas station the night of the killing, according to a statement he made to investigators.

In trial testimony, Mark Abbott said he saw a white Plymouth Duster drive away while trying to make the call. Kezer was known to drive that vehicle.

Abbott identified Kezer in a photo lineup as the driver of that vehicle; Kezer was the only person in the lineup whose photo was emblazoned with the words “police department.”

Kezer originally was convicted of Lawless’ murder, but he was declared innocent by Judge Richard Callahan 16 years later and freed.

In a letter to the Southeast Missourian in 2008, Mark Abbott said he didn’t realize Kezer had the “police department” placard but said he believes things he heard from other people at the time may have influenced his decision.

“I asked myself a million times, if I could have been wrong,” Abbott wrote in the 2008 letter. “ ... And today, I really believe it could have been possible.”

Scott County sheriff’s deputies, including current Sheriff Wes Drury, thought Matt Abbott went into the station the night of the murder and said Lawless was shot. Walter was one of the first responders at the scene, and he said in an earlier interview it was not apparent Lawless had been shot until investigators took a closer look at her body.

Deputies later went to Matt Abbott’s house, and he said he never went into the sheriff’s office that night. Matt Abbott said his brother Mark went to the station and told them Lawless was dead, and the people working at the station misidentified his brother, Matt Abbott said Friday.

Matt Abbott said Friday he and his brother often switched identities to trick each other’s girlfriends.

In a statement to Cape Girardeau police detective Bill Bohnert in 1997, Mark Abbott said his friend, Kevin Williams, shot Lawless.

Both Abbotts were convicted of federal drug charges in 1997. Bohnert said Mark Abbott offered new information about the homicide, hoping for leniency in the drug case. Mark Abbott later wrote to the Southeast Missourian he denied saying that to Bohnert.

Kevin Williams has said he never knew Lawless.

Mackey said the polygraph test will be his first step in “looking further” at the Abbotts’ case. He said any investigative effort he would conduct would not interfere with current law-enforcement investigations.

“We have to keep digging until we have a lead and then turn it over to police,” he said.

Mackey said he does not know whether the Abbotts are innocent of Lawless’ killing.

“Everybody deserves justice; the family deserves peace,” Mackey said.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

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2711 Thomas Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.