Two arrested after body found in Wayne County

PATTERSON, Mo. -- Authorities exhumed a woman's body from a grave in a cedar grove near her residence Thursday night and charged her husband and his new wife with murder Friday.

They said the two admitted to the crime.

Investigators said Marcia Nunnery, 38, had been missing for more than a year. They said they had looked into her disappearance but were led to believe she had left town, possibly with a truck driver. They said they first heard of her disappearance in Oct. of 2000, when a relative came forward to tell them Nunnery was missing.

The break in their case came when they found the missing woman's checks were being cashed, though there was no sign of her.

On Thursday, they charged the woman's husband Ronald Joe Nunnery, 45, and his wife Eunnona Faye Starkey, 43, with 16 counts of forgery for allegedly cashing Marcia Nunnery's Social Security checks between August 2000 and this month.

"After being questioned, they fessed up to the killing," said Wayne County Sheriff Larry Plunkett Sr. He said they led investigators to the spot where they allegedly buried Marcia's body, about 100 yards from their residence.

Patterson is about 120 miles south of St. Louis.

Authorites worked through the night to locate the body, which they said was buried about four feet below the ground.

They said an autopsy will be performed at a Farmington hospital to determine the cause of death.