Two die in mobile home fire near Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two people were killed while they slept Friday in a fire that destroyed their mobile home near the Jackson County Sports Complex on Kansas City's east side. The victims' names were not released. Fire officials say they were a woman in her 40s and a man in his 60s. The fire broke out shortly before 8:30 a.m. The cause of the blaze was not known. Investigators said it could have started from alternative heat sources because the trailer had electricity but no gas. The victims were found in their bed and likely died of smoke inhalation, department spokesman Germane Friends said. Neighbor Billie Warfield said the couple had lived at the Manchester Village Mobile Home Park for at least three years.

Two enter guilty pleas in 23-year-old murder case

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- A man and his mother have admitted guilt to charges in the death 24 years ago of his former wife, a crime that went unsolved until a tip led to discovery of the body in May. Appearing Thursday in Buchanan County Circuit Court, Shirley Milbourn, 67, said she shot Rhonda Burgess during an argument in November 1981, and her son, Michael Milbourn Sr., 44, said he mopped up the blood and hid the body. Shirley Milbourn pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. A second-degree murder charge against her son was dropped in return for his guilty plea to abandoning a corpse and tampering with physical evidence. Prosecutors also agreed not to file additional charges against either of them. The Milbourns will be sentenced Jan. 27 by Judge Dan Kellogg.

Man sentenced to life in prison in killing of in-law

CLAYTON, Mo. -- A man convicted of killing his brother-in-law, apparently in retaliation for years of domestic abuse, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole. Dennis Irby, 56, of Raleigh, N.C., was convicted of first-degree murder Oct. 25 in the December 2002 killing of Jeffrey Sexton, 42, of suburban St. Louis. It was Irby's second trial. The previous jury couldn't reach a verdict. Sexton was shot to death at his home in Des Peres. The killing occurred 15 days after Sexton's wife, Lois, fled to Irby's home after Jeffrey Sexton beat her.

-- From wire reports