Two Stoddard County men arrested for alleged meth lab

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. — Two brothers from Dexter are being held in the Stoddard County Jail on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine.

Terry Wayne Bollinger, 56, and his 54-year-old brother, Gary Michael Bollinger, were initially spotted Friday night around dusk by a Stoddard County sheriff's deputy inside their pickup truck, parked on the bank of the Castor River on Route AB near the rural community of Clines Island, situated northeast of Bloomfield.

According to Stoddard County Sheriff Carl Hefner, the two subjects fled on foot after the deputy spotlighted the vehicle from the roadway.

"Upon approaching the vehicle, the deputy smelled a chemical odor," Hefner reports, and at that time Deputy Keith Haynes with the SEMO Drug Task Force was notified.

"Upon arriving on the scene," Hefner says, "both deputies located chemicals and other paraphernalia consistent with the manufacture of methamphetamine."

The lab, which was located in the pickup truck, was seized and the two suspects were located, and apprehended a short time later at a mobile home in the Idalia community. They were transported to the county jail in Bloomfield, where they remain. Each is held on a $150,000 bond.

The brothers are described by Hefner as persistent offenders, both having lengthy criminal histories.