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St. Louis County Prosecutor Stopped a Serial Killer and Didn’t Even Know It | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

March 24, 2023

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click to enlarge Missouri Department of Corrections, Police Booking Photo Gary Muehlberg, revealed to be the so-called Package Killer, in March 2020 and in 1993.
When St. Louis County prosecutor Doug Sidel took on the 1993 case against Gary Muehlberg, he immediately recognized Muehlberg as a sadist. The 44-year-old Bel-Ridge man was on trial for the February 1993 killing of 57-year-old Kenneth “Doc” Atchison, whom Muehlberg lured over to his house on the pretense of selling him a car. Muehlberg killed Atchison, stealing $6,000 in cash and the car Atchison had driven over. Weeks later, police found Atchison’s body stuffed in a homemade box in Muehlberg’s basement. “The way he killed him was so cruel,” Sidel says. “With him being handcuffed and gagged…he could have been killed in a less cruel fashion. Clearly [Muehlberg] had a sadistic personality.” Muehlberg pleaded not guilty, and despite the body being found in his basement, Sidel says it was not an easy case to prosecute. The murder weapon had wound up in the house of a known drug dealer, where it was discovered by police. That drug dealer’s daughter was also driving around in Atchison’s car, which Muehlberg had allegedly stolen. Muehlberg’s defense attorney swore his client was being framed. Sidel told the jury Muehlberg’s motive had been the robbery and that the murder was “a cold-blooded horrible killing. It was an execution.” Ultimately, Muehlberg’s lawyer couldn’t explain why Atchison’s body was in a box in Muehlberg’s basement. Muehlberg was found guilty in September 1995 and sentenced to life in prison two months later. “The facts of the case were so strange…I will never forget that,” says Sidel, who started as a prosecutor in St. Louis County in 1981 and still works in the office today. Recently, he was given more reason to remember them. Last summer, O’Fallon Detective Jodi Weber came to the veteran prosecutor’s office asking if she could see the investigative file that the office had compiled on Muehlberg almost 30 years ago. Weber was hoping to close a case she’d been working on for over a decade — the unsolved serial murders of Robyn Mihan, Brenda Pruitt and Sandy Little. The trio had been abducted from the city’s red light district, and the killer had left their bodies in packages on the sides of roads throughout the region in 1990 and 1991. Weber had recovered DNA from Mihan’s remains and, using a new technology not available in the 1990s, matched it to Muehlberg, whose DNA was in a state database because he was in prison. Beyond the DNA, there were immediate similarities between the women’s murders and the murder of Atchison. Like Atchison, many of the female victims had been bound and gagged, found with ligatures around their necks. All the victims had been found in some type of box or container. Looking back, Sidel now suspects Muehlberg planned to get Atchison’s body out of his home and dumped on the roadside in a fashion similar to his female victims. In the weeks after the killing but prior to his arrest, Muelhberg had fled to an Illinois motel and placed frantic phone calls to acquaintances trying to get someone to move the box out of his home. “But he never got to do it. The police got him first,” Sidel says. click to enlarge Courtesy St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Evidence from Gary Muehlberg’s 1995 trial.
In July, after Weber finally closed in on him, Muehlberg confessed to the three murders, as well as two others: that of Donna Reitmeyer and an unknown fifth victim police are still trying to identify. Muehlberg agreed to confess to the murders if the death penalty was taken off the table. With Weber having secured Muehlberg’s confession, the prosecutions against him in 2023 were much less of a lift than in 1995. After pleading guilty in court in St. Charles earlier this month to the murder of Sandy Little, Muehlberg pleaded guilty to the murders of Pruitt and Reitmeyer in court in St. Louis County on Tuesday. Sidel was there as the lead prosecutor. “I don’t think I’d ever prosecuted anyone twice for separate murders at separate times,” Sidel says. The revelation that Muehlberg was a cold-blooded serial killer made the 1995 conviction Sidel had secured against him all the more meaningful. “I did not know he was a serial killer of women at the time, but there’s nothing about his conduct that leaves me to believe he would have stopped doing what he did if he had not been stopped by law enforcement,” says Sidel. “Had he been free, I shudder to think what would have gone on.” He adds, “Who knows how many lives were saved by him not being left out there.” We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected] or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull. Coming soon: Riverfront Times Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting St. Louis stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

7 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

7 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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