WARSAW, Mo. -- An examination of the body of a 15-year-old homicide victim did not reveal a cause or a contributing factor of her death. Benton County Coroner James Miller says toxicology tests that might reveal the cause of Khighla Parks' death will take six to eight weeks to complete.
Khighla's body was found near Warsaw in Truman Lake on Sept. 30. She disappeared from a road near her home south of Willard on Sept. 20.
Investigators say Khighla's death is a homicide, but that finding is based on their interviews. Miller talked about the preliminary autopsy in a telephone interview on Thursday afternoon.
Investigators believe Khighla was killed in Dallas County, but haven't revealed how they believe she got from rural Greene County to Buffalo. They've been told that Anthony Balbirnie, 47, of Springfield and others wrapped up her body at a home in Dallas County in the wee hours of Sept. 21, and Balbirnie took the body to Truman Lake.
Balbirnie is charged in Benton County with improper disposal of a corpse. Investigators have not yet convinced the Dallas County prosecuting attorney that there's enough evidence to charge Balbirnie or anyone else for Khighla's murder. Balbirnie is in the Greene County jail.
Investigators have named two more "persons of interest" who may know something or have participated in Khighla's murder. Those two, Larry Warner and Desire'e Siddens, voluntarily showed up at the Dallas County Sheriff's Department on Thursday afternoon, were questioned and released, according to a news release from the sheriff late Thursday afternoon.
The sheriff asked again for anyone with information about Khighla's death to call his department's tips line at (417) 345-8207. That line is answered around the clock.
