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Sheriff: Morgan County Murder Mystery Solved, Body still Missing
By
KSPR News
Story Created:
Dec 5, 2008 at 8:03 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Dec 6, 2008 at 1:02 AM CDT
Investigators say a postcard meant to throw off a missing person investigation, instead helped them file murder charges.
They say after they arrested Michael Shane Yarnell for pretending to write a postcard from his missing wife, he admitted to hiding her dead body.
On Friday, investigators searched a remote part of Morgan County where they say Yarnell told them to look.
Michelle “Angie” Yarnell was reported missing in November of 2003 from her residence on Ivy Bend.
They believe she died in October of that year.
Yarnell allegedly admitted to dumping her body four miles from the couple’s home on a remote island on the Lake of the Ozarks.
“We don't have a body right now," Sheriff Jim Petty says.
The sheriff says a five year search for a missing woman is now a search for a missing body.
“Her husband said he was afraid and tried to dispose of her body.” Petty says. “I can't say it was an accident it was the result of a domestic disturbance."
Petty says Yarnell told investigators Angie fell from their porch during a fight.
Then Yarnell allegedly used a canoe to row out to the island in an attempt to hide the crime.
“He attempted to put her on the island but didn't make it," Petty says.
Petty says the canoe tipped and Angie's body fell just off the island's shore.
“I remember seeing her pictures in the paper and I thought I bet she's around here somewhere," Fred Long says.
Five years after long time resident Fred Long had that hunch, investigators started searching an island he owns for Angie’s remains.
Long says if Angie's body was near his home, he thinks he would have found her by now.
“As close as I am and as often as I fish, I think I would have at least smelled some sort of odor.”
Long is the only one who lives in the area year round.
“A lot of people from Kansas City, St. Louis, and Iowa are weekenders here," Petty says.
With no body, investigators haven't determined an exact cause of death.
They aren’t sure how long they will keep searching because time and lake tides are against them.
“I didn't know the family but I can’t imagine what I’d be going through if that was one my kids," Long says.
Long hopes offering his front yard will help solve the five year old mystery.
The sheriff did find a few bones Friday but says they don’t appear promising.
Petty says they might be animal bones.
He says he is uncertain how long they will continue searching.
KSPR spoke to Angie's mother Friday who lives near Jefferson City.
She says she can't decide how she feels about the charges.
Yarnell is in the custody of the Morgan County Adult Detention Center on charges of Murder in the 2nd degree, two counts of voluntary manslaughter, and one count of involuntary manslaughter.
He is also being held on forgery and tampering with physical Evidence stemming from the post card he allegedly sent Angie’s mother.
After several years of searching for Yarnell as a person of interest, law enforcement offiers found him in Biloxi, Mississippi.
They questioned him in Biloxi then had him brought back to Missouri to face charges for the alleged postcard forgery.
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