<img src="http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/extra.gif" border=0>Two men charged in Carthage couple’s slayings<font color="#ff0000"> w/ probable cause statements</font>

July 09, 2009 12:14 am

— By Jeff Lehr
and Derek Spellman
news@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Darren J. Winans had been suspected for almost nine months of stealing a rifle Sept. 23, 2008, from the Old Cabin Shop outside Carthage.
An accomplice, Zachary S. Townsend, is believed by authorities to have distracted shop owner Robert Sheldon while Winans swiped the gun. Sheldon, 70, and his wife, Ellen, 71, discovered the theft and reported it to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department several days before they were brutally slain Oct. 11 inside their home next to their gun and archery shop on Black Powder Lane west of Carthage.
Townsend admitted his and Winans’ involvement in the theft to sheriff’s investigators 10 days after the murders, according to probable-cause affidavits. The affidavits state that Winans traded the gun to Townsend for some speakers. Townsend told investigators that he later swapped it with another man for eight Oxycontin pills.
Townsend, 24, of Jasper, was charged with the theft Oct. 22. But Winans was not, and the couple’s slayings went unsolved for nine months until Winans, 21, 16974 County Road 194, finally was picked up last week in connection with the theft.
Sheriff Archie Dunn called a news conference Wednesday to announce that Winans is being charged with much more than theft. He and a Springfield man, Matthew D. Laurin, 19, now stand accused of the killings, each facing two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and a single count of first-degree burglary.
Burglary motive?
Laurin was arrested Tuesday night in Springfield, and a search warrant was served on his car.
The sheriff said at the news conference that investigators believe the two men went to the Sheldons’ property the night of the murders intending to commit a burglary of the business.
“I think what happened inside that house was not planned,” Dunn said. “It was a reaction.”
The sheriff had described the murders in October as “horrific” and indicative of extreme “animosity” toward the couple. But almost no details of the murder scene had been released, including causes of the couple’s deaths.
At the news conference, the sheriff finally acknowledged that the Sheldons were killed with a knife. Probable-cause affidavits state that they were stabbed multiple times. But the sheriff declined to detail the number or location of wounds, saying the double-murder investigation is continuing.
The sheriff also downplayed the apparent connection between the theft of the gun in September and the murders the next month. He said the two crimes were related only in the sense that the perpetrators “may have considered the Sheldons an easy target.”
“They may have walked in and walked out, and decided: This was easy and we can do it again,” Dunn said.
Townsend has not been charged with participating in the murders, Dunn said. But the sheriff would not rule out the possibility that charges could be filed against others as the investigation proceeds.
Anonymous tips
Dunn said an anonymous tip received on the Sheriff’s Department’s tip line in the latter part of December first gave lead Detective Kevin Mitchell a name and a direction in the case that ultimately proved valid.
“It kind of led to a dead end at one point when a guy lawyered up,” Dunn said.
But a second anonymous tip in May put Mitchell and other investigators back on the same track, and led to the arrests, he said. He declined to identify the man who sought an attorney.
Affidavits allege that Laurin has admitted his and Winans’ involvement in the slayings. There is no indication of any confession on the part of Winans.
The sheriff indicated that the murder weapon has yet to be recovered. He said it still might be located, but the length of time that has passed since the slayings may make that difficult. Dunn said there are detectives still working leads, particularly in the Springfield area. The sheriff declined to say if there was any DNA evidence in the case.
Mitchell and the sheriff credited the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Springfield police and the Greene County Sheriff’s Department with assistance in the investigation.
Private agency
The Globe was contacted by telephone Wednesday before the news conference by a man who identified himself as the executive security consultant for a St. Louis private firm, PDI Investigations. Mike Barbieri said the firm assisted the Sheriff’s Department in solving the murders.
Barbieri said the firm was hired by two cousins in the Sheldon family to look into the murders. Barbieri said investigators developed informants in the area in recent weeks whose information ultimately led to the arrests.
Barbieri correctly identified the two men arrested in the murders before the release of their names by the Sheriff’s Department or the appearance of the charges against them on any court records available on the Internet. He said the firm was in possession of video of Laurin’s arrest Tuesday.
Asked about the matter after the news conference, the sheriff would neither confirm nor deny the private agency’s involvement in the case. He referred all questions along such lines to the prosecutor’s office. Prosecutor Dean Dankelson, who appeared at the news conference to answer reporters’ questions, left at its conclusion and could not be reached for further comment on the matter.
Dunn acknowledged at the news conference that the Sheriff’s Department was under considerable pressure to solve the Sheldon murders, including the expectations of the couple’s family.
“We had to satisfy the family,” he said.
The Sheldons’ sons, Bob and Daniel, and other family members and friends were present at the news conference. Bob Sheldon Jr. expressed relief with the arrests and gratitude for the job done by the Sheriff’s Department.
“Our hats are off to Jasper County,” he said. “Those guys have been bulldogs holding onto this. They’ve done a fantastic job.”
He acknowledged that family members had been scrutinized as possible suspects in the murders and that it was a relief for them to be cleared publicly and to be provided answers to what had happened to their parents.
“That’s just a formality of something like this,” Sheldon said of suspicions they had faced. “Just something you have to go through to be eliminated as suspects.”


Reward
Sheriff Archie Dunn said that anonymous tips his department received in the Sheldon double-murder case, which led to the charging of two suspects Wednesday, did not surface as a consequence of a $40,000 reward raised by the victims’ family.
The sheriff said that does not eliminate the possibility that someone might qualify to receive the reward.

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