October 14, 2008 09:48 pm
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By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Any hope of the brutal murders of an elderly couple who lived near Carthage being solved within the first 48 hours passed Tuesday with the Jasper County sheriff acknowledging little progress in the case.
Sheriff Archie Dunn said at a news conference Tuesday morning that autopsies were being conducted in Columbia on the bodies of Robert Charles Sheldon, 70, and Ellen Louise Sheldon, 71.
The Sheldons were found slain inside their home at 160 N. Black Powder Lane on Sunday morning in a manner that Dunn described as “horrible” at the news conference. But the sheriff again declined to say how they were killed.
“We’re coming up with a few leads, and we’re checking them out as they come up,” Dunn told the Globe by telephone later in the day.
He acknowledged that investigators have yet to develop a clear suspect. He said a vehicle of interest that was spotted pulling into the Sheldons’ driveway on Saturday night when they were last known to be alive and its driver have been identified by investigators and ruled out as pertinent to the investigation.
“It was not involved,” the sheriff said.
Robert Sheldon was a reserve officer with the Sheriff’s Department for the past 25 years. The couple operated a gun and archery business known as the Old Cabin Shop on their property. The sheriff has declined to say if there were signs of a break-in at either their home or the shop.
Background
The couple on Saturday attended a Fairview Christian Church function in Carthage and are believed to have returned home sometime between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Their bodies were discovered by a son, Daniel Sheldon, about 11 a.m. the next day after they failed to show up for a Sunday morning church service.
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