Douglas County Sheriff’s Department
The Missouri woman had last been seen mowing the lawn at a rural cemetery on a summer evening in 1989.
A week later, Kelle Ann Workman’s body was found in a creek some 10 miles away.
The 24-year-old’s death went unsolved for more than three decades.
But this week, authorities announced that three men had been arrested and indicted on charges of first-degree murder, forcible rape and first-degree kidnapping,the Associated Press reports.
Douglas County Missouri Sheriff/Facebook
“I think we’re able to give Kelle some justice and hopefully give the family some closure, knowing that these guys are not here running around and simply getting away with it,” Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase said at the press conference, per the AP.
Leonard “Dwight” Banks in mugshot.Douglas County Sheriff’s Department
Nine years later, perThe Springfield News Ledger’s archived reporting, the Missouri Highway Patrol Crime Lab issued a warrant for Dwight – as well as another man – seeking DNA evidence allegedly connecting him to the killing, but the tests did not yield conclusive findings.
Wiley Belt in mugshot.Douglas County Sheriff’s Department
The newspaper described Workman as a quiet woman who was living with her parents at the time of her death. The young woman was known for doing house and yard work for residents near Dogwood Cemetery, where she had mowed the grass for about three years before her June 30, 1989 disappearance, per the newspaper’s archival reporting.
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Douglas County Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Weatherman said at the press conference, per the AP, that the person who had stepped forward had brought authorities “rock-solid” information.
“It’s as good as a 1989 case can ever be,” he added of the case.
source: people.com
