Cole County murder suspect tied to unsolved 2005 Fulton killing
FULTON, Mo. (KMIZ)
A man accused of killing a teenager in a 1991 Cole County case was also tied to 2005 Fulton killing that remains unsolved.
Authorities considered William "Chris" Niemet a person of interest at one point in the death of Shawnda Slote Reed in 2005. Police found Reed dead from a gunshot wound in her home on Tanglewood Way.
Cole County prosecutors charged Niemet on Thursday for the killing of Greg Jones in 1991. Jones' body was found in June 1991 in Russellville.
The Fulton police chief said the new charges will prompt the department to compare notes with the Cole County Sheriff's Office between the two cases.
"We'll be looking at some of the people they've interviewed to see if there may be some of the same people we've interviewed, and I don't that there is or not, but just to compare their notes with our notes at that time," said Police Chief Steve Myers.
Myers said despite the time that has passed he is confident the case will be solved one day. He said changes in technology could help crack the case.
"You re-submit evidence sometimes and there's technology today that may not have been available then that helps solve these types of cases," he said.
Court documents obtained by ABC 17 News show that Niemet collected a $150,000 life insurance policy made out to him when Reed died. Reed made out the policy and another $150,000 policy to the mortgage holders on the home in order to pay for it, according to those documents.
Reed's family sued Liberty Life Insurance after her death, claiming the company was negligent in paying the policy out to Niemet. The family claimed Niemet, his business partner James Karnes and Reed's husband, John Reed, conspired to kill her.
The lawsuit was eventually settled for $100,000. Reed's mother, Judith Slote, and Reed's three children split the money from the settlement.
American Life Insurance of New York also filed a federal lawsuit following Reed's death before paying the second insurance policy. The lawsuit claims Fulton police called them claiming Niemet, Karnes and John Reed were persons of interest in Shawnda Reed's death. The parties settled that lawsuit for $150,000, split between Karnes, John Reed and Shawnda Reed's children.
Check back for updates to this developing story and watch ABC 17 News at 10.
