Moniteau County working with Cole County on remains investigation

The Moniteau County Sheriff’s Office is working with Cole County on its investigation of the remains found Thursday, Sheriff Tony Wheatley says.

An inmate told a Cole County detective on Wednesday that he knew where a body was buried after the person was shot and killed, according to court documents filed over the weekend. Authorities searched a home in the 2700 block of Bess Hill Road, and a cadaver dog alerted them to human remains in the area.

The inmate told police he helped Sandy Ray Gallaspie, 58, bury Jon Williams’ body after Gallaspie shot Williams in the chest and drug him from a car that was driven by Williams’ ex-wife, Suzanne J. Ponder, court documents said.

Wheatley said the office is waiting for identification of the remains, but he believes the remains could belong to Williams, who went missing in November 2015.

“As soon as I’d seen that Suzanne had been arrested, I pretty much knew what it was about,” said Sarah Williams, Jon Williams’ daughter.

She said her father and Ponder had been together for as long as she could remember.

Ponder was charged with abandonment of a corpse on Saturday.

“Growing up living with her, being around her all the time, I definitely never thought that that was something that would have ever happened,” Sarah Williams said.

Sarah Williams said Ponder “started acting really weird” after Jon Williams went missing. “She kind of just distanced herself from our whole family.”

About a year before her father’s disappearance, Sarah Williams said Ponder and her father had broken up, and Ponder had began dating Sandy Gallaspie.

Gallaspie is facing at least three warrants for his arrest related to three separate criminal cases in Cole and Callaway counties, according to online court records. The Callaway County Sheriff’s Office suspects Gallaspie for break-ins at Callaway County FencePro and a garage near New Bloomfield in 2017. The Jefferson City Police Department accused Gallaspie of receiving stolen property when he allegedly took a stolen chainsaw and climbing equipment from another person that same year.

Gallaspie has not yet been charged in the case, according to online court records. Cole County Sheriff John Wheeler said more charges are expected to be filed in the case.

But Sarah Williams said she is “certain” the remains have to be her father.

“It’s been very emotional,” she said. “Just not knowing where he was and not knowing if he just ran off and just kind of left us all or if something had happened. It was just very emotional because sometimes we would just kind of feel mad at him because he was gone.”