Third murder suspect arrested in Columbia drug overdose

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The third and final suspect in a Columbia drug overdose murder case from 2021 was arrested last week.

Jonathan G. Shelley, 31, of Columbia, turned himself in at the Boone County Sheriff's Office and was booked Friday, according to jail records and a department spokesman. He was being held Monday on a $200,000 bond.

Shelley was charged with second-degree murder and drug distribution in May in connection with the Dec. 26, 2021, overdose death of a person whose name is redacted in court documents. The address of the residence where the person who overdosed was found is also redacted, but a search warrant identified the residence as a duplex on Westwind Drive in northwest Columbia.

Shelley's address in court records is an apartment on Westwind Drive.

A probable cause statement says Shelley was with the overdose victim, whom police found lying unresponsive in a bathtub.

The statement cites a witness saying she and the victim smoked crack and snorted fentanyl. The medical examiner says the death was caused by acute fentanyl intoxication.

Shelley was scheduled for an initial court appearance Monday afternoon.

Hovis was arrested in July and Grathwohl was arrested in May.