Man with Mid-Missouri crime ties dies in Texas prison
ABC 17 News confirmed Wednesday a Mid-Missouri man with links to organized crime is now dead.
58-year-old Wayne Jaegers died last week at a prison in Texarkana, Texas.
Jaegers lived in Bonnots Mill, about 30 minutes east of Jefferson City in Osage County. He was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for racketeering charges including robbery, arson, and murder.
Investigators believe he was a part of a gang that defrauded people, led by Bobby Rohrer of Columbia. Jaegers guilty plea lists at least three scams, involving drugs, diamonds and alleged Mafia money.
According to the 2004 plea, Rohrer and Jaegers led at least two victims to Jaegers’ turkey farm in Bonnots Mill. Ricky Simpson of Columbia first went missing in 1998, when the plea said he went to Jaegers’ farm to buy more than 100 pounds of marijuana. When he got there, Henry Rehmert, Sr. killed him by shooting him with a shotgun. The group then chopped up the body and dumped it into the Missouri River.
Federal authorities became involved with the case after the disappearance of Sheri Montague in the summer of 1999. The plea said Montague was also killed at Jaegers’ farm, after a sham investment into Rohrer’s claims of a raw diamond investment. Rehmert also killed Montague the same way, with her body dumped into the Missouri River.
Jaegers expressed his remorse at his sentencing hearing in 2005, his lawyer pinning his involvement on Rohrer’s manipulation.
“I would like to tell the Simpsons and the Montague family that I am truly very sorry, and I have a hope that some day that they can forgive me,” Jaegers said. “There is not a day goes by that I don’t think of Ricky and [Sheri], and it has, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life. I’m sorry. Thank you.”
Both Rohrer and Rehmert pleaded guilty for their parts of the conspiracy. Rohrer is serving a 29-year sentence, while Rehmert, Sr. received a 27-year term.
