A sexual offender will be committed to a secure mental health facility, Hawley announces

Attorney General Josh Hawley announced on Thursday that Jamie McPherson, 71, was committed to a secure mental health facility.

Hawley said McPherson has a decades-long history of molesting prepubescent boys and girls and admitted to having more than 100 child victims.

McPherson often met his victims through his job as a postman in Lexington, Missouri. He retired and relocated to Independence, where he used his role as a deacon in his church and a Boy Scout leader to lure young boys into his home.

At one point, McPherson was arrested, and investigations revealed a half-dozen boys were sodomized, including a special needs child.

This year, it appeared McPherson would be released into the community, but Hawley’s office filed a suit to instead commit him to a secure mental health facility.

“Those who abuse Missouri’s most vulnerable citizens will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Hawley said. “This commitment is necessary because of Mr. McPherson’s substantial history of repeated abuse and his failure to complete sex offender treatment. Jackson County is safer because of this commitment.”

McPherson will remain in a secure facility under the care of the Department of Mental Health until such time as he is safe to be at large.