Elderly Mid-MO Couple Murdered
***UPDATE TUESDAY 4:45 P.M.***Morgan County Sheriff Jim Petty is expected to brief the media on the latest developments in the murder case on Thursday. Ronald Blowers, 25, of Stover was charged Wednesday for resisting arrest and creating a substantial risk of serious injury or death. Blowers is being held on $1 million dollars bond. Authorities say he was involved in a suspicious car accident 6:15 the night of the murders. According to Missouri State Highway Patrol, Blowers crashed his car at Ivy Bend Road and Hillview Road. The intersection is just blocks away from the victims’ home.ABC 17 News has also learned Blowers recently got out of prison and has a criminal history of drugs and burglaries. He is currently out on parole. The sheriff is not ruling Blowers out as a suspect yet. Blowers is being transported back to the sheriff’s office to be questioned.”We’re just talking to anyone and everyone and just trying to put the pieces together.,” said Sheriff Jim Petty. “I think we’ll know more about that tomorrow sometime. We will be reconvening at 9 a.m. tomorrow.”***ORIGINAL STORY***The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office identified an elderly couple who were found dead in their home Tuesday morning.Officials say 82-year-old Wayne L. Wells and 71-year-old Mable “Mae” I. Wells were found in their home Tuesday in a home in Ivy Bend, south of the Morgan County town of Stover.According to the Sheriff’s Office, a neighbor called 911 after finding Mae Wells in a pool of blood around 11 a.m. Tuesday. Deputies found Wayne Wells in another room. Mae was shot once while Wayne, who was wheelchair-bound, was shot twice in the head.The sheriff says a door had been forced open and the lights were on in the home. Authorities believe the murders happened between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Monday. A neighbor reported hearing her dogs bark around 6 p.m.The bodies were transported to Jefferson City for an autopsy Wednesday morning.Morgan County Sheriff’s deputies, the Mid-Missouri Drug Task Force and the Missouri State Highway Patrol are investigating the murders.Anyone with information is asked to call authorities at 573-378-5481.Morgan County Sheriff Jim Petty says deputies responded to a separate incident Tuesday around 5 p.m. A man informed authorities his handgun had been stolen last week from his home, about one mile away from the murder location. Deputies and troopers found the man’s neighbor, a male in his mid-20s, outside and yelling with a knife. The neighbor had stabbed himself.After a brief standoff with authorities, he was arrested and transported to University Hospital for non-life threatening wounds. The sheriff says there is no connection yet to the murders.
