Documents: Witness helped identify Osage County double-murder suspect

LINN, Mo. (KMIZ)

A person driving by an Osage County double-murder murder scene Friday helped investigators find a suspect in the killings, according to charging documents filed Sunday.

Prosecutors charged Warren M. Taylor, 62, with two counts each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the deaths of Leonard Gerloff, 59, and Pauline Gerloff, 56, at their Chamois home. Authorities were called to the address Saturday afternoon and found Pauline Gerloff with an apparent gunshot wound to the head and Leonard Gerloff lying face down with blood on his body and clothes, according to a probable cause statement.

Investigators viewed surveillance video from a neighboring home that showed a red pickup truck pulling up to the house then quickly leave the night before, the documents say. A witness who was driving by with her mother at the time told investigators that she saw the truck and Taylor was driving, according to the documents.

Investigators say they found Taylor and the truck, which had blood on it, at a Chamois bar. Taylor told investigators that he was at the bar at the time of the killings but two witnesses said they saw him leaving the bar just before the time of the deadly encounter, according to the probable cause statement.

Taylor was jailed without bond. No lawyer was listed in online court records.