Wrongful death lawsuit filed in Osage County double homicide

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Family members of two people killed in July in Osage County have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a double-murder suspect.

The lawsuit filed Friday in Osage County seeks damages for the deaths of Leonard Gerloff, 59, and Pauline Gerloff, 56, who were found dead in July at their Chamois home. Prosecutors charged Warren M. Taylor, 62, with two counts each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. The Gerloffs were shot to death, according to the lawsuit.

Court documents in Taylor's criminal case don't specify a motive in the crime.

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 in Osage County without bond. No hearings are set in his case, according to online court records.