Columbia homicide victim owned Mid-Missouri businesses

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The victim of what police are calling a suspicious death in Columbia this week previously owned businesses in the area.

ABC 17 News discovered James Hundle, 52, owned Ruckus Bar and Grill and Splasher's Laundromat in Columbia for several years. Both businesses have since changed hands, but one former employee of Hundle's remembered him as a good boss that enjoyed having fun.

"I couldn't imagine it being something that they were upset with him about," Craig Maxey, a former worker at Ruckus Bar and Grill, said.

Police are now investigating who may have killed Hundle at his Marble Cedars Drive home. The department said it found Hundle dead after someone asked police to check on him Wednesday around 11:30 a.m. The Columbia Police Department told ABC 17 News that Hundle was found with a gunshot wound.

Police requested information from Tiger Security Services on Thursday, according to a subpoena obtained by ABC 17 News. The request asks the company for "all sensor activations, arm and disarm of the security system" from Oct. 6 to Oct. 14.

Craig Maxey worked as a DJ for Ruckus Bar and Grill for several years. He said Hundle was a fun person who looked out for people who worked at and helped the bar on Business Loop 70. Business records show Ruckus folded in April 2020.

"If you didn't know James, that's sad," Maxey said. "You know, you missed out on a really great person. He was a very fun person, he was a very outgoing person."

Hundle also owned Splasher's Laundromat on Paris Road under Hundle Enterprises, LLC. The business is now The Wash House, which took over in July 2020.

Hundle supplemented that work as a business owner with his job at the University of Missouri. State records show Hundle made an annual salary of $108,480 as an "administrative consultant" in the 2019-2020 state manual. An online profile lists him as an assistant to the dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. A university spokesman said Hundle began his employment at MU in 1999.