Man gets life sentence, discharge from Army for Ft. Leonard Wood murder

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A former Army specialist received a life sentence on Friday for killing a sergeant at Fort Leonard Wood.

A military judge sentenced Wooster Rancy to life in prison without parole. A jury found him guilty on Wednesday of murder and obstruction of justice for the killing of Sgt. Sarah Roque in 2024 at the base in Pulaski County. The judge demoted Rancy to private, ordered he forfeit all pay and benefits and that he be dishonorably discharged from the Army.

Rancy was tried by military prosecutors off-base at the Pulaski County Courthouse during a two-week trial. Army trial counsel spokesperson Michelle McCaskill said cellphone location data showed Rancy and Roque together at Roque's apartment on the morning of Oct. 20, 2024. Rancy had purchased heavy-duty trash bags and zip ties that morning. Rancy's phone, McCaskill said, showed he searched “how long it takes for a garbage bag to end up in a landfill."

McCaskill said a witness testified at trial that they found Roque's cellphone while dumpster diving.

Investigators also found a bullet lodged into a banana in Roque's apartment and a gun in Rancy's off-base apartment. Firearm forensic testing connected that bullet to the gun.

“The collaborative work of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri, and the Fort Leonard Wood Department of Emergency Services, enhanced by expert analysis from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, was essential to achieving this outcome," prosecutor Lt. Col. John Haberland said in an emailed statement. "Effective coordination between all agencies is what brought about this just result.”