A person has been discovered responsible within the loss of life of a girl whose stays had been discovered within a duffel bag alongside a rural northwest Missouri street virtually two weeks after she used to be killed at a Kansas Town resort.
Marcus Brooks used to be convicted Thursday of first-degree homicide within the loss of life of 21-year-old Ariel Starcher, a mom of 2 from Independence, The St. Joseph Information-Press studies.
A Missouri Transportation Division employee discovered the bag with Starcher’s frame within it in February 2020 round 45 miles north of Kansas Town. She had died of suffocation, and in addition suffered a damaged neck.
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Key testimony towards him got here from Taylor Stoughton, who pleaded responsible closing yr to second-degree homicide, as Brooks’ associate. She and Brooks had been arrested a yr after the killing.
On the time, Starcher’s grandfather, Jim Starcher, informed WDAF-TV that his granddaughter knew Brooks and also known as him for rides. Her buddies had made the circle of relatives frightened, he informed The Kansas Town Superstar.
“I at all times fearful about her, the existence she used to be going thru,” he informed The Kansas Town Superstar. “She used to be looking to exchange her existence, get her existence straightened out. However it’s only one step ahead and 4 steps again.”
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The protection argued that Stoughton used to be the only to suffocate and bind Starcher. Brooks mentioned he used to be within the bathe on the time and simplest helped do away with the frame. Particular Public Defender Steven Willibey additionally wondered Stoughton’s testimony, noting {that a} plea settlement shortens her possible sentence.
However Buchanan County Prosecuting Lawyer Michelle Davidson mentioned Brooks’ DNA used to be discovered beneath Starcher’s fingernails and that one used to be torn, suggesting she have been killed looking to battle off her attacker.
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Stoughton might be sentenced Nov. 20 and Brooks on Dec. 21.