KANSAS CITY (AP) — A northwest Missouri man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the death of a woman who was scheduled to testify against him.
Jeremiah Searles,39, of Denver, Missouri, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of Melissa Chapman, 42. She was missing for about three weeks before her body was found Sept. 14 in Grant City.
Searles admitted killing Chapman by hitting her in the head with a cinder block, according to a news release from Worth County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to court records, Chapman was scheduled to testify against Searles, who faced kidnapping, domestic assault and abuse/neglect of a child charges.
On Thursday, Kimberly Henry-Tinkle, 50, of Grant City, was charged with two felony charges of hindering prosecution, abandonment of a corpse without notifying authorities, and tampering with physical evidence in connection to Chapman’s murder, the prosecutor said.