By The newspaper
Feb 22, 2024, 11:43 PM EST
Authorities have solved the cold case of Kelle Ann Workman, a Missouri woman who disappeared in 1989 while mowing grass at a rural cemetery.
Workman, 24 years old at the time of her disappearance, was found dead in a creek 10 miles away a week later, the Associated Press reports.
For more than three decades, her case remained unsolved until this week, when three men were arrested and charged with first-degree murder, forcible rape and first-degree kidnapping.
The arrests were announced at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, near where Workman disappeared, marking a significant moment in the long-unsolved case, People reports.
Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase expressed hope that the arrests would provide justice for Kelle and closure for his family, and stressed the importance of holding perpetrators accountable.
The suspects, Wiley Belt and brothers Leonard “Dwight” Banks and Bobby Lee Banks, were identified early in the investigation but have escaped conviction until now.
Historical reporting from The Springfield News Ledger reveals that Bobby Lee Banks had previously failed a polygraph test related to the case and lacked an alibi for the night Workman disappeared.
Attempts to link Dwight Banks to the crime through DNA testing in 1999 yielded no definitive results.
Workman, described as a quiet person who lived with her parents at the time of her death, was known in her community for her work maintaining the grounds of Dogwood Cemetery.
Held on $250,000 cash-only bail, the three men now face the prospect of justice decades after Workman’s tragic death.
Douglas County Prosecutor Matthew Weatherman highlighted the strength of the new evidence presented, suggesting a solid basis for prosecuting a case that has remained unsolved since 1989.
Unresolved cases “resolved” in the US
This is not the only case of “unsolved” cases that ended up being resolved after several years.
In December 2023, modern forensic evidence solved a nearly 30-year-old homicide case in Jerome, Idaho, linking Danny Lee Kennison to the brutal 1995 murder of his former neighbor, Wilma Mobley.
At that time, authorities announced that Danny Lee Kennison, who died in 2001, was identified as the attacker in the brutal murder of 84-year-old Wilma Mobley on August 10, 1995.
In another similar case, nearly 24 years after a chained body was found at the bottom of a lake in western Kentucky, advanced forensic testing identified the remains as Roger Dale Parham, a fugitive wanted by the FBI.
Parham was a fugitive wanted by the agency since the late 1990s. His body was discovered by fishermen in Lake Barkley, wrapped in heavy tire chains and anchored to the bottom of the lake.
Keep reading:
· DNA found in the murderer’s underwear, solves a murder in Idaho that occurred in 1995
· Woman murdered 44 years ago, identified as a young woman from Ohio who was looking for her father and died trying
· They identify the body of a man found in a Kentucky lake: he was a fugitive wanted by the FBI since 1999