A man is dead after a rollover crash on Highway 54 near Wheatland.
The Highway Patrol says a pickup truck driven by 38-year-old Ronald Kinney of Wheatland skidded across the centerline, ran off the road, striking a fence, and rolled over several times before coming to a rest.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Camden County Sheriff’s Deputies have three people in custody for allegedly stealing from homes near Porta Cima.
Investigators say they received calls beginning Tuesday, November 28, about suspicious activity in the area.
Later, on November 29, reports came in about flashlights being seen around homes in the Porta Cima area.
Deputies responded and arrested Heather Owens, Dustin Matthews, and Kyle Schutten.
They are each charged with possession of a controlled substance.
Owens is additionally charged with receiving stolen property, Matthews with driving on a suspended license, and Schutten with possession of stolen tools.
All three suspects are being held in the Camden County Adult Detention Facility on bond.
A woman from Republic is dead following a house fire over the weekend.
Investigators say the fire started Sunday night along Moonlight Street near Hines, where they believe smoking near an oxygen source in the home started the blaze.
The flames did minor damage to the home. Officials discovered there were no working smoke detectors in the house.
Firefighters located at 73-year-old woman inside the house and transported her to a local hospital, where she died of her injuries on Wednesday.
Her identity is known, but has not yet been released to the public.
A new study rates Springfield as the most expensive city for heating a home.
The survey by “HVAC Gnomes” covered the 500 largest cities in the country.
Ratings were based on energy costs, cost inflators, and lack of energy efficiency, as well as average monthly electric and gas bills, periods of extreme cold, the average size of homes, and residential energy efficiency code adoption.
All lanes are now open on the newly widened portion of Republic Road just East of the Campbell Avenue intersection as the road-widening project continues to progress West.
The final phase of the project will expand Republic to five lanes between the traffic signal at Chase through the Campbell intersection to Fairview Avenue.
Construction is expected to last through the end of the Winter.
A man is dead after a bicycle accident in Barry County.
The Highway Patrol says 30-year-old James Fogarty of Washburn was stuck by a tractor trailer on Highway 37.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A man has been sentenced to time in prison for drug trafficking.
A Department of Justice news release says 26-year-old Jevn Todd Griffitt of Ozark was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in federal prison without parole after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and one count of possessing meth with intent to distribute.
He also must pay the government over $15,000-dollars.
Griffitt conspired with two other people to distribute drugs from May to November of 2019.
Here is the full news release with more details from the U.S Department of Justice:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Ozark, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
Jevn Todd Griffitt, 26, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark to 16 years and eight months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Griffitt to forfeit to the government $15,324, which represents the proceeds he obtained from the drug-trafficking conspiracy.
On Jan. 10, 2023, Griffitt pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and one count of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. Griffitt conspired with co-defendants Christopher Richard Ward, 45, of Kansas City, Mo., and Paris Ready, 29, of Sperry, Oklahoma, to distribute methamphetamine from May 2 to Nov. 7, 2019.
Griffitt admitted that he purchased approximately 1.2 kilograms of methamphetamine from Ward for $8,000 on Sept. 14, 2019. Griffitt also admitted that he sold firearms to Ward.
On Oct. 29, 2019, Griffitt sold a Beretta Stoeger Cougar 9mm handgun to an undercover officer, whom he met in Ozark, for $300. Detectives with the Springfield, Mo., Police Department identified Griffitt as a passenger in a Chevrolet Silverado on Oct. 31, 2019, and Greene County, Mo., sheriff’s deputies attempted to conduct a stop on Interstate 44. The Silverado fled and deputies pursued the vehicle into the Springfield city limits. The Silverado began travelling in the opposite direction of traffic and the pursuit was terminated. The Silverado was located after it was abandoned a short time later.
Throughout the pursuit, deputies saw Griffitt throwing purported methamphetamine out of the front passenger’s window. Investigators recovered approximately 238 grams of methamphetamine from the roadway along the course of the vehicle pursuit. Officers found a blue nylon bag on the front passenger floorboard of the Silverado that contained an AR-15 magazine and other ammunition, miscellaneous AR-15 parts, an AR-15 armorers kit, drug paraphernalia, and $74 in cash. Approximately 12 grams of methamphetamine was found on the front passenger floorboard and approximately 88 grams of methamphetamine was scattered throughout the truck and on the ground leading away from the front passenger’s seat.
Ward was arrested on an outstanding state warrant by Jackson County, Mo., sheriff’s deputies on Sept. 30, 2019. During the arrest, Ward attempted to flee from the deputies on foot but tripped and fell, which caused a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun to fall onto the ground. On the same day, the staff at a local hotel where Ward was staying found a black zippered case while cleaning his room. The case contained six plastic baggies with a total of 239 grams of methamphetamine. The case also contained a plastic bag with .9 grams of heroin.
Ward told investigators that he had purchased one pound (approximately 453.5 grams) of methamphetamine from his source two to three times each week for approximately one month. Ward said he sold Griffit a kilogram of methamphetamine two or three times, and that Griffitt had provided him with three firearms. Ward said he traded one-half ounce of methamphetamine to Griffitt for the Sig Sauer 9mm handgun he possessed when he was arrested. Ward also admitted to several other instances in which he sold methamphetamine.
Both Ward and Ready pleaded guilty to their roles in the drug-trafficking conspiracy and have been sentenced. Ward was sentenced on Nov. 9, 2023, to 12 years and seven months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Ward to forfeit to the government $39,960, which represents the proceeds he obtained from the drug-trafficking conspiracy. Ready was sentenced on April 18, 2023, to five years in federal prison without parole.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Alford. It was investigated by the Jackson County Drug Task Force.
A man from Springfield and a woman from Branson are in custody in Douglas County for allegedly stealing trucks.
Investigators say 43-year-old Nathan Rogers and 48-year-old Arneelia Cox stole a U-Haul truck, as well as a Chevy pickup on November 23.
Both trucks were eventually located in the Goodhope area November 27, along with stolen tools and a handgun that was also reported stolen.
Deputies later found syringes inside the vehicles that turned up positive for meth during a field test.
Prosecutors say Rogers and Cox have nearly 40 criminal convictions between the two of them.
Both suspects are charged with:
Rogers is facing an additional charge of stealing a firearm.
Officials with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department say that flu cases are down so far this year compared to 2022.
Kendra Findley, Administrator of Communicable Diseases, reports that last week the area saw 61 reported cases of influenza. During the same week last year, 479 were reported.
She believes that a different strain of the flu virus could be a key reason for the drop in cases.
The best case for prevention, according to the department, is to get your annual flu shot as the strongest line of the defense. They also recommend frequently washing your hands with soap and water.
Three women in Christian County have been sentenced to probation for taking part in a prescription drug kickback conspiracy.
The three worked at Ozark Community Hospital- Christian County Clinic.
Susan Morris, Amber Moeschler, and Lily Nguyen admitted they helped Doctor Randall Halley take more than 100 thousand dollars in bribes to overprescribe the opiod Subsys.
Halley was sentenced in 2022 to a year and a day in prison for leading the conspiracy.