DOUGLAS COUNTY, Mo. (TCD) — Three men were arrested this week in a major break for a cold case that has gone unsolved for 35 years.
Douglas County Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Weatherman announced Wednesday, Feb. 21, that a grand jury returned indictments against Bobby Banks Sr., his brother Leonard Banks, and Wiley Belt on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and forcible rape in connection with the disappearance and death of 24-year-old Kelle Workman. The three men are in custody and are being held on $250,000 bond cash.
Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase said the three suspects have “been at the top of the list since the beginning” of the investigation.
Weatherman explained someone came forward recently with information that helped lead to the arrests and indictments. Several witnesses and law enforcement officials will reportedly testify at their trial, which Weatherman hopes will occur sooner rather than later. Weatherman’s office will be filing for a speedy trial.
“We’re not messing around with this,” he said at the press conference. “We’re gonna go ahead and get this in front of a jury as fast as the judge and the courts will let us.”
Workman disappeared on the late afternoon of June 30, 1989, from a cemetery where she had been working. When Workman failed to return home that evening, her family grew concerned and started a search party. Weatherman said law enforcement “became aware quickly that this was not normal.”
Her body was discovered eight days later in a national forest in Christian County.
According to KYTV-TV, Workman had been mowing the lawn at the cemetery the day she disappeared. Her family reportedly found the lawn mower in a church parking lot and the keys still inside her car. Her body was located about 10 miles away.
Workman’s family released a statement to KYTV thanking the investigators for their years of “dogged” work.
They wrote, “We cannot overstate how much we owe all of you, not only for the results that are heading toward the application for justice for Kelle but also for providing a salve for an emotional wound that has been festering for the better part of 35 years.”
Officials said at the press conference that the person who came forward with the information had spoken with law enforcement in the past, but was never considered a person of interest.
Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole said, “Sometimes it’s just the smallest of pieces that you need to fit the puzzle together to complete it. It’s exactly what we needed and have needed for a long time.”
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