JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) - A southwest Missouri man is expected to be arraigned later this week on charges that he killed a 61-year-old woman and dumped her body into a water-filled mine shaft.
Todd Greathouse, 53, of Webb City, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 29 strangulation death of Willanna Dunn, who rented a home from him in Joplin.
A probable-cause statement filed in Jasper County Circuit Court on Monday says Greathouse got into an argument with Dunn at the home she was renting from him and he choked her until she lost consciousness, the Joplin Globe (https://bit.ly/215VUnF ) reported.
Greathouse made sure the woman was dead by strangling her with a cord from a lamp, the affidavit says.
He stuffed her body into the trunk of his Volkswagen Beetle and drove to a property outside of Joplin owned by the operator of Hillbilly Pumping and Hauling, where Greathouse worked part time, investigators said.
He used wire and weed cutter cord to tie her to a rock, the affidavit says, and dropped her body into an abandoned mine shaft. Searchers retrieved the body on the night of June 1.
“She was very deep down there,” police Capt. Bob Higginbotham said. “We couldn’t get her out and had to have divers go in to get her.”
Greathouse came under suspicion when he and his wife failed to tell police, who came to their Webb City home looking for Dunn on May 29, that she was living in a house they owned.
A day later, the Greathouses went to the police station in Joplin to report they had been to Dunn’s house and were concerned that she had left the dogs alone.
The following day, May 31, Joplin police arrested Greathouse on a warrant for failure to appear on a misdemeanor marijuana charge. He was questioned again about Dunn’s disappearance, Higginbotham said.
Investigators went to his employer’s property on June 1 and had noted several “things of interest” on the property by the time the owner decided to revoke the consent to search that his wife had granted.
After obtaining a search warrant, investigators returned to the site with assistance of city firefighters, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Jasper County sheriff’s deputies and the 4 State Search and Rescue group’s cadaver dogs.
Greathouse is scheduled for arraignment on Thursday, when prosecutors say it’s likely he will request and be appointed a public defender.
He was in custody Tuesday, and a phone number for his household could not be found.
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Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, https://www.joplinglobe.com
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