Tip to Police Leads to Arrests of Three Men in 1989 Murder in Missouri

U.S.|Tip to Police Leads to Arrest of 3 Men in 1989 Rape and Murder in Missouri https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/us/kelle-ann-workman-cold-case.html You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Kelle Ann Workman went missing on June 30, 1989, and was found dead […]

Tip to Police Leads to Arrests of Three Men in 1989 Murder in Missouri

Tip to Police Leads to Arrests of Three Men in 1989 Murder in Missouri thumbnail

U.S.|Tip to Police Leads to Arrest of 3 Men in 1989 Rape and Murder in Missouri

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/us/kelle-ann-workman-cold-case.html

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

Kelle Ann Workman went missing on June 30, 1989, and was found dead eight days later. Her sister had long believed that two of the suspects were behind the killing.

A sheriff flanked by other law enforcement officials at a news conference.
Sheriff Chris Degase of Douglas County, Mo., at a news conference on Wednesday, where he announced the arrests of three people in the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of Kelle Ann Workman.Credit…Nathan Papes/The Springfield News-Leader, via Associated Press

Jesus Jiménez

For more than three decades, Pam Workman had suspected who killed her sister, Kelle Ann Workman, who went missing on June 30, 1989, and whose body was found eight days later in a forest in rural Missouri.

Despite her suspicions, the police had not been able to arrest someone in the case — until this week.

Someone recently came forward with information about the crime, leading to the arrest of three men in connection with the kidnapping, rape and murder of Ms. Workman, 24, the authorities said at a news conference on Wednesday in Douglas County, Mo.

The men — Bobby Lee Banks, 65, of Seymour, Mo.; Leonard Banks, 64, of Gainesville, Mo.; and Wiley Belt, 64, of Ava, Mo. — were each charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and forcible rape, the authorities said.

In an interview on Friday, Pam Workman said she had long believed that Bobby Lee Banks and Leonard Banks, who are brothers, were involved in the crime.


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