A Grim & Deadly Plot

In September 1993 Charles and Grace Lewis disappeared from their farm outside Bonne Terre, in St Francis County, south-eastern Missouri. Charles was sixty-seven, a retired accountant who had served in the Navy during the Second World War and who was a lay minister at the Cedar Fork Methodist Church. Grace was sixty-two and suffered badly from arthritis, her hands drawn into claws, but she was known for turning up at neighbours' doors with jars of green beans from the farm. They had married in the 1950s and raised three sons and two daughters. Grace had inherited the farm from her family, and for about twenty years the couple used it as a weekend retreat. In 1985 Charles retired from an accounting firm in St Louis and they moved there for good.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Charles fed him, clothed him, let him stay and gave him $20 when he left. this part of the story is covered for now

On 21 September 1993 Grace was on the telephone to her daughter Mary when she said she had to go because she thought she had heard gunshots. It was the start of deer season and gunfire was common there, so the call ended without alarm. In the early afternoon Charles was mowing the lawn. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Grace came out of the front door, was shot several times and had both arms broken, and ran back inside. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

The three wrapped the bodies in a tarp and left them near a shed. details of the account remain covered until revealed They drove to Mary Laming's farm near Old Mines, dug a shallow grave by the barn, put the bodies in, poured concrete over them and piled horse manure on top, then burned the rags they had used to clean the blood in the house. The truck was driven into woods off Highway T in Washington County and burned.

The following evening the Lewises failed to meet one of their daughters for dinner in Farmington. She drove to the farm and found the lights on, the back door unlocked and a pot of beans soaking on the stove, but no sign of her parents. The living-room telephone had been unplugged, Grace's purse with $295 in cash and her prescriptions was still on the table, and the truck, the root beer, two gas cans, a VCR and spare keys were missing. Police and volunteers searched the whole 460-acre farm and a helicopter searched from the air, but torrential rain had washed away any tracks. Six weeks later a man scouting for deer found the burned pickup about 200 yards off Highway T between Highway A and Route 185 in Washington County, roughly 75 miles south-west of St Louis and 30 miles north-west of the farm. At Christmas the family put up a tree and tied a yellow ribbon to the gate.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He said the brothers had given him the VCR the day after the murders and that he had sold it to a pawn shop about eight months later. He also told them where the bodies were. Police went to Mary Laming's farm and found Charles and Grace in the shallow grave under the concrete and manure. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed He did not testify, and his recorded statement was played. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed His last meal was a bacon cheeseburger, onion rings and a slice of pecan pie. Charles and Grace Lewis are buried together at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St Louis.