THE WIFE AND stepson of a Ku Klux Klan leader found shot dead next to a river in eastern Missouri were charged in relation to his death.
Malissa Ann Ancona, 44, and her 24-year-old son, Paul Edward Jinkerson Jr, were charged with first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse in the death of Frank Ancona.
A probable cause statement alleges that Jinkerson shot his 51-year-old stepfather as he slept at his home in Leadwood, about 70 miles south of St Louis, Missouri.
Jinkerson’s attorney, Eric Barnhart, said he didn’t believe his client was involved in the killing, but he declined to comment further. It wasn’t immediately clear if Malissa Ancona had an attorney.
A family that was fishing in the Big River found Frank Ancona’s body on Saturday. An autopsy revealed that he died of a gunshot to the head.
Ancona called himself an imperial wizard with the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. A website for the group includes an image of him in a white hood and robe standing in front of a burning cross. The website describes the group as a “White patriotic christian organisation that bases its roots back to the Ku Klux Klan of the early 20th century.”
The Park Hills Daily Journal said investigators placed yellow police tape around his home in Leadwood on Saturday, believing he was killed there. His safe had been broken into and the contents removed. Several of his guns were missing, police told the Daily Journal.
Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen said a U.S. Forest Service employee found Ancona’s car Thursday on a service road near Potosi, about 30 miles from where his body was eventually found. He was reported missing on Friday after his employer told Leadwood police that he hadn’t shown up for work for two days.
Investigators found evidence of a burn pile near Ancona’s abandoned vehicle, Jacobsen said.
Prior to the discovery of the body, Malissa Ancona told police her husband had left the state on a delivery job. She said he planned to file for divorce when he returned.
Investigators said Malissa tried to destroy blood evidence and altered the crime scene in an effort to conceal the killing, the Daily Journal reported. Investigators said she was acting with her son.
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