Murder suspect indicted

A Novinger woman is in jail on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in conjunction with the shooting death of Melvin Griesbauer more than two years ago.

Elain Kay Young of Novinger, Mo., was arrested Monday after being indicted by an Adair County Grand Jury. The 53-year-old currently is in the Adair County Detention Center on a $2.5 million cash-only bond and, if convicted, could serve life in prison without parole or receive the death penalty.

Responding to a 911 call of a reported suicide March 23, 2006, Adair County Sheriff's Deputies found Griesbauer dead outside his and Young's home just outside of Novinger. He had died from a single gunshot wound to the head from a .30-caliber Winchester lever-action rifle.

Larry Logston, Adair County deputy sheriff, said the deputies quickly determined that Griesbauer's death probably wasn't a suicide.

"Typically in a suicide, the body falls one way, just through training and experience, and the gun falls a certain way," Logston said. "It shouldn't fall parallel to the body. A lot of things just pretty quickly came up fishy."

Adair County Coroner Brian Noe said that after he conducted the autopsy on Griesbauer, he determined the death was not a suicide.

"There were things that made us believe that it was not self-inflicted, that we were told at the beginning was what transpired," Noe said.

Authorities arrested Katherine Mock of Cassville, Mo., in connection with Griesbauer's death, but Logston said many community members thought Young also was in on the crime.

"Most people around Novinger that know [Young] and have dealt with [Young] were convinced she did it from Day One," Logston said.

The Grand Jury indictment charges that Mock and Young worked together to cause Griesbauer's death.

Logston said a possible motive for the two women was the large amount of money they might receive in life insurance payoffs if Griesbauer died.

"[Griesbauer] had four, maybe five insurance policies," Logston said. "If he were to die, … he was worth $1.2 million."

Logston said the arrest is a product of two years of continuing investigation and that the public helped put together the pieces so the Sheriff's Department had enough information to charge Young with murder.

"Throughout that time, we've had several people in the community and confidential informants give us more information," Logston said. "We finally have had enough evidence come up to indict her and hopefully convict her of first-degree murder."

Authorities could have arrested Young the day of the shooting, but they wouldn't have had enough evidence at the time to charge her with murder, Logston said.

"We could have arrested her early on, but it wouldn't have been a murder charge," Logston said. "… We knew, but we couldn't say."

Logston and Noe both said the investigation still is in progress.

"It's still an ongoing investigation," Noe said. "It has been for two years."