DUSTY GUENTHER - 4 yo - Wright County MO

Man from Wright County is charged for stabbing murder of 4-year-old boy

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• Photo: Gina Guenther and her son, Dusty (family photo)
  
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• Story: Young boy's death in Wright County may be homicide
  

by Linda Russell, KY3 News,
December 8, 2011

HARTVILLE,
Mo. -- The Wright County prosecuting attorney charged Terry Joe Volner
on Thursday for the murder of Dusty Guenther, 4, on Tuesday night. The
22-year-old man was treated at a hospital in Springfield after the boy's
body was found on Wednesday morning in an ice-covered lagoon next to
the home of the boy's family in northern Wright County.

A probable cause statement used as the basis of the charges says Volner
called his mother, Tina Miller, on Wednesday morning and said he killed
"Gina, her boyfriend, and her four kids. Volner confirmed this by
sending Miller a picture via ceullular phone of the boy with his throat
cut."

It turned out the mother and three sisters of Dusty were
unharmed. Gina Guenther was at work in Lebanon after leaving about 4:30
a.m. Her two older daughters were at Grovespring Elementary School and a
younger one was in a crib at the family's home. The children are now in
protective custody, Sheriff Glenn Adler said on Wednesday.

"You don't get over this. I'm a big ol' guy, but I've got a pretty soft
heart, and it 's pretty hard to take some of this," the sheriff said.

Adler says Gina Guenther left her four young children in Terry Volner's care.

"He'd been living here, been taking care of the children while mother's at work," he said.

Investigators
haven't said if they found "a boyfriend" of Gina Guenther whom Volner
told his mother he killed. Adler says Volner is not Guenther's
boyfriend.

The Guenthers' home at 10124 Highway Z is five miles
south of Competition and about 12 miles north of Hartville. The home has
a Hartville post office address.

Early Wednesday, the probable
cause statement says, Volner sent photos by cell phone to a woman. They
show Dusty Guenther's body "in some tall grass with a laceration to his
throat and what appears to be a wet stick holding his chin up.

"Another
picture showed Dusty laying in the same position, with what appeared to
be an adult's left arm held up in front of the camera. There was a
tattoo on the arm in the picture, which is consistent with a tattoo
located on Volner's left arm. It appears the tattoo is 'Volner' in
cursive writing. There were also two pictures of what appears to be a
small leg submerged in ice covered water," the probable cause statement
says.

Adler said he'd like to hear from anyone else who heard from Volner early Wednesday.

"If they received pictures from him, any texts that he sent, I need to know that," he said.

The sheriff believes Volner then stabbed himself in the stomach.

"Was he trying to cover up something or make it look like somebody assaulted him? We don't know," Adler said.

Volner was at the Guenthers' home when law enforcement officers arrived. The
state trooper who wrote the probable cause statement says Volner
confessed on Wednesday that he killed Dusty on Tuesday evening or early
Wednesday using "a folding knife to stab Dusty in the neck" and then put
the body in the lagoon.

The probable cause statement doesn't
say if Volner made the confession at the family's home or in the
hospital in Springfield. Adler says Volner hasn't given a reason for
killing Dusty, or explained why he confessed to five other murders.

Volner was still in a hospital on Thursday after being treated for a stab
wound in his stomach. Adler said Thursday afternoon that Volner was on
the way back to Hartville, where he will be held in the Wright County
jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.

Now a mother is in mourning for the loss of her son, and a place where children usually laugh and
play is now quiet. It's a case no one can understand.

"It's sick. It's really sick. You know somebody is not in their right mind, or
something is wrong with somebody to act like," said Adler.

Volner is charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and
abandonment of a corpse. If he's convicted, he could face a death
penalty or a life prison sentence.

Volner went to state prison for a three-year sentence in May 2008 after pleading guilty to charges
of stealing animals, burglary, stealing a motor vehicle and knowingly
burning. The Missouri Department of Corrections says Volner completed
his sentence and was released last March 11.

As an aside, Adler says Volner is related -- but he's not sure how -- to four other people
who were charged and later convicted of a murder in 2008. Those are
Benny Volner; Benny's brother, Elvis Volner; their cousin, Dennis
Volner; and Dennis Volner's wife, Julia. They ambushed and beat Dustin
Skaggs, a cousin of the Volners, in Douglas County and dumped him in his
car in a rock quarry in Laclede County. Investigators learned Benny
Volner thought Skaggs was having an affair with his wife, so he enlisted
the help of others to kill him.

newsalerts@ky3.com

Funeral services will be held this afternoon at two o'clock for four year old Dusty Guenther from Wright County.

Deputies found the child's body in a pond last week.

He had been stabbed multiple times.

Terry Joe Volner from Hartville has been charged with the boy's murder. Court documents say he confessed to the crime.

After services at the Craig-Hurtt Chapel in Mountain Grove, Dusty will be buried in Hensley Cemetery near Mansfield.
http://www.ktts.com/news/135498568.html

Looks like killing runs in the Volner family. A bunch of sickos. Poor Dusty. RIP

Accused murderer of 4 year old Dusty Guenther in court

The Wright County prosecutor says his gut reaction is the case against Terry Volner is "clearly a death penalty case."

December 14, 2011|by Linda Russell | KY3 Reporter

HARTVILLE, Mo.-- The man accused of stabbing and killing a 4 year-old in Wright County one week ago was in court Wednesday.

KY3's cameras were not allowed in the court room, but a crew was there for the court proceding.
Terry Volner made his second court appearance, a short hearing to set a date for his next appearance.

Volner is charged with 1st degree murder, armed criminal action and
abandonment of a corpse in the death of 4 year-old Dusty Guenther.
Dusty's mother, Gina, and family friends were in the courtroom. They
just laid Dusty to rest on Tuesday and declined to speak with KY3 out of
sensitivity for the other children in the Guenther family.

We did speak with the Wright County Prosecutor about where the case is going
from here. One week ago, Wright County investigators found 4 year old
Dusty Guenther's body in the cesspool behind his home.

Terry Joe Volner gave investigators a detailed confession, stating how he
murdered the little boy he was supposed to be babysitting. "Obviously,
with a confession, the case is stronger," says Wright County Prosecutor
Jason MacPherson.

Cell phone pictures investigators say Volner
sent to his mother and at least one other person are also part of the
evidence pool. "I think once a jury sees the photographs; I viewed them
myself- they will be pretty powerful evidence," says MacPherson.

The apparent motive is supported by letters found at the house. MacPherson
says it appears that Volner was jealous of a boyfriend who had stayed
the night just before the murder. "They apparently had some romantic
gestures in the letters," says MacPherson.

In the coming weeks, MacPherson and other prosecutors will be determining if the case has the
legal factors for the death penalty. "My initial gut reaction is that
this is clearly a death penalty case. I think most of the public
probably feels the same way," MacPherson says.

It also depends on what Dusty's family wants. "The possibility of a case being reversed,
having to be retried; certainly that's always a possibility in a death
penalty case," MacPherson says.

Terry Volner's next court appearance, a preliminary hearing, is scheduled for February 27th.

The prosecutor says Terry Volner is related to the three Volner men
convicted in the 2008 murder of Dustin Skaggs. Elvis Volner, who
wielded the weapon in that case, is Terry Volner's brother.

http://articles.ky3.com/2011-12-14/death-penalty-case_30518382

the mother should also b charged in this case because she brought this con into her home and she shouldnt have knowing his history and his family's history. the lack of concern for these children astounds me no matter how many of these things i read.

flash0115 wrote:the mother should also b charged in this case because she brought this con into her home and she shouldnt have knowing his history and his family's history. the lack of concern for these children astounds me no matter how many of these things i read.

I agree. Most of the mothers of children who end up like this, because of the POSs they bring into their beds, should also be charged.

Written by
Mary Keough-Rushing
Elkland


I am writing this letter to offer my opinion on the horrendous murder of 4-year-old Dusty Guenther.

I wish to make an appeal to Wright County Prosecutor Jason MacPherson. Another child murdered and thrown in a sewage lagoon; it seems like a re-enactment of the Kaylee Anthony case.

Should the death penalty be an option in this case? Absolutely, and here is my reasoning behind this: Until we as a society stand together and demand justice for the children that are murdered and treated like a piece of trash, this behavior will continue. I believe that the verdict handed down in the Casey Anthony trial in many ways sent the wrong message to our society.

We need to stand together and make these people accountable for the crimes they are committing against our children. What if this were your child?

To the prosecutor, please do everything in your power to seek justice for Dusty, and that would include bringing the death penalty to this case.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120209/OPINIONS03/302090059/Child-slaying-Death-penalty-needed-in-case

TomTerrific0420 wrote:Written by
Mary Keough-Rushing
Elkland


I am writing this letter to offer my opinion on the horrendous murder of 4-year-old Dusty Guenther.

I wish to make an appeal to Wright County Prosecutor Jason MacPherson. Another child murdered and thrown in a sewage lagoon; it seems like a re-enactment of the Kaylee Anthony case.

Should the death penalty be an option in this case? Absolutely, and here is my reasoning behind this: Until we as a society stand together and demand justice for the children that are murdered and treated like a piece of trash, this behavior will continue. I believe that the verdict handed down in the Casey Anthony trial in many ways sent the wrong message to our society.

We need to stand together and make these people accountable for the crimes they are committing against our children. What if this were your child?

To the prosecutor, please do everything in your power to seek justice for Dusty, and that would include bringing the death penalty to this case.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120209/OPINIONS03/302090059/Child-slaying-Death-penalty-needed-in-case

What she said.

Thanks Tom.

You, and all of our readers are welcome my friend.
Typically I would not post a commentary like this but when I read it I knew that the vast majority of our readers feel the exact same way about this case and so many, many others.

Don't thank me, really. Thank Mary from Elkland for her Letter to the Editor.

Accused Child-Killer Pleads Guilty

By: KOLR10/KOZL News

Updated: September 28, 2012

WRIGHT COUNTY, Mo. -- Terry J. Volner, the accused killer of 4-year-old
Dusty Guenther, pleaded guilty to first degree murder and armed criminal
action Friday, Wright County Sheriff Glenn Adler says.
Prosecutors charged Guenther in December of 2011.

Sheriff Adler says the pleas carry a sentence of life in prison without parole for each charge.

Dusty Guenther's body was found in a small lagoon behind his rural
Wright County home. Court documents say he'd been stabbed in the neck.


Those records also say Volner called his own mother and told her he'd
killed Dusty, his mother, and three siblings. However, Dusty's mother
and siblings were unharmed.

http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=708412