[MO] Ex-Sheriff's Deputy Clay Walker arrested for murder of estranged wife Jacque Sue Rawson-Waller

The husband of a Missouri woman who has been missing for nearly a year was charged with first-degree murder Monday even though his wife's body has not been found. [Ex-Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Deputy] Clay Waller, 41, also was charged with tampering with evidence in the death of his estranged wife, Jacque Waller, who was 39 when she disappeared June 1... On the day Jacque Waller disappeared, the Wallers had met with an attorney about divorce proceedings... Police say they found Jacque's laptop in her vehicle and it contained a personal diary detailing death threats Clay Waller had repeatedly made against her... "Clay told me that I didn't deserve to live and he wishes he had a gun so he could blow my head off that day," Jacque wrote on March 18, 2010. "He told me that a divorce would be my death sentence"...

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[MO] $4000 REWARD for information on disappearance of Ex-Deputy's estranged wife Jacque Sue Rawson-Waller - ...Jacque Waller's sister, Cheryl Brenneke, also told ABC News that her sister feared what her husband may do if she ever left him. "He'd been threatening her for a solid year," she said. "He told her that divorcing her would be a death sentence... She always said, 'you don't know what he's capable of, I just don't want to be dead'... She was scared of him. She always told us he's not stable"... The major case squad was activated... "They took me seriously from the minute I walked into the building... I can't say enough about the Jackson Police Department and the major case squad. They are building a case"...

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MISSING MISSOURI MOM'S HUSBAND CHARGED WITH MURDER
FoxNews.com
April 23, 2012
[Excerpts] The husband of a Missouri woman who has been missing for nearly a year was charged with first-degree murder Monday even though his wife's body has not been found. Clay Waller, 41, also was charged with tampering with evidence in the death of his estranged wife, Jacque Waller, who was 39 when she disappeared June 1. Clay Waller already is in federal prison for threatening his wife's sister, who has been caring for the couple's 5-year-old triplets since their mother's disappearance. He does not have a listed attorney. "There is a bit of relief in knowing that charges have been brought against Clay Waller," Jacque Waller's father, Stan Rawson, said in a statement. "The case is now in the hands of the prosecuting attorney, and we are confident that we will now finally get justice for our girl"... The FBI said last year that Clay Waller suggested to his father that he had broken Jacque Waller's neck and buried her in a hole that he dug in advance. But Clay Waller has not made any confession to police, and his father died before he could testify. Waller was sentenced to five years in federal prison in December and is serving time at a prison in the state of Louisiana. He pleaded guilty in October to threatening Brennecke through an online posting. "This is just the first part of it," Cheryl Brenneke, Jacque's sister, told the Southeast Missourian newspaper. "We will not rest until there's justice for Jacque, that's for sure. We won't let him get by with this. We're going to win this for her." Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Morley Swingle said one of the tampering charges alleges Clay Waller concealed his wife's body... [Full article here]

JACQUE SUE WALLER CASE: HUSBAND OF MISSING MISSOURI MOM ARRESTED ON MURDER CHARGE

Huffington Post

David Lohr
4/23/2012
[Excerpts] The estranged husband of Jacque Sue Waller, the missing mother of young triplets from Missouri, has been arrested for her murder. James "Clay" Waller, 40, was charged Monday with first degree murder and two counts of tampering with evidence. He is being held on a one million dollar bond...  Jacque Sue Waller, 39, of Cape Girardeau, was last seen on June 1, 2011, when she went to her estranged husband's house to pick up her son. The child was not at the home when she arrived, and what happened to her after that remains a mystery... A former police officer, Clay Waller was almost immediately named a person of interest in the case. According to court documents, investigators conducted a search of Clay Waller's home in the days following his wife's disappearance. During the search, they allegedly found blood splatter in a hallway and on several pieces of torn carpet that had been hidden in a crawl space. The stains were later matched to Jacque Sue Waller's DNA profile... Clay Waller is currently incarcerated in a Louisiana prison, where he is serving a five-year federal sentence for making Internet threats against Jacque Sue Waller's sister, Cheryl Rawson Brennecke. In regard to the latest charges, Rawson said that while his family is confident justice will be served, they are hopeful Jacque Sue Waller's remains will be found. "What we want more than anything ... is to have Jacque home with her family and finally at rest," Rawson said. [Full article here]

CLAY WALLER CHARGED IN JACQUE WALLER'S MURDER
KSDK
Kevin Held
10:34 PM, Apr 23, 2012
[Excerpts] Cape Girardeau, MO - Clay Waller, the estranged husband of a missing mother of triplets, has been charged with murder in connection to her disappearance... According to court documents, the Wallers had been married 17 years and had three five-year-old children, but were going through divorce proceedings at the time of Jacque's disappearance.  Jacque had primary custody of the children and Clay Waller received visitation rights. On June 1, Jacque and Clay Waller both attended a meeting at a Cape Girardeau attorney's office to go over filing paperwork to move ahead with the divorce.  The attorney told investigators that Clay Waller became agitated during discussions on child custody, tax deduction filings and the settling of a retirement account to be held by Jacque... Police returned to the residence on June 6 and conducted a more thorough search of the property.  They discovered blood splatter patterns in the hallway, as well as the door trim and the top of the door jamb... On June 8, investigators found carpeting hidden in a basement crawlspace.  The carpeting had been cut into several pieces and had apparent blood stains, prosecutors said... Clay Waller told investigators that Jacque's nose began to bleed while she was visiting and that she tripped in the hallway while heading toward the bathroom.  He added that Jacque sneezed while in the bathroom, spraying blood about the room... [Full article here]

PROSECUTOR: TIME WAS RIGHT TO CHARGE CLAY WALLER WITH WIFE'S MURDER
Southeast Missourian
By Scott Moyers
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
[Excerpts] Saying there was "no point in waiting any longer," prosecutors have charged Clay Waller with first-degree murder and two counts of tampering with evidence nearly 11 months after his estranged wife first went missing. The murder charge alleges that Waller, 41, killed Jacque Sue Waller on or about June 1 by "unknown means," an offense punishable by a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said Monday he will not seek the death penalty. The first tampering with evidence charge claims that Waller hid his wife's body with the intent of impairing the murder investigation. The second tampering charge, both are felonies that carry four-year prison terms, charges that Waller concealed bloodstained carpet in the hallway of the house he was staying at in Jackson also with the purpose of "impairing its availability in the investigation of the murder of Jacque Sue Waller"... Nothing new had recently emerged to prompt the charges, said Lt. David James of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, one of the top investigators on the case. He said the charges were simply the next phase of the investigation, which he said was not over. "We've just been able to piece parts of the puzzle together to be able to charge him at this point," James said. "We're going to continue to search for Jacque's body until we can find her. Way may not ever find her. But we're going to keep trying." Having no body, James said, would present a "hill to climb" for investigators in making their case. But it's not unprecedented, he said, for "body-less cases" to culminate in convictions. It just means that prosecutors will have to prove more facts and circumstances to convince the courts and, eventually a jury, about what police believe happened...  On the day Jacque Waller disappeared, the Wallers had met with an attorney about divorce proceedings. At the meeting, the couple argued about financial problems, according to the document prepared by Jackson Police Chief James Humphreys. Jacque Waller's blue Honda Pilot was seen at the house where Clay Waller was staying into the evening on the day she went missing, though there is no account of her whereabouts for several hours that afternoon and evening. Her family last heard from her when she said she was going to meet Clay Waller to get one of their children from him. The child ended up staying the night with Clay Waller's girlfriend, court documents say. Clay Waller later told police that Jacque left the house on foot after an argument and, that when he returned home that night, her vehicle was gone. The man who owned the home where Clay Waller was staying came home that night, he found Clay Waller out of breath on the patio floor, the statement says. Clay Waller told the man he'd been out for a bike ride... [Full article here]


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