Morgan County shooting victim dies; man charged with murder

Olivia Hayes

MORGAN COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

An Eldon man was charged Tuesday with murder after a woman shot outside an office building in Morgan County was declared dead.

Robert J. Anselmo was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting death of Johnetta Yeager. Yeager was pronounced dead at University Hospital on Monday afternoon, according to a probable cause statement. She had been found shot that morning outside a USDA office building in Versailles.

Police found a small SUV in the parking lot with the driver’s door open and Yeager, positioned as if she was getting out of the vehicle when she was shot, according to the probable cause statement.

Robert J. Anselmo (Morgan County Sheriff’s Office)

On Monday, Versailles police said in a news release that they found an unconscious woman with a head wound when they responded to a shooting at about 7:30 a.m. in the 100 block of South Burke Street.

A witness said Yeager had been sitting in her vehicle with the door open when a gunshot rang out, the statement says. The suspect then ran south on Burke Street.

Investigators found surveillance footage that linked Anselmo’s vehicle to the scene, the statement says. Yeager had sought a protection order against Anselmo, her former romantic partner, and was in a civil suit against him, police say.

Prosecutor Dustin G. Dunklee stated in a release that the suspect was arrested in Miller County at about 6 p.m. on Monday.

Dunklee said his office and the Versailles Police Department will not release any further details.

Anselmo was in the Morgan County Jail on Tuesday afternoon. Dunklee recommended he remain jailed without bond.

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