Month: September 2026

COLUMBIA, Mo.(KMIZ)

Missouri diesel prices stayed at near-record high levels Friday, raising costs for trucking companies and independent drivers as the holiday shipping season approaches.

AAA listed Missouri’s average diesel price at $6.31 a gallon Friday, up from $3.41 a year ago. The national average was $6.50, up from $3.69 a year ago. Both averages are just below records set Sept. 22.

“Fuel is probably one of the top, if not the top, expenses that a trucking company has,” said Tom Crawford, president of the Missouri Trucking Association. “It’s generally number two. But when it gets this high, sometimes it dives into being number one.”

Crawford said the association has heard about longtime carriers shutting down, including one Mid-Missouri company that had been in business for decades.

“We heard like two weeks ago on Thursday that they were shutting down Friday,” Crawford said. “And you’re like, whoa, okay…I know there’s a lot of them across the country.”

Crawford said he couldn’t say how many companies had closed or whether diesel costs were the reason in each case. Dustin Kallmeyer, chief operating officer of Hermann-based Kallmeyer Bros. Enterprises, Inc., said he didn’t know of companies in his area that had shut down specifically because of fuel costs. He said trucking companies were also dealing with a freight slowdown.

Kallmeyer said higher fuel costs are forcing companies to pay closer attention to what they charge for loads. He has also seen shipping prices start to rise.

“I’ve seen some things come out there. They’re already starting to increase pricing, you know, 4 or 5%, 6% for some of their stuff,” Kallmeyer said.

For independent owner-operator Matthew Purvis, diesel prices affect both his rates and his plans for the coming months.

“Diesel prices definitely affect what I charge and what I plan,” Purvis said. “I’m going to definitely have to work harder throughout the Christmas season to accomplish the end-of-the-year quarter, for sure.”

Rising transportation costs can also reach consumers. In an analysis, RSM Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas wrote that higher fuel and transportation costs can put pressure on food prices as those expenses move through the supply chain.

Crawford said some retailers are trying to get ahead of potential holiday cost increases by stocking shelves earlier.

“I think what you’re seeing with the earlier stocking of the shelves and things is an effort to try to get in front of that a little bit so you can maintain some pricing,” Crawford said.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Boone County judge sentenced a woman to four years in prison for tampering with evidence in a deadly drug overdose, according to a news release from the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office.

Adrian Sumler pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of tampering with physical evidence. Her four-year sentence is the maximum penalty allowed by state law.

According to the news release, in September 2023 Sumler called 911 to say someone had died from a drug overdose. At the time, Sumler claimed the person who died had supplied all the drugs, the news release said.

A later investigation determined Sumler had brought her own drugs, and that the other person had died from a combination of cocaine and fentanyl toxicity, according to the release.

“All law enforcement agencies take fentanyl deaths very seriously, and significant resources are dedicated to investigating how these deadly substances enter our community,” said Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Paul Wade in the release. “We want everyone to have the protection of the Good Samaritan law, but it requires working in good faith with officers and first responders. I hope this resolution brings the family some peace”.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The parents of a toddler who was found dead in the Lake of the Ozarks in March 2025 filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday.

The lawsuit names as defendants various directors or employees of the Missouri Department of Social Services, Missouri Children’s Division, Camden County Juvenile Office and Camden County Sheriff’s Department.

Iszabella O’Bryan, 2, was found dead in the water after being missing for about an hour. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said she was found in Bollinger Creek Cove a short distance from her home.

In the lawsuit, O’Bryan’s parents – Justin Haas and Katelee O’Bryan – claim two Camden County detectives “aggressively interrogated” the couple with “hostile and manipulative” tactics “rather than coordinating rescue efforts.” Katelee O’Bryan said that upon learning her daughter had been found dead, she suffered “acute medical shock and debilitating physical seizures.”

The lawsuit alleges that while investigating, law enforcement went outside the geographical boundaries allowed by their search warrant by searching more than one property. It also alleges the investigators “staged the scene…to manufacture a false impression of criminal endangerment” by gathering medical marijuana items and putting them together with hats featuring marijuana leaf prints, then “photographed the artificial spread to deceive the juvenile court.”

The parents claim officials said they smelled of marijuana, had paraphernalia and “exhibited rambling speech,” which the parents deny in the lawsuit. They add that drug testing didn’t return any positive results for illicit substances or alcohol.

Their lawsuit claims that when the parents met with Missouri Child Division on March 4, officials separated their surviving children without cause or court order. The parents allege that a juvenile officer signed and backdated an authorization for temporary protective custody to a date prior to the day of Izsabella’s death, which they claim was to “retroactively cover up the warrantless seizure.”

Other claims made in the lawsuit include officials making false statements about the developmental capabilities of the surviving children, false statements claiming the parents had been neglectful in the past, and placing the surviving children with a non-family party instead of their biological grandparents.

While at a child advocacy facility, according to the lawsuit, the children “were subjected to highly invasive physical and forensic medical inspections of their private parts and genitals,” which was done without any parent notification or consent and “without a judicial warrant.”

Because of what they went through, the plaintiffs say Haas lost between $5,000 and $7,000 a week due to losing his contracting employment, and that O’Bryan lost wages due to having to take extended unpaid medical leave.

The lawsuit seeks a trial by jury. According to court records, the plaintiffs are representing themselves in the case.