On July 4, 2021, 47-year-old Cory Michael Estey was shot and killed on a property in Ash Grove, Missouri, where he was working as a contractor on renovations. The other man involved, 21-year-old Lakota Gilbert Tucker of Walnut Grove, drove to the residence to retrieve personal items that had belonged to his late mother and did not live there at the time.

According to investigation reports and trial testimony, the encounter escalated after Tucker arrived; Tucker later acknowledged firing a rifle from his vehicle and striking Estey, then fleeing. He surrendered to deputies about 45 minutes later and confessed to being the shooter. Prosecutors presented evidence, including recorded jailhouse phone calls, that contradicted Tucker’s claim of self-defense.

A jury found Tucker guilty of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and unlawful use of a weapon in September 2022, and he was sentenced on November 8, 2022, to a total of 22 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Did anyone in the area know Estey’s work or movements at the time he was renovating the property?