A property dispute over a grill and an outdoor table in Mount Vernon, Missouri, escalated to deadly violence on August 9, 2015, when 32-year-old Kevin Eugene Stafford was found fatally shot in his home. Stafford had contacted police earlier that day after saying his ex-girlfriend, Deannda Mills, had taken the items; Mills and her mother, Dena Waite, returned the belongings after officers intervened. Dena Waite told the officer her husband, Robert Paul Waite Jr., was angry and was coming to Mount Vernon, and Stafford later reported seeing a silver Malibu driven by Robert Waite on his street.

Police responded to reports of multiple gunshots and found Stafford on his couch with severe head and chest wounds; emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene. Witnesses saw a white male with a handgun leaving the residence. Investigators located and arrested Robert Waite in Carthage in a silver vehicle; Waite admitted to shooting Stafford and the gun was recovered from his car. The case remains a homicide; readers who knew Stafford or have information about the events that day are asked to come forward.