On March 26, 2015, deputies in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, responded to a rural residence in Whitewater, near Gordonville, and found 27-year-old Melissa Luttrell shot to death in the home. Authorities also discovered Luttrell’s 54-year-old stepfather, Ricky Lee Schweain, with gunshot wounds to his chest; those wounds were determined to be self-inflicted and he was taken to a hospital for treatment.

While recovering, Schweain told detectives an argument had escalated after Luttrell allegedly threatened to have friends harm him, and he said the firearm discharged when she tried to grab it. Prosecutors rejected the notion of a purely accidental shooting and charged Schweain with second-degree murder. In January 2016 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison; his defense had asked for leniency citing no prior violent record, cooperation and remorse.

Did anyone in the Whitewater or Gordonville area know Melissa or have information about her relationship with her stepfather?