On the morning of November 15, 2025, deputies in rural Newton County, Missouri, found 51-year-old Ernest Darby dead inside his home on Emma Lane, just south of Joplin. Darby suffered a fatal gunshot wound; an autopsy recovered the bullet and noted no powder burns or stippling, a detail consistent with the shot being fired from a distance. The bullet was sent to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab for analysis.

Darby worked as a pipe fitter for T&T Industrial and lived with his wife. Family remembered him as an outdoorsman who rode motorcycles and enjoyed fishing and swimming. The secluded property on several acres gave investigators few immediate answers. In the weeks after the shooting, Newton County detectives and state authorities had made no arrests and had not publicly identified suspects.

Does anyone who knew Ernest or who was in the Emma Lane area that morning have information that could help the investigation?