Prosecutors: Father helped daughter in murder-suicide plot

OSCEOLA, Mo. (AP) — Prosecutors say a Missouri woman persuaded her terminally ill father to fatally shoot her estranged husband to resolve a custody dispute, then kill himself so it appeared to be a murder-suicide.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 35-year-old Elizabeth Kilgore pleaded not guilty last week to first-degree murder in the death of 35-year-old Lance Kilgore.

Prosecutors say 77-year-old Charles Sander killed his son-in-law and himself in September during what was supposed to be a custody exchange at a convenience store in Osceola. The News-Leader doesn’t describe Sander’s terminal illness.

Court documents say Elizabeth Kilgore, a jailer, had previously asked two inmates to kill her husband, but later told one in a recorded phone call that her father had offered to “handle (her) problem.”

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Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.news-leader.com