LADDONIA, Mo., Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A standoff in Laddonia, Mo., ended peacefully Wednesday when a man suspected of kidnapping and abandoning a body surrendered to police, authorities said.
Audrain County Sheriff Stuart Miller said in a release that Chester Clay Harvey Jr., 38, of Laddonia gave himself up after releasing five people he had held in the house since Tuesday afternoon, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.
The episode began after the Missouri State Highway Patrol, after learning of a possible homicide, found a body in a refrigerated tractor-trailer rig Tuesday in Vandalia. That led them to surround the residence in Laddonia where Harvey was staying with his wife and four children.
An autopsy was to be performed on the unidentified body found in the refrigerated truck, said Dori Burke, a Boone County forensic investigator.
