Three southwest Missouri men now face first-degree murder charges, and a fourth juvenile suspect is in custody, in connection with the shooting deaths of a Laclede County woman's parents and her current boyfriend.

Investigators said the trigger man was the woman's ex and the father of her children.

At the same time, an Ohio couple faces prosecution in Missouri in for killing a trucker at a truck stop north of Kansas City a year ago.

Josh Reyes, 23, of Springfield is in the Laclede County jail tonight, held without bond. He is suspected in the death of Zachary Bryan Porter, 25, of Elkland.

Laclede County Sheriff Richard Wrinkle said the case centers around Miranda Smith, who told authorities Josh Reyes gunned down Porter in front of her and her two children at this apartment complex in Lebanon, Mo. Investigators later found the bodies of Smith's father and stepmother at their home in Phillipsburg, just southwest of Lebanon.

"The original call said they'd been shot and were covered in blood,” Laclede County Sheriff Richard Wrinkle said.

Wrinkle said the couple was killed before the shooting of Zach Porter.

Authorities have arrested two others in what they now describe as a murder conspiracy in the planning for at least a week, and which may have included additional targets. 

Across the state, authorities have charged an Iowa couple suspected of robbing and killing a Springfield, Mo. trucker at this truck stop in Platte City in September of last year. They were later picked up driving drunk in Nebraska. John Hughes is behind bars in Ohio for a murder there. Girlfriend Dana Tutor is in jail in Mississippi for forgery. Authorities said she lured the victim to the restroom where Hughes killed him.            

"You gotta be careful, no matter where you're at," St. Joseph Trucker, Bryan Brown said.    

Platte County authorities intend to extradite Hughes and Tutor to face the Missouri charges.