LADDONIA, MO. -- Authorities have identified the body found in a tractor-trailer last week that led to a 20-hour standoff in Laddonia.
The Audrain County Sheriff said the victim is James William Boyd McNeely, 20, from Ohio.
The medical examiner confirmed McNealy’s death was a homicide.
According to court documents, Chester Harvey admitted to murdering McNealy, a hitchhiker Harvey picked up.
Police said Harvey told an unnamed informant he murdered McNealy and was trying to figure out what to do with the body.
The informant said Harvey acknowledged putting McNealy’s body in the refrigerated area of a tractor-trailer rig in Vandalia.
After the body was found, Harvey barricaded himself in his Laddonia home, where he held his family hostage for about 20 hours.
A separate probable cause document said Harvey’s teenage son helped his father conceal McNealy’s body.
The prosecutor has charged 19-year-old Chad Harvey of Pike County with abandoning a corpse.
Both men remain behind bars with no bail set.