SEDALIA, MO. --
Update: Friday, Sept. 10 at 5:50 p.m.
According to court documents, investigators found a lower level window removed, frame and all, from Rebekah Marcus’ home. It was leaned against an outside wall.
Outside the home investigators found a shoe print. Inside they found red and black scuff marks across the kitchen floor.
Investigators discovered there were two 911 calls made from the Marcus residence the morning she was found dead. One was placed from a home phone; the other came from a cell phone. Both of these phone calls happened about an hour before the home care aide discovered Marcus dead.
Investigators later found out the cell phone that was used to call 911 belonged to Daniel Maschger.
According to the probable case statement, on Wednesday, the day after Marcus was found dead, investigators and Sedalia police officers were canvassing her neighborhood when they saw a gold-colored Chevy Trail Blazer parked in Marcus’ driveway.
Investigators found out the SUV belonged to Daniel Maschger and found him across the street. Maschger was visiting with Paul Bennett, the man who called 911 after the home care aide found Marcus dead.
While at the Bennett household, investigators spoke with Bennett’s wife, Judy.
She told investigators she saw the same gold-colored SUV parked in front of Marcus’ home at about 5:30 a.m. on the day she was found dead.
She also mentioned she just spoke with Maschger minutes before the investigators arrived.
According to the probable cause statement, Maschger told her that in the past, Marcus told him he would get the house and property after her death. Mrs. Bennett said Maschger believed the elderly woman had money and valuables in her home.
Maschger told investigators he knew the elderly woman for 17 years, and that she often referred to him as her son.
While interviewing Maschger, he told investigators he worked the morning Marcus was found dead. After contacting his employer in Kansas City, Kansas, they found that was not true.
Management at his work said he did not show up for work on the morning Marcus was found dead or the day after.
Maschger allegedly told his union representative that he did not show up to work on Tuesday and Wednesday because of a death in the family. He was scheduled to work at 6:30 a.m. Marcus’ body was not discovered until 7:46 a.m.
On Thursday night, investigators got a search warrant for his home in Lee’s Summit.
They found a pair of boots that matched scuff marks found on Marcus’ floor.
They also found a pair of jeans in a plastic bag that was inside a trash can in his garage. Investigators said they were recently washed. After using an alternative light source on them, they spotted the presence of blood on them.
Update: Friday, Sept. 10 at 3:50 p.m.
Prosecutors have charged Daniel Maschger in the death of elderly Sedalia woman Rebekah Marcus.
He's charged with 1st degree murder, 1st degree burglary, and armed criminal action.
Maschger will have his first hearing on Tuesday, September 14.
Update: Friday, Sept. 10 at 12:50 p.m.
Police said Daniel Maschger knew Rebekah Marcus.
Commander Larry Ward, of the Criminal Investigtions Bureau with Sedalia Police, said Marcus treated Maschger like an adopted son, and they knew each other for about 10 years.
Ward said Maschger would visit the elderly woman, and she would visit him.
The Rural Missouri Major Case Squad arrested Maschger Thursday at about 6:45 p.m. at his Lee’s Summit, Missouri home. Ward said he did not resist arrest.
Ward said an exact motive is not known, but noted there was evidence of forced entry into Marcus’ home.
The police department requested 3 charges to be filed against Maschger, including 1st degree murder, 1st degree burglary, and armed criminal action. He expected Maschger to be arraigned Friday afternoon at the Pettis County Courthouse with the charges.
Sedalia police said officers served a search warrant at Maschger’s home last night, and officials will process his vehicle Friday evening.
Update: Friday, Sept. 10 at 12:20 p.m.
Police arrested a suspect in the death of an elderly Sedalia woman.
A representative of the Pettis County Sheriff’s Department said Daniel J. Maschger, 44, was arrested in connection with the homicide of Rebekah Marcus, 76.
The sheriff’s department said a 1st degree murder charge is pending.
Maschger is from Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The Sedalia Democrat said police in Lee's Summit arrested him.
Update: Thursday, Sept. 9 at 3:11 p.m.
SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) -- Sedalia police said a 76-year-old woman who was found dead in her home was stabbed and strangled.
The victim, Rebekah Marcus, was found Tuesday in her home by her health care aide.
Sedalia Police Commander Larry Ward said an autopsy showed Marcus died from blunt force trauma to the head, stab wounds and strangulation.
The Sedalia Democrat reports that Ward said Marcus was stabbed in the chest at least twice with a filet knife. He said it was not yet known whether anything was stolen from the home.
The Rural Missouri Major Case Squad is helping with the investigation.
Update: Wednesday, Sept. 8 at 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday morning officers from 14 different districts that make up the Major Case Task Force met at Best Western for a quick briefing. Then the officers split up into teams and headed out to investigate multiple leads in the Rebekah Marcus murder.
"We have leads that are stronger than others, but we don't have a particular one person that were looking at, that's stronger. We have multiple leads,” Sedalia Police Dept. Larry Ward said. “We have numerous teams we're going to be sending out. We have more leads than teams at this time."
Most of the initial information came from the caregiver who found Marcus's body.
"I thought it was odd that the garage door was open, so I continued to go upstairs. I called her name and she never responded,”Home care worker Barbara Haines said. “She's on total oxygen, so i usually trace her oxygen cord; I came to the end of it and she was in her living room, dead."
"She came out screaming on the sidewalk, so i called 911 and told what happen. Then i called my daughter and she's a LPN,” Neighbor Paul Bennett said. “She went over to see what the problem was, if she had a pulse, and whatever. Of course, then there was no pulse.”
Bennett said Tuesday that his daughter told him the knife was still in Marcus's chest. Police confirmed that Wednesday.
"She was stabbed at least twice," Ward said. "The preliminary cause of death would be blunt force trauma to the head, strangulation, and stab wounds."
Police said an intruder broke in to the house and killed Rebekah Marcus. They said they are unsure what the motive was, but they are investigating, and they hope to figure it out soon.
"We don't know if anything physically that was taken from the home. There were obvious things inside the home that one would assume would've been taken,” Ward said. “So we don't know if they were looking for something in particular or the fact that it happened so quickly that the person fled after the victim was murdered."
Ward said that Marcus did not have a lot of family so it is hard to notice if anything is missing ,because they don't know what she had in her house.
Anyone with information about the murder is asked to call the Sedalia Police Department at (660) 827-7823.
Update: Wednesday, Sept. 8 at 10:35 a.m.
Police said that 76-year-old Rebekah Marcus was stabbed by a filleting knife.
Police also said that Marcus suffered a blow to the head and that there were markings that are similar to strangulation.
Police said that the suspect broke into her home, but is not clear what the motivation was. Authorities are still looking for next of kin to help identify if anything is missing from the home.
Marcus was a widower and had no children.
Police have multiple leads that are being followed up by the Crime Scene Task Force teams.
Update: Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 10:20 p.m.
Sedalia police responded to a 911 call from a home health care provider. She told them an elderly client who lived in the house on 1008 Royal Boulevard had been stabbed to death.
"I thought it was odd that the garage door was open, so I continued to go upstairs. I called her name and she never responded, and she's on total oxygen, so I usually trace her oxygen cord,” Home care worker Barbara Haines said. “I came to the end of it and she was in her living room, dead."
Haines said she immediately yelled for her brother-in-law, who lived just across the street.
"She came out screaming on the sidewalk, so I called 911 and told what happen. Then I called my daughter and she's a LPN,” Neighbor Paul Bennett said. “She went over to see what the problem was, if she had a pulse, and whatever. Of course, then there was no pulse."
Bennett said his daughter told him the knife was still in the victim's chest.
He believes the killing was not random.
"From what I seen and what I heard, which I can't really go into detail on, someone knew her and knew what they were after,” Bennett said.
The police are not releasing much information on the investigation, but they tell us they hope to release more information Wednesday morning after the crime lab task force investigates the scene.
Others around the neighborhood are still in shock about what happened.
Like Bennett, a lot of them think the killer was someone known to the victim, which police will not yet identify publically.
“It's a specifically targeted house. I doubt there is a serial killer roaming around the city, but then again it doesn't mean that I’m not going to sleep with my gun loaded by my bed tonight," Next door neighbor Josh Heimsoth said.
The Sedalia democrat reports, that this is the second homicide of the year in that city.
Update: Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 5:51 p.m.
An elderly woman was found stabbed to death at her home at 1008 Royal Blvd. in Sedalia.
The victim’s home health care provider found her client on the dining room floor and called 911.
The autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday evening in St. Joe.
The Crime Lab Task Force is going to be is Sedalia to process the crime scene around 9 a.m.
Original Story:
A woman was found stabbed in her Sedalia home.
Police are investigating the homicide.
More details will be available soon
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