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ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Twenty years after Betty Ann Howery's death, the murder trial begins this week for the husband of the St. Charles woman.

Douglas Howery has been jailed in Pike County since his arrest in 2009. He is charged with first-degree murder. The case has been delayed by a change of venue to Audrain County and the death of Howery's first attorney. Jury selection was getting started Monday.

Authorities believe that Douglas Howery killed his wife and dumped her body in an abandoned septic tank on the family farm along the Mississippi River near Elsberry.

Howery's attorney told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Howery maintains his innocence.

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