A Metro West fire truck leaves on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, the scene on Dartmouth Gate Circle in Wildwood where a man was found dead inside his burning home. His estranged wife had been found dead earlier in Chesterfield. The fire department had been called to the house because smoke could be seen rising from the garage. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
A view of the front of the house on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, at the scene on Dartmouth Gate Circle in Wildwood where a man was found dead inside his burning home. His wife had been found dead earlier outside her apartment in Chesterfield. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
Three neighborhood boys, from left: Grant Long, 13; Christian Erkert, 13, and Patrick Manternach, 15, look at the back of a burned house on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, on Dartmouth Gate Circle in Wildwood where a man was found dead inside his burning home. His wife been found dead earlier outside her apartment in Chesterfield. Long, who lives across the street, said the man who died was very reclusive and didn't really talk with his neighbors. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
Patrick Manternach, 15, stops to take a photo on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, at the scene on Dartmouth Gate Circle in Wildwood where a man was found dead inside his burning home. His wife been found dead earlier outside her apartment in Chesterfield. Manternach lives near by. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
UPDATED at 8 a.m. Monday with additional details throughout, including more on the shooting and fire.
ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Police on Sunday said a woman was found dead in Chesterfield shortly before her husband’s body was found after a fire at their former home in Wildwood.
Bobette Everhart-Boal, 59, had filed for divorce from her husband, Michael C. Boal, 59, in August, and a hearing in the case was scheduled for Thursday.
Bobette Everhart-Boal, 59, was found dead Chesterfield on Dec. 8, 2019 shortly before her husband's body was found after a fire at their former home in Wildwood. Photo courtesy of the St. Louis County Police Department
Everhart-Boal was living in the 16600 block of Crossover Lane at the Baxter Crossings Apartments, police said.
St. Louis County Police Officer Tracy Panus said the case is a murder-suicide. She said investigators believe that Michael Boal killed his wife, then set the house on fire to kill himself. Autopsies were performed, but results were not available early Monday.
A police source said investigators suspect the man shot himself during the fire, but officials are awaiting word from the medical examiner's office.
Police responding to a call for shots fired at 12:45 a.m. Sunday found Everhart-Boal's body in the parking lot of the Baxter Crossings apartments. Everhart-Boal had moved in with her adult daughter there.
Everhart-Boal and her husband had argued on the parking lot, and he shot her, Chesterfield police Lt. Christopher Connelly said. Witnesses heard two shots. Everhart-Boal died at the scene. Everhart-Boal's daughter did not witness the attack but learned about it soon after, Connelly said.
At about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, and about seven miles away, there was a report of a house fire at 2202 Dartmouth Gate Circle in Wildwood, which is the woman’s former residence, police said.
Heavy flames were in the rear of the home, in the garage. Crews kept a safe distance, though, because police feared the gunman was inside. Fire spread throughout the home, said Michael D. Thiemann of Metro West Fire Protection District.
After the fire was extinguished, firefighters found Boal’s body, police said. Police on Sunday said the incidents were related and there was “no additional danger to the public.” They also said that they were interviewing witnesses.
Connelly said there were some “domestic issues” between the couple, and they had not been living together.
The couple married in Las Vegas in 1991 and bought the house on Dartmouth Gate Circle in 2000, records show.
In her divorce filing, Everhart-Boal said the couple had been residing in the same home but “living separate lives” since November 2018. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment.
Most of the couple's relatives could not be reached for comment, but Tracy Everhart said, "Bobette was a wonderful sister-in-law to me and she will be deeply missed by so many. We are all still processing this."
Everhart-Boal worked as a strategic development manager for a commercial furniture and interior design company since October 2018, according to her LinkedIn page. Before that, she’d worked for a series of companies since moving to St. Louis from Chicago in 2000.
Everhart-Boal received a bachelor's degree in interior design from Maryville University in 1982.
Boal, 59, was not working in August, according to the divorce filing.
Neighbor Brian Long said that he was awakened by a commotion at 1:30 a.m. Fire was coming out of the peak of his neighbor’s garage. As firefighters appeared to be getting the fire in the garage under control, flames roared out of windows in the house, he said.
Long said that it took several hours to get the fire under control. “It was terrible,” he said.
Long said the couple has two adult children.
“She was a nice lady,” Long said of his former neighbor.
Police came by several months ago, saying they had been contacted by the male homeowner’s family, who had not heard from him in several weeks, Long said.
Panus said in an email that police had one prior call to the Dartmouth Gate address, on Sept. 16, when they were asked to check on the welfare of the occupant.
Kim Bell of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed to this report.
Some of the year's notable crimes
Some of the notable local crimes of 2019
Couple in Alabama killing 'executed' 3 people in Bethalto to steal getaway car, police say
Brady Kane Witcher, 41, and Brittany Nicole McMillan, 28, were each charged Dec. 21 in Madison County with nine counts of murder in the first degree in the deaths of Shari Yates, 59, her son Andrew Brooks, 30, and another man, John McMillian, 32. All three were found dead late Thursday inside Yates’ home in the 300 block of Mill Street in Bethalto.
Judge dismisses charges in case of officers allegedly involved in bar fight.
William Olsten (left) and Joseph Schmitt are St. Louis police officers charged in January with assault after a shooting at a bar in St. Louis on April 27, 2018. In December, a judge dismissed the charges, saying that prosecutors willfully failed to turn over evidence to the defense to, in part, avoid revealing that a grand jury hadn't been told about the shooting victim's immunity agreement.
Olsten still faces three felony counts of third-degree assault for allegedly pepper-spraying three people during protests outside Busch Stadkium in 2017.
Husband charged with murder in wife's disappearance
Beau Rothwell reported his wife, Jennifer Rothwell, missing late Tuesday, Nov. 12. By Friday afternoon, he was charged with second-degree murder. Police said they found wet carpet soaked with bleach and large areas of blood in carpet and carpet padding in the couple's home north of Creve Coeur, and allege that Beau Rothwell bought cleaning supplies, including bleach and gloves, Monday, Nov. 11.
Two brothers charged in road rage shooting of man in front of his children in St. Louis County
Joseph Marino, left, and Nicholas Marino are accused of taking part in the road rage shooting of Scott Thomas, 46, in the 6000 block of South Lindbergh Boulevard. Thomas' children, 11, 9, 6 and 3 years old, were in the car at the time, but not injured.
Disabled boy went missing 16 years ago, now father is charged with his murder
Sixteen years after disabled 9-year-old Christian Ferguson disappeared, prosecutors in St. Louis County have charged his father in the child’s presumed death. Dawan Ferguson, 46, was charged with one count of first-degree murder. He was later charged with two counts of statutory rape, two counts of statutory sodomy and child molestation. Charges say he abused two children at various times from 2000 to 2013.
Shoplifter at Menards uses getaway car to hit, critically injure worker outside St. Louis County store
A shoplifter working in tandem with children ran over a store employee who followed her onto the parking lot of a Menards in west St. Louis County on on Sept. 25, critically injuring the worker, police say. Debbie Regina Penn, 31, was later charged with first-degree robbery, armed criminal action, stealing and fourth-degree assault. The injured employee, Michelle Arthur, 49, is undergoing rehabilitation in a Colorado hospital that specializes in spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation.
Shooting at Sasha's Wine Bar in Shaw neighborhood injures three
Police investigate a shooting inside Sasha's Wine Bar in the 4000 block of Shaw Boulevard on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019. Police said a man in his 30s was shot in the neck; a nurse who tried to help him said he was seriously injured. Two other victims, a man and a woman, had lesser injuries, police said. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Illinois State Trooper Nick Hopkins shot and killed during East St. Louis standoff
Trooper Nick Hopkins, 33, was shot while executing a "high risk" search warrant along with other SWAT team members in August 2019 in East St. Louis. He died hours later at a hospital. Hopkins was the first trooper shot and killed in 30 years; and the first Illinois State Police SWAT member to be fatally shot on duty. Two people have been charged in connection with his shooting.
The casket of Illinois State Trooper Nick Hopkins is carried out of Waterloo High School after his funeral service on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019. Behind the casket is Hopkins wife Whitney Hopkins, right, and two of his three children Evelyn and Owen. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
St. Louis City children dying of gun violence
More than a dozen children have been killed in gun violence in St. Louis City in 2019. CrimeStoppers offered increased rewards in four of the cases, all for children 10 or younger: Jurnee Thompson, 8; Kayden Johnson, 2; Kennedi Powell, 3; and Eddie Hill IV, 10. Children in this city have been killed at 10 times the national rate for decades, according to a Post-Dispatch analysis of FBI homicide data.
Mary Norwood, the grandmother of 7-year-old murder victim Xavier Usanga, addresses the crowd during a vigil at Herzog Elementary School for all the children killed in the St. Louis area in 2019 on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
After firefighters rescue four children, parents are charged
The mother of four children who were rescued from a burning apartment was charged with four felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Crystal D. Ford, 27, of the 1300 block of Ohio Avenue, allegedly left her children, all under the age of 4, home alone. The children's father, Keith J. Witherspoon Jr. 33, was also charged with four counts of child endangerment.
St. Louis firefighter Josh Roth uses a resuscitator to revive a girl, one of four young children pulled from a burning apartment in the 1300 block of Ohio Avenue in the Lafayette Family apartments on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. Fire department spokesman Garon Mosby said one was in critical condition. Firefighters entered the unit while it was burning and found one child hiding in a closet and a couple in a play tent. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com.
He stole $7.5 million from St. Louis Community College, then made millions investing it
Donald Robison, a longtime employee at St. Louis Community College, admitted to stealing millions. He agreed to forfeit $11 million to the state and the college. Jeff Pittman, chancellor of St. Louis Community College, said it would be difficult to estimate the value of what the job-training program lost.
Photo is from St. Louis Community College's Workforce Solutions Group website.
Pamela Hupp pleads guilty to the murder of Louis Gumpenberger
Pamela Hupp admitted in 2019 that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her of fatally shooting a mentally disabled man in 2016 in what they say was her attempt to divert a reinvestigation of a 2011 murder. She was sentenced in August to life in prison. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com
Steve Stenger sentenced to 46 months of prison
Former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 46 months in prison in a pay-to-play scheme; he will actually serve less time than that. Three others have also pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.
Former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, left, listens as his lawyer Scott Rosenblum, right, talks with the media outside federal court in St. Louis on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Cleaning out mother's St. Louis apartment, man finds baby's remains in freezer
Adam Smith peers into his mother's freezer where he found the remains of an infant in a box she kept for more than 40 years. “I’m finding out my mom wasn’t who I thought she was,” Smith said.
Photo by Christine Byers of the Post-Dispatch.
Two charged in slayings of five men at north St. Louis County apartment
St. Louis County police detectives and officials gather to confer on Saturday, July 6, 2019, where five people were found dead at a single-level apartment building in the 1900 block of Chambers Road.
Two men were charged with murder in connection with the deaths.
Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com
Police officer Michael Langsdorf shot, killed while on duty
Pallbearers carry the casket of Officer Michael Langsdorf, of the North County Police Cooperative, from the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis following a funeral mass on Monday, July 1, 2019. Langsdorf was killed in the line of duty on Sunday, June 23, 2019.
Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
Investigator who worked on Greitens' criminal case indicted as part of perjury investigation
William Don Tisaby, 66, of Trussville, Ala., was indicted in June on six counts of perjury and one count of tampering with physical evidence. Tisaby has been under investigation by a special prosecutor who is looking into allegations that he lied during a March 2018 deposition in the lead-up to Greitens’ criminal trial.
St. Louis Sheriff's deputies escort former FBI agent William Don Tisaby, center, as he leaves at the Civil Courts building for a first court appearance on Monday, June 17, 2019. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
Charges filed in 1993 murder of Angie Housman, 9
Earl Webster Cox, 61, was charged in June with first-degree murder for the death of 9-year-old Angie Housman in 1993.
8th grade football phenom recently featured in Sports Illustrated is shot to death in Venice
Jaylon McKenzie, an eighth grader at Mason-Clark Middle School, who was featured in Sports Illustrated as one of six young athletes who would rule the future of sports, was shot to death at a party in May.
Thomas Maravel, 14, stands outside the room where the body of his friend Jaylon McKenzie lays in an open casket before his funeral at the Scottish Rite Masonic Bodies in Belleville on Saturday, May 18, 2019. "I've know him since 4th grade" said Thomas who is wearing a shirt with a picture of Jaylon on it. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Ladue officer charged with assault in 'reckless' shooting of shoplifting suspect at Schnucks
Julia Crews, a Ladue police officer, was charged in May with second-degree assault after shooting an alleged shoplifting suspect outside a Schnucks store. Her attorney said she had meant to use her Taser but drew her gun instead. She resigned from the department.
KMOX radio personality Harry Hamm charged with sex crimes, child porn possession
Harry Hamm, a longtime KMOX-AM radio broadcaster and entertainment editor, was charged in April with child pornography possession and child sex abuse. Court documents say that Hamm had “deviate sexual intercourse” with a relative younger than 17.
Harry Hamm at the 2014 St. Louis Theater Circle awards at COCA in University City Monday, March 17, 2014. Photo by Sid Hastings
Wife of Missouri KKK leader admits killing him, claims son didn't help with the murder
Malissa Ancona, of Leadwood, Mo., pleaded guilty in April to the 2017 murder of her husband, Ku Klux Klan leader Frank Ancona.
Police officer's killer sentenced to life without parole
Trenton Forster was sentenced in April to life in prison without parole, plus 27 more years, for the 2016 shooting of St. Louis County officer Blake Snyder.
Elizabeth Snyder, wife of slain St. Louis County Police Officer Blake Snyder, and Dick Snyder, Blake Snyder's father, react to the sentencing of Trenton Forster in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Thursday, April 18, 2019. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Amazon driver shot in St. Charles by man accused of being angry over handicapped parking spot
Larry Thomlison, of St. Charles, was charged with assault in March after allegedly shooting an Amazon delivery driver in a dispute over a handicapped parking spot the driver had parked in outside a St. Charles Target store.
Man accused of wrapping dog in duct tape before throwing it out vehicle window in Jefferson County
Paul Garcia, 39, of Barnhart was charged with felony animal abuse and armed criminal action. Authorities say Garcia wrapped electrical and duct tape around the dog’s mouth and legs before dumping it.
Jimmy enjoys some wet food at dinner time on Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, while Emma Haefner holds his dish at the Ivan Animal Hospital in House Springs, Mo. Photo by Colter Peterson, cpeterson@post-dispatch.com
Kidnapper kills innocent motorist from North County in bi-state chase before dying in Illinois shootout
Leslie K. Austin shot and kidnapped his girlfriend in Jefferson City, Mo., on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, then led police on a chase into Illinois, where he killed an innocent motorist before dying in a shootout with police.
Priest found hiding in bushes outside St. Louis County woman's home charged with stalking, police say
Michael McCusker, a teacher and priest at St. Louis Priory School, was charged Feb. 4, 2019 with stalking and resisting arrest. Police said he was found hiding in the bushes outside a female co-worker's home.
St. Louis officers took turns firing revolver with 1 bullet at each other, charges in fatal shooting say
A police officer who shot and killed another officer was charged in January with involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action, both felonies. Officer Nathaniel R. Hendren, 29, is accused in the shooting of Officer Katlyn Alix, 24, while they were playing with a gun. Hendren was on duty at the time the shooting happened at his house while Alix was off duty.
Suspended St. Louis Police officer Nathaniel Hendren (left) walks out of court in St. Louis with his lawyer Talmage Newton IV after pleading innocent on Monday, April 29, 2019. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
Robert Patrick
Robert Patrick is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
