The leader of a Missouri Ku Klux Klan group was found dead of a gunshot wound near the Big River by a family in the area to go fishing.
An autopsy revealed that Frank Ancona, 51, had been shot in the head, officials said.
Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen said one man was arrested on an unrelated warrant, and that an investigation into the death was continuing.
“Right now no one has been charged in his death, but that may change tomorrow,” Jacobsen said.
Ancona, of Leadwood, Mo., called himself an imperial wizard with the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. A website for that group features an image of Ancona in a white hood and robe standing in front of a burning cross.
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He has been quoted in stories in the Post-Dispatch about KKK leafletting in Desloge. His group was also at the center of a legal fight over a gathering of members at Fort Davidson State Historic Site, a Civil War battlefield in Pilot Knob, Mo.
Leadwood Police Chief William Dickey reported that Ancona was last seen by his wife, Malissa Ancona, Wednesday morning.
Jacobsen said he learned Thursday on Facebook that Ancona had gone missing. Later, a Federal Forestry Service employee located Ancona’s vehicle on a forestry service road off Route P in Potosi.
“Deputies responded on Friday and located the vehicle and secured it,” said Jacobsen. “We left deputies at the scene and secured it overnight due to the loss of light.”
On Saturday morning, a search by members of the Potosi Fire Protection District and the sheriff’s office revealed evidence of a burn pile near Ancona’s vehicle, Jacobsen said.
Officers executed two search warrants and arrested one man on an unrelated drug warrant out of Washington County. While officers were waiting for a warrant to be issued, the dispatch center received a call from a woman who was taking her family fishing that they had located a body near the bank of the Big River near Belgrade, Mo., about 70 miles southwest of St. Louis.
The coroner’s office determined that the body was Ancona’s and that he died from a gunshot wound to the head, Jacobsen said.
The St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department and Missouri Highway Patrol were assisting in the investigation.
