Suspect arrested, another sought in killing of woman found in bag in Buchanan County
One suspect has been arrested and police continue to search for another in the killing of an Independence woman whose body was found last year in a duffle bag in a ditch in rural Buchanan County.
Taylor Stoughton, 22, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Ariel Starcher, whose body was discovered Feb. 18, 2020, in the 500 block of Vincent Road in Faucett, Sheriff Bill Puett said Sunday.
A Missouri Department of Transportation worker found the bag last year alongside the road, which is about 45 miles north of Kansas City. The worker thought it looked suspicious and called the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office.
In a probable cause statement, the sheriff’s office now says Stoughton admitted that she and Marcus Brooks obstructed Starcher’s airflow to the “point of unconsciousness” Feb. 5, 2020, at the Sleep Inn hotel at 7611 NW 97th Terrace in Kansas City.
The two then placed Starcher’s body in the bag and threw it alongside the road in Buchanan County, Stoughton allegedly told a sheriff’s deputy. Starcher died of suffocation, according to court records.
The sheriff’s office continues to search for Brooks.
Neither suspect had an attorney listed in court records who could be reached for comment as of Sunday.
Last year, Starcher’s grandfather, who legally adopted Starcher and her siblings when she was an infant, remembered her as a loving mother to her daughters, who were 6 years old and 14 months old when she died.
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 12:32 PM.
