Second suspect arrested in killing of Independence woman found dead in Buchanan County
A second person has been arrested in the killing of an Independence woman whose body was found in a duffle bag one year ago Thursday in rural Buchanan County, officials said.
Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett said in an email Sunday evening that Marcus Brooks was taken into custody in relation to the killing of Ariel Starcher, 21, whose body was discovered Feb. 18, 2020, in a ditch in the 500 block of Vincent Road in Faucett.
“(Through) citizen tips the Independence MO Police Department was able to take Marcus Brooks into custody this afternoon,” Puett wrote in an email to media at about 5 p.m. Sunday.
Earlier Sunday, Puett also announced that Taylor Stoughton, 22, was charged with second-degree murder in Starcher’s killing.
In a probable cause statement, the sheriff’s office now says Stoughton admitted that she and 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.
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.
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.
The Star’s Luke Nozicka contributed.
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 7:45 PM.
