Fugitive accused of murder who skipped house arrest apprehended in Jackson County: police
A 25-year-old woman accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend has been arrested again after she fled house arrest last week, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
Katie Black, of Independence, faces charges of second-degree felony murder, armed criminal action, domestic assault and illegal weapon use. She has been sought by law enforcement as a fugitive since she apparently disabled her electronic monitoring device last week.
Black, whose last recorded address was in Independence, according to court papers, was arrested in Atherton on Monday afternoon, authorities said. She is now being held in Jackson County Jail without bond, court records show.
Black is accused of fatally shooting 29-year-old Ryan Wheeler. He was shot and mortally wounded in the eastern Jackson County town of Sibley on the evening of July 7.
At the scene of the shooting and during a later interview with a Jackson County detective, Black offered multiple conflicting accounts of what happened, according to charging documents.
In her initial story, Black allegedly told an investigator her boyfriend was shot during a struggle with an unknown man outside of their parked SUV. She described hearing the sound of two gunshots before the man ran away toward the railroad tracks. Then, she told police, she dialed 911 while applying pressure to her boyfriend’s wound.
During an interview at the agency’s headquarters, Black allegedly admitted to shooting her boyfriend but described what transpired as an accident.
Police also interviewed a relative of Wheeler shortly after he died. The relative told a detective Black was angry with Wheeler because she discovered he was sending romantic text messages to other women, according to court records.
