Murder charges filed in death of southwest Missouri woman as grisly details revealed
READ MORE
Missing Missouri woman allegedly kept in cage
Two men are accused of kidnapping Cassidy Rainwater in an Ozarks cabin.
Expand All
Missouri sheriff blasts ‘fake news,’ insists speculation about caged woman is ‘crap’
Missing Missouri woman allegedly kept in cage attended Kansas City-area high school
Missouri woman allegedly kept in cage: Case surrounded by secrecy and speculation
Ozarks home where woman was reportedly kept partially nude in cage burns to ground
Photo of partially nude missing woman in cage leads to arrests, Missouri sheriff says
Two southwest Missouri men suspected of kidnapping Cassidy Rainwater have been charged with murder and authorities confirm they found the woman’s remains in a freezer.
The charges against James D. Phelps, 58, and Timothy L. Norton, 56, were upgraded from kidnapping to first-degree murder Wednesday afternoon. Each one was also charged with abandonment of a corpse.
An attorney for Norton said Thursday that his client would plead not guilty. A lawyer for Phelps could not immediately be reached.
News of the murder charges was posted on the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page around 3 p.m. Gruesome details revealed how authorities say Rainwater was killed and her body dismembered.
The social media post stated that while executing a search warrant of Phelps’ home in September, deputies collected physical evidence “including the gantry device, cage, and items from the freezer that appeared to be human flesh with a date written on them of 7-24.”
Skeletal remains believed to be Rainwater were located on the adjacent property, the sheriff’s department said. The crime lab has since confirmed that the remains found in the freezer were Rainwater.
Since mid-September when Phelps and Norton were arrested and charged with kidnapping and other offenses, authorities in Dallas County had been saying little about what exactly happened to Rainwater, who was officially reported missing in late August.
In the new details released on Facebook Wednesday, authorities said a woman named Cora Terry reported Rainwater missing on Aug. 25. Terry said then that the last time Rainwater was seen was about six weeks earlier and she believed that a “James Rainwater” was believed to be the last person to see her. Authorities later learned that she was talking about James Phelps.
Deputies went to Phelps’ home at 386 Moon Valley Road that day and asked if he knew Rainwater.
“Phelps advised he did but he had not spoken to her in about a month,” Wednesday’s post said. “Phelps advised Cassidy had made a statement about going to Colorado.”
About a week later, a Dallas County detective went to Moon Valley Road and spoke to Phelps about the missing person case. Phelps then said that Rainwater was staying with him “until she could get back on her feet,” according to the probable cause statement related to the initial charges filed against Phelps.
He also told the deputy that at the end of July, Rainwater had left in the middle of the night and met with someone in a vehicle at the end of the driveway and he had not seen or heard from her since.
In mid-September, the Kansas City office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation received an anonymous tip with photos, including one of Rainwater inside a cage. That tip led the FBI to Dallas County and launched what became a secretive, weeks-long criminal investigation.
The new details reveal that the tip the FBI received was titled “Cassidy.” Some photos showed “Cassidy’s body bound to a gantry crane, commonly used for deer processing, and her evisceration and dismemberment.”
After receiving the information from the FBI, deputies went back out to Moon Valley Road and “recognized items in Phelps’ back yard that coincided with the photos.”
Phelps and Norton were charged in September with kidnapping Rainwater and facilitating a felony, inflicting injury and terrorizing. Authorities hadn’t said anything about Rainwater’s whereabouts. Officially, she had been reported as missing. The day after Phelps was arrested, he invoked his right to an attorney, details released Wednesday said.
Deputies searched the property for seven days, according to the sheriff’s department. In all, more than “200 pieces of evidence were recovered,” Wednesday’s post said.
“... Digital evidence revealed messages between James Phelps and Timothy Norton planning the murder of Cassidy Rainwater,” the department said.
During the investigation, court records show, officers had identified Norton as a person connected with the case. They interviewed him on Sept. 19. Norton told them that he was an over-the-road trucker and that he lived in his truck “even when he was not actively transporting a load for delivery.”
After Norton’s interview, officers continued to investigate, and it became evident that he had provided some inaccurate information, according to court records.
Authorities interviewed Norton again on Sept. 20 at the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office. He told them that he knew that Rainwater was being held at the home of Phelps and that she had been kept in a cage, the affidavit said. Norton further said that on July 24, Phelps had contacted Norton to come to Phelps’ home, the affidavit said.
“Norton then admitted that after arriving at Phelps’ home he did physically confine CR by holding her down for a substantial period of time, for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a felony, or inflicting physical injury on, or terrorizing CR,” the document said.
Court records say Phelps had seven photos of Rainwater on his cellphone that showed her partially nude body inside the cage in the small, rundown home where he was living near Windyville, about 160 miles southeast of Kansas City.
According to the new details provided Wednesday, when Norton spoke to FBI agents on Sept. 20 he “confessed to the murder of Cassidy Rainwater.”
Norton reportedly told agents that Phelps asked him to come over while Rainwater was asleep in the living room.
“Norton stated, after entering the house, he held Cassidy’s legs down while Phelps strangled her and placed a bag over her head,” the sheriff’s department’s post said. “Norton stated that after Cassidy was deceased, he and Phelps took a short break before carrying her body outside. Norton stated that Phelps bound her to the gantry crane and Phelps began evisceration and dismemberment of Cassidy’s body. Norton stated he helped Phelps carry Cassidy’s body into the house and placed her into the bathtub.”
During their investigation, authorities said they did not find any evidence “that would lead us to believe there are any other victims associated with Phelps and Norton at this time.”
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office at 417-345-2441.
The mystery surrounding the case only intensified when the home burned to the ground on Oct. 4. First responders discovered what appeared to be a makeshift tripwire and called in the Springfield Fire Department’s Bomb Squad. Fire investigators found evidence of two incendiary devices, according to an initial report released by the Springfield Fire Department.
Rainwater has ties to the Kansas City area. In a 2003 yearbook from Harrisonville High School in Cass County, she’s listed as a freshman.
The case has drawn interest across the region and country.
Three hours after the sheriff posted the details on Facebook Wednesday, more than 200 people had commented and 700 had shared the post.
“That poor women!,” one person wrote. “Sending lots of prayers for comfort to her family and all who loved her.”
Added another: “Evil lives among us.”
Reporter Judy L. Thomas contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 5:39 PM.
