Investigation of southwest Missouri killing plays out on Facebook, and some aren’t happy
The southwest Missouri county sheriff investigating one of the region’s most gruesome killings in recent memory hasn’t said much publicly about what happened to Cassidy Rainwater.
Updates on a case that has drawn intense local interest were for the most part only posted to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. That’s where authorities communicated with the public — and where Sheriff Scott Rice decried “fake news” being spread about the case.
In the days since Rainwater was reported missing by a family member on Aug. 25, the sheriff’s department has written six posts about the case. Those included one about Rainwater being missing and two about the men — James D. Phelps and Timothy L. Norton — charged initially with her kidnapping, and now her murder.
Absent were the flurry of news conferences that would be typical in a high-profile case or lengthy media interviews where he would be hit with a barrage of questions. Just social media updates, with one post on Oct. 7 where Rice blasted “Fake News” and said 99.9 percent of what had been posted to social media was “crap.”
And though some publicly applaud the sheriff for his handling of the investigation, others haven’t been too happy with his approach.
“As you are aware, rumors are widespread and rampant,” one man wrote on the sheriff’s Oct. 7 post. “You have an obligation to dispel those that are untrue with accurate information to relieve public anxiety.”
Added another: “... Please provide pertinent and accurate information. Specifically, what information do you have regarding the whereabouts of Ms. Rainwater?”
Even on Wednesday, when Rice needed to relay breaking news that murder charges had been filed, he turned to Facebook. He told the public that forensic testing had revealed that packages of what appeared to be human flesh in the freezer inside the home Phelps rented were identified as Cassidy Rainwater’s remains.
The details he released only confirmed some of the salacious rumors, including how she was killed.
“Praying for Cassidy Rainwater family and friends,” one woman wrote on Wednesday’s Facebook post about the murder charges. “Your community is saddened to hear that the rumors have became the truth. Your loved one did matter.”
Rice defended his decision to limit the amount of information he released.
“We’re trying to protect the integrity of the case,” he told The Star last month. “And make sure we have a good and just trial.”
On Thursday, Rice didn’t return a call for further comment.
Katie Heflin, who owns the Windyville Store in the tiny town three miles from the Phelps’ cabin on Moon Valley Road, said the way the case has been handled “has been incredibly incompetent.”
When Phelps was arrested, she said, Rice told residents that he couldn’t release much information “due to the extreme nature of the crime.” But then when stories quickly began circulating about there being many more victims, he labeled them “fake news.”
“He’s the one who started that rumor mill going, and it was his detectives that leaked everything in the beginning,” Heflin said. And now, she said, some of the rumors about what happened to Rainwater appear to have been accurate.
“As a community as a whole right now, we feel like we’ve been lied to. A lot of people are really upset.”
They also don’t feel safe, Heflin said. Adding to the uneasiness, she said, is the fact that Phelps’ cabin burned to the ground 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.
The blaze was ruled an arson, but no one has been charged.
“Had the arson been handled and they’d made any attempt to find out who did that, we might feel better,” she said. “Not once did they ask for anybody to come forward or for any information related to the fire.
“I’ve got cameras that point onto Moon Valley Road, and they’ve asked me for copies of my camera footage in the past when property across the street was burglarized. But they didn’t once call to ask on the day of the fire or after to see if they could get the footage to see who had pulled down that road.”
Heflin said she never ran into Phelps or Norton but believed Rainwater came into her store in the summer of 2019.
“A guy came in, like in his 30s,” she said. “And he had two girls with him. And the girls didn’t talk. They went to the back and then came back up, but I know that they didn’t even have enough money to buy a soda and a bag of ice because I ended up giving them a bag of ice for free because I felt bad for them.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 4:31 PM.
