Convicted murderer found dead in his cell

Wayne DuMond guilty in one killing, suspected in second

By GLENN E. RICE

The Kansas City Star

Wayne DuMond, who was convicted in 2003 in the slaying of a Parkville woman, died early Wednesday, apparently of natural causes.

DuMond, 55, was discovered dead at 7:03 a.m. in the Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Mo., where he was serving life in prison, the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed.

Authorities found DuMond unresponsive inside his cell. He was taken to a medical facility, where he later was pronounced dead, said Wanda Seeney, a department spokeswoman.

A Clay County jury convicted DuMond in 2003 for suffocating Carol Shields, a 39-year-old Parkville woman, on Sept. 20, 2000, and leaving her nude body bound on a bed in an apartment at 7918 N. Holly St. in Kansas City, North.

On Tuesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld DuMond’s murder conviction, said Clay County Prosecutor Dan White.

“The world is a better place without Wayne DuMond,” White said. “He was a manipulative predator.”

DuMond was arrested June 22, 2001, after police received a report from authorities in Arkansas that material under Shields’ fingernails matched his DNA in an FBI database.

He had moved to Smithville in August 2000 after he married a woman who was part of a local church group that had visited him in prison in Arkansas.

DuMond had been paroled after serving 13 years for the 1984 rape of a Forrest City, Ark., teenager who was a distant relative of former President Bill Clinton. He was awaiting trial in that case when he said someone castrated him in 1985 in his Arkansas home.

DuMond was a suspect in the June 2001 homicide of Sara Andrasek in Platte County, but no criminal charges had been filed, said Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd.
To reach Glenn E. Rice, call (816) 234-5908 or send e-mail to grice@kcstar.com .

From the Associated Press:

Arkansas' castrated rapist Wayne DuMond found dead in Mo. prison

FORREST CITY, Ark. - One day after losing an appeal of a murder conviction, Arkansas castrated rapist Wayne DuMond was found dead in Missouri prison cell Wednesday, apparently a natural death caused by vocal cord cancer.

DuMond was paroled from an Arkansas prison and later convicted of murder in Missouri. His death came after the Missouri Supreme Court denied his appeal Tuesday.

DuMond, 55, was castrated while awaiting trial for the 1984 rape of Ashley Stephens of Forrest City. He was initially sentenced to life in prison. But in 1992 then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker commuted the sentence to 39 1/2 years, making DuMond eligible for parole.

After his release in 1999, DuMond moved to the Kansas City, Mo., suburb of Smithville and was later convicted of killing a woman in her apartment. Tuesday, DuMond lost an appeal in that case.

Shortly after taking office in 1996, Gov. Mike Huckabee said he intended to reduce DuMond's sentence to time served - about 11 years at the time. The governor ended up rejecting DuMond's parole request, which would have freed DuMond without conditions. He signed the decision moments after the Arkansas parole board granted DuMond a parole on condition that another state take him.

DuMond was pronounced dead at 7:03 a.m. by medical staff of a prison infirmary at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Mo., said Wanda Seeney, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Prison guards found DuMond unresponsive during a routine inmate count earlier that morning and tried to revive him before taking him to the infirmary, she said. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death. Two months ago, DuMond was diagnosed with cancer of the vocal chords, she said.

"He was being treated for cancer, but it was still a shock because his cancer had not progressed to where they were expecting him to die at any moment," she said.

DuMond's case became notorious in Arkansas when he claimed he was castrated while awaiting trial for a 1984 rape at Forrest City, Ark. No one was ever charged in the assault. Stephens is a distant relative of former President Bill Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas at the time of the rape.

DuMond moved to Missouri after being paroled from Arkansas and shortly afterward was arrested for the Sept. 20, 2000, murder of Carol Sue Shields of Parkville. He was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

Prosecutor Dan White in Clay County, Mo., said the Appeals Court for the Western District of Missouri upheld Dumond's appeal Tuesday of his first-degree murder conviction.

White said Dumond was also the lead suspect in a murder in Platt County, Mo., but had never been charged in that case.

White added: "I think the world's a better place without Wayne DuMond in it, and I wouldn't want to be him right now."

Comments

[melissa]

Any man that hurts a woman or even ends their life deserves no mercy.I myself am from the kansas city missouri area and i was abused by my husbands. I think iy was meant for him to go and god took him giving the victims family relief knowing he would never see day ligh again.My ex husband is in cameron prison now for molesting my daughters and i would prefer to have him spend life.I have no feeling for men that hurt woman or children.

[mike cook]

In my book WHY THE INNOCENT PLEAD GUILTY AND THE GUILTY GO FREE, I gave Wayne Dummond (Dumond) sympathetic treatment based on incomplete and inaccurate information. I did not know about the Missouri murders. I also thought that the primitive DNA analysis of the 1985 had in some way definitively ruled him out. At any rate, this was a most disturbing case which had political overtones in Arkansas 22 years ago and on Tim Russert's Meet The Press interview of Mike Huckabee in early Februrary of 2007.

[Sammy-Finkelman]

Melissa: In my book WHY THE INNOCENT PLEAD GUILTY AND THE GUILTY GO FREE, I gave Wayne Dummond (Dumond) sympathetic treatment based on incomplete and inaccurate information. I did not know about the Missouri murders...

What makes you so sure he was guilty of the Missouri murders? This was another Scottsboro boys or Sacco and Vanzetti case. It was highly political. If he wass innocent, some people had very strong motives to maintain he wass guilty. Theer is no reason to accept anything on faith here just because nobody seems to be disputing it. We don't know why.

Now look at this above:

and look at this:

<< DuMond was arrested June 22, 2001, after police received a report from authorities in Arkansas that material under Shields' fingernails matched his DNA in an FBI database. >>

??

If it was an FBI database, why is the report coming from authorities in Arkansas?

Can't authorities in Missoouri check for themselves?

Maybe it was not an FBI database. Maybe something is wrong with that story.

Remember this case was almost 100% tied into politics and local law enforcement reputation. Not to mention that Clinton - or his political allies - are involved in some way here.

His parole was delayed from January 1997 to October 1999 because it had been conditionede on him moving out of state - and then at lesst three stastes, included Florda and Texas, refused to take him.

http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/print.aspx?ArticleID=154e1aad-fd18-4efd-8d80-b5dab8559419

I'll bet that was a surprise to soem people. I'll bet some people in Arkanas were contacting authorities in those states telling them not to take him.

It was 1 1/2 years after the murder that he was connedcted to it. It is highly probable that some people in Arkanasas weer still interested in him.

And then he dies mysteriously in prison - no apparent cause, like President Harding.

the fact of the matter is, this is not enough to say he was guilty - we don't know how he wass convicted in the second case. I think it is somewhat unlikely a castrated man could have raoped - it is possible if he was taking hormones. It is true he that ten years before 1985 he had been guilty of some sex crimes. Of course that could have bene the reason to frame him. We just don't know enough.