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.

[Brandon]

Hey sammy it doesnt matter. i am the nephew of my late aunt sue and the DNA was a 99% match. yes there was politics invovled in his case in arkansas but dont drag my aunt into that shit. you dont know her and your not a relative to neither party and im pretty damn sure you werent at the trial. everyone here is stating opinions. your attempting to state facts. #1 castration is basically a primative for a vesectomy and im well aware a man who has had a vesectomy can have sex. #2 you know how bad sexual predators are hated in prison. I have a brother who has been in prison and hes told me what goes on to sexual predators. #3 Neither you or me knows what goes on when authorities have to go to databases and what not. Unless you have actual facts that cannot be disproved i think that you can not doubt his guilt. The man had a past history of sex crimes. These are all your opinions i just thought you would like a little more insight on the case. Bill Clinton and his family had no authority or rights in this case. Oh i bet you didnt know missouri had refused him a few times before he actually moved up here. yeah sounds like that was setting him up for a framing. oh wow another mystery for you to go on a ramble about. your being blinded. the man hate his day in court. he was innocent until proven guilty but hey im sorry a 99% match on DNA if i was a local leo ( law enforcement officer) id take it up. The simple fact is they took my grandmother and used her against huckabee but yet wait a second arent there hidden skeletons in everyones closet. We have no tie to any politics infact to my knowledge we havent even heard a word from bill clinton or any of his relatives including the arkansas victim. Do not compare my aunts case to the other one. They are two seperate cases with two seperate facts. But in their one way similar to one another of terms of being horrifying and disturbing. "its just one of those things you never know until it has happened to you" thats a quote from my mother when i told her i was getting made fun of in recent US history for having strong feelings on why huckabee shouldnt become president. We are not blaming him entirely for the murder infact we dont even know if he did set him free but if he did my grandmother would have liked an apology and if he did do it mistakes happen maybe dumond was a manupulator? no one knows. i dont expect sympathy from you and im not angry with you. i just thought you would like insight from a family member of the victim. AND i pray the nobody who reads this has to feel the pain like we have suffered these past nine years. i had nightmares for years and woke up in tears in my mothers arms because i was crying and screaming aunt sue. i was ten and i still cry in september and now im 19. Its hard and your right there is a very small chance that he didnt do it but if you can find another match to that DNA thats closer than dumonds own then i will applaud your efforts and i will apologize to that mans family. no hard feelings.

[Brandon]

another fact was just brought to my mind he worked in the same area as the apartment my aunt was found in.

[Keesha]

My mom was Carol's best friend, and had been for a long time. My brother and I knew her husband and her son. She is the last person to have ever deserved anything so harsh and cruel... and I still think of her when Sept. 20th comes around. My mom and I were just talking about her devil cat 'cat buddy' the other day and I know she is in a better place. But as for this man who killed her. I wish he would not have died. I believe that he should have had to live the rest of his 'living' life in torment including what we all know as his eternal stay in hell for the things he did. But how can anyone even try to support some ANIMAL who would or even could do something so horrible to a human? Because OBVIOUSLY Carol was not the only victim from dumond. Enough talk about people trying to frame him... _whatever_. Forensics is not going to deliberately change the dna on a case just to see him in prison. That is ridiculous and someone has been reading tooooooo many books and has NEVER had a loved one near and dear to them brutally attacked or murdered so they do not have the feelings to care about it. In closing my heart will always go out to the rest of Carol's family I hope they will all be able to find peace through her tragedy.