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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Missouri Murderer Shot to Death

CLINTON, Mo. (CN) - Missouri police on Saturday shot to death the sex offender suspected of murdering a woman he'd kept locked in a box for weeks.

Police found James Horn Jr., 47, hiding in a vacant home near the Kearn Memorial Wildlife Area in central Missouri, southeast of Kansas City.

Clinton's assistant police chief said officers got a tip that Horn was in the empty house on land owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

"They encountered Mr. Horn. He was in a closet. He was armed. He refused to surrender. He threatened the search team with a weapon, with a handgun, and he was shot and killed," Assistant Police Chief Sonny Lynch told KMBC-9.

The 24-day search for Horn began when Sandra Sutton, 46, escaped from Horn's house in Sedalia and ran to a neighbor's home for help on April 30.

Sutton told police that Horn, who was her boyfriend, had kept her for weeks in a wooden box. Police found the box - just over 8 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet - which had been soundproofed, and contained a bucket of feces and urine, a flashlight, sleeping bag and reading materials. A single air hole allowed Sutton to breathe.

Sutton said Horn allowed her out only at night, when he forced her to have sex. After escaping, Sutton stayed with relatives, who found her shot to death, with her son Zachary Sutton, 17, on Thursday, May 22.

Horn was a registered sex offender who was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and sexual battery for a 1992 incident with a 22-year-old woman. He also served 12 years in federal prison for kidnapping his estranged wife.

Horn was released from prison in 2012, under supervision, and was on probation the entire time Sutton was held captive.

"He couldn't handle the fact he was under the control of law enforcement," retired FBI agent Michael Tabman told KSHB-TV. "He didn't have the nerve to take his life and he forced police to do it for him."

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