Alton, MO. – The Missouri State Highway Patrol recently announced the arrest of a man who is wanted in connection to human remains that were found in Shannon County in 2022. 60-year-old Robert Bender from Alton, Missouri, is now facing charges of first-degree murder, stealing, and abandonment of a corpse after he killed his sister, Debra J. Ramsey. A judge ordered Bender to be held without bond.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on January 12, 2022, around 10:30 a.m. workers from the Missouri Department of Transportation were mowing the right of way of US Highway 60 in Shannon County. One worker found the remains of a deceased female lying on the grass down a steep embankment. On January 14, 2022, doctors confirmed the cause of death as being homicide by multiple gunshot wounds. It is also stated that all ten fingers of the woman were mechanically removed by some tool. The fingers are still missing. The body had been dumped in that area sometime between December 25, 2021, and January 2, 2022. Doctors also believed that the body was stored in some kind of freezer before she was found.
On April 23, 2024, officers found a witness who told the police that she had not spoken or been able to talk to her mother, Ramsey, in over a year. She stated that her mother lived alone with her Uncle Robert Bender. She said that she went to check in and found a freezer outside, which was, according to her, very unusual. Then she looked in the window and saw her mother’s room boarded up and her uncle, who became agitated that she was there. After investigation, they determined that he allegedly killed her to use her Social Security deposits from her bank account in Alton.
After getting a search warrant, they searched the boarded-up bedroom and found several firearms, identified the belongings of the victim, and blood stains all over the room. After reading his post-Miranda rights Bender stated, ” I can not tell you what happened, not because I can’t, but because I will not and telling you will not help me.”
