Barry County

EXETER, Mo. -- A former basketball and baseball coach and physical education teacher faces charges of statutory rape in Barry County.  Scott White, 41, was arrested this week on four counts of statutory rape involving a child under age 14. In a school of about 350 kids, White taught P.E. to them all, kindergarten through 12th grade.  He also coached basketball and baseball.  "We put out a newsletter when we found the prosecutor had issued...

CASSVILLE, Mo. -- A Cassville teenager, charged with vandalising and burning more than a dozen vehicles in Barry County, will be in court for a hearing on March 19. The sheriff says 17-year-old John Plopper was part of a larger crime ring that burglarized and burned around 50 cars and trucks in Barry, Lawrence and Stone counties in January and the first part of February.  John's older brother Timothy Plopper, and Kyle Filbreck of Galena are...

SCHOOL DISTRICTS FIRE DISTRICTS CITIES AND TOWNS ROAD DISTRICTS SCHOOL BOARDS EXETER R-VI SCHOOL DISTRICT (Elect 2) Jeff Hobbs Sammy Hudson Schmidt William Roberts Mitch Sorensen Joseph Still SHELL KNOB SCHOOL DISTRICT No. 78 (Elect 2) Katherine Marcum Lisa Fielder Bob Stewart SOUTHWEST R-V SCHOOL DISTRICT Shall the Board of Education of the Southwest R-V School District of Barry County, Missouri, without an estimated increase in the current debt service property tax levy, borrow money in the amount of One Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($1,500,000)

Three people, including a 10-year-old girl, were seriously injured in an overnight crash in Barry County. It happened on Saturday just before midnight on Highway 37 south of Butterfield. Troopers say a truck crossed the center line and hit a car head-on. A passenger in the truck, Sandra Larson, was flown to Joplin for treatment. Kenneth Keif and 10-year-old Melissa Keif were life-flighted to Springfield. The driver of the truck was not injured.

CASSVILLE, Mo. --  The Barry County Sheriff's hoping for new clues in a pair of missing persons cases. In 1999 Gary McCullough disappeared.  His wife, Sandra Klemp, said he went to buy chickens in Diamond and never returned. Nine years later Gary's step-daughter (Sandra's biological daughter) Liehnia Chapin also vanished.  Liehnia was declared missing after a family member secretly recorded her allegedly saying Gary was murdered. While no bodies have been found and no contact has been made with either person, human remains found in Salem back in January, where Liehnia last lived, gives detectives optimism.

WHEATON, Mo. -- A man from Wheaton died when the SUV in which he was riding flipped over near his home.  The Missouri State Highway Patrol says James Bell, 51, was thrown from the vehicle when it ran off the roadway and overturned on Missouri 76, two miles southeast of Wheaton.  The driver of the SUV, Jared Spears, 26, of Monett, also was thrown out of the vehicle.  An ambulance took him to a hospital in Springfield with what the Highway Patrol...

MONETT, Mo. -- A deadly crash involving a pickup and a poultry-hauling semi blocked Missouri 37 in Barry County early Friday.  The Missouri State Highway Patrol says Billy Walker, 37, of Exeter crossed the center line in his pickup just before 1 a.m. between Purdy and Monett and hit the oncoming truck.  Walker died on impact. Missouri 37 was blocked after the crash for several hours.

Barry County, Mo. -- Barry County deputies arrested a 17-year-old man in connection with at least 15 car break-ins that happened Saturday night in the small town of Butterfield, Mo.  Deputies said the man is part of a ring of criminals who have vandalized or stolen up to 50 cars in Barry County.  "They stole change, took everything out of the glove box, threw it on the floor, took everything out of the console, just rifled through private property,"...

CASSVILLE, Mo. -- For a little more than a year, Justin Ruark's life-long dream of becoming a law enforcer came true when he put a badge on a Barry County deputy's uniform. "I grew up, my dad had a scanner on his desk and it was on 24/7, and I was always sitting there listening to it," said Ruark. In January, however, he'll have to take off the badge that he worked so hard to earn.  Ruark is one of four deputies who will be laid off in the new year.       Voters in November turned down a 3/16-percent sales tax measure that would have helped the cash-strapped department.  The sheriff says the organization will do the best it can under the circumstances.

CASSVILLE, Mo. -- Barry County citizens voted in 2005 to build a countywide 911 emergency call-taking and dispatching center.  Before then, just a handful of towns in the county had 9-1-1 access.  The rest of the county had to dial seven digits for emergencies. Now that 911 center is in jeopardy and could shut down.  It will be up to voters to decide its fate. A sales tax increase is on the ballot on Tuesday, Nov. 8.  It's more than just a tax for new equipment or helping out the budget a little -- it will make or break the 911 center.

EXETER, Mo. -- A fire severely damaged a restaurant on Wednesday morning.  It may have started as a grease fire late in the morning, but officially the cause was undetermined by Wednesday evening. Several fire departments fought the fire. The Exeter Cafe was open when it started, but Exeter Fire Chief Jim Matthew didn't know if any customers were there at the time. The cafe is one of four side-by-side buildings, but the fire did not damage the other three buildings in the row. "There's some water damage to the apartment next door but, other than that, all the damage is just to the cafe," said volunteer firefighter Kirk Wynn.

BARRY COUNTY, Mo --  On Tuesday, voters in Barry County will decide on a sales tax for law enforcement. It's one-eighth of a cent sales tax that the sheriff says would generated $450 thousand dollars. That's money he says the department needs to play catch up from hard times. The slogan is to Protect and Serve but due to budget cuts Justin Ruark couldn't do that. "Last year they ran short on funding. Laid four of us off, I was one of the four," he said. He got his job back, but he'd like to see the other deputies return.

WHEATON, Mo. -- A man from Wheaton died when the SUV in which he was riding flipped over near his home.  The Missouri State Highway Patrol says James Bell, 51, was thrown from the vehicle when it ran off the roadway and overturned on Missouri 76, two miles southeast of Wheaton.  The driver of the SUV, Jared Spears, 26, of Monett, also was thrown out of the vehicle.  An ambulance took him to a hospital in Springfield with what the Highway Patrol...

MONETT, Mo. -- A massive manhunt is underway for a man who took a Barry County sheriff's deputy's gun during an attempted arrest and then ran off.  It happened about noon Wednesday at an apartment along 4th Street in downtown Monett.  The deputy was serving an arrest warrant on Chris Young, 20, who is charged with violating terms of his release after being charged with stealing.  Online court records show Young was charged by the Barry County...

CASSVILLE, Mo --  Businesses in Barry County are seeing some encouraging results of a partnership formed just one year ago. It's not a new concept--help me, help you.  In a time where budgets are tight for small businesses, and there isn't much room for advertising, a small business network can make a big difference. "We started in February of last year. So we've been going just over a year," said Nickle Flooring owner Debra Nickle. In that time the Barry County Small Business Owners Network has thrived.

OZARK, Mo. -- A man from Purdy who pleaded guilty for a drunken driving crash that killed a girl received a 20-year prison sentence for second-degree murder and two concurrent five-year prison sentences for second-degree assault.  Gregory Swaffar admitted he killed a 10-year-old girl in February 2011 in Barry County. Swaffar was drunk when he drove his truck across the center line on Missouri 37 and hit another vehicle.  The wreck killed Melissa Kief of Washburn and seriously injured two others.  Swaffar had two previous convictions for driving drunk in 2010.  One was for "excessive blood alcohol content" for a Cassville municipal law violation, after a stop by a Cassville police officer on May 21, 2010.  The other was a misdemeanor DWI in Barry County associate circuit court after a stop by a state trooper on July 25, 2010.

A weather system that moved through the Ozarks on Wednesday evening prompted warnings but ultimately caused no major damage. Storms fired up along a line in far southwestern Missouri just before 8 p.m. High wind gusts and thunderstorms moved through the southwesterly counties, and one storm intensified rapidly, prompting a tornado warning for Barry County from the National Weather Service. A storm that had shown signs of rotation moved through the Washburn area in the 9 p.m. hour and continued moving northeast before weakening.

NEAR PURDY, Mo. - A 13-year-old boy has died of injuries suffered when an all-terrain vehicle he was riding flipped and landed on top of him in Barry County. The Missouri State Highway Patrol says Jet Lee of Fairview died at Springfield's Mercy Hospital on Thanksgiving evening at 7:30, three hours after the 2006 Honda Rancher he was riding on rolled down a hill and landed on top of him on private property three miles north of Purdy. The Highway Patrol reports this as their 87th reported fatality in 2012.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.   David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Golden, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for producing child pornography and possessing counterfeit currency.   Timothy C. Stringer, 35, of Golden, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 35 years in federal prison without parole. Stringer was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the sexual exploitation of a minor, which is the statutory maximum penalty, and five years in prison for possessing counterfeit currency, with the court ordering those sentences be served consecutively.

EXETER, Mo. -- A former basketball and baseball coach and physical education teacher faces charges of statutory rape in Barry County.  Scott White, 41, was arrested this week on four counts of statutory rape involving a child under age 14. In a school of about 350 kids, White taught P.E. to them all, kindergarten through 12th grade.  He also coached basketball and baseball.  "We put out a newsletter when we found the prosecutor had issued...