Polk County

POLK COUNTY, Mo -- A concerned citizen's complaint to a state agency about a livestock packing plant in Halfway, Missouri, has led to some disturbing findings. The Halfway Packing Company is no longer in business, but before its doors closed the state found some serious problems with how business was conducted.    And it's unclear what, if anything, has been done to improve the conditions. In 2012, the Department of Natural Resources inspected the operation, which renders the bone and meat of dead livestock to produce bone meal and oil.      The inspectors found dead animals and animal parts had been exposed to storm-water.

A woman from Polk County is dead after a crash near Pleasant Hope. Troopers say 44-year-old Georgianne Sanner lost control of her SUV on Highway 215 early Sunday morning. She was thrown from the vehicle when it overturned. Her teenage daughter was also in the cab, she suffered minor injuries.

POLK COUNTY -- A late night crash has claimed the lives of three people in Polk county. The accident happened around 11 o'clock Saturday night near County Road 140 and Mount Gilead--just east of Bolivar.       Troopers say the car sped through an intersection, crossed into a field before hitting an out-building, and burst into flames. The names and ages of those killed are expected to be released once family members are notified. The fire marshall is helping the highway patrol with the investigation.

BRIGHTON, Mo. -- The Polk County Sheriff's Department is investigating a body found in a field.  Sheriff Steve Bruce says the badly-decomposed body was found near the Missouri 215/Missouri 13 intersection near Brighton on Saturday afternoon.  The sheriff believes the body has been there for a long time. The body was about 300 feet from the highway in a wooded area.  A man walking the highway looking for scrap metal found the body. Investigators said Saturday that it appears the body was a transient.

POLK COUNTY, Mo.-- An old summer getaway in Polk County is getting new life.  Saturday, the "Graydon Springs Outdoor Legacy" organization held an open house at the historic Camp Wakahni, just outside of Walnut Grove. The campsite first opened in the 1870's as a healing site with the springs nearby.  It then became a popular camp up through the 1960's. Organizers say they hope to restore the campground and re-introduce people to the great outdoors. Here's how you can help Graydon Springs.

PLEASANT HOPE, Mo. -- A farmer died on Thursday afternoon after his tractor fell on top of him in a field.  Emergency medical responders said Kent Redd, 61 , was pulling a steel post out of the ground when the tractor tipped over. The accident was on Redd's property near the intersection of Highway KK at Highway H just north of Pleasant Hope.  The accident especially affected the medical responders because Redd was a volunteer for the Pleasant Hope Fire Department.  

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.-- Polk County has received a rating of "Fair" after after a county wide audit conducted by the Missouri State Auditor's office. State law requires all counties that do not elect a county auditor to be audited by the state. A rating of "Fair" means the county needs to improve fiscal operations in several areas, and some findings need immediate attention. State Auditor Tom Schweich says it discovered several bookkeeping shortcomings in the office of the prosecuting attorney.

POLK COUNTY, Mo.  -- A single car crash near Pleasant Hope on Sunday evening injured one person and stopped traffic for about an hour. A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper told Ky3 News that the car swerved off the side of the road, hit a ditch, went airborne, and struck several trees.      The driver was air-lifted to a hospital; he is listed in serious condition. Authorities said they do not believe he was wearing a seat-belt.     

FAIR PLAY, Mo. -- Polk County Coroner Roy Harms says smoke inhalation is the cause of death for a man who died during a house fire on Tuesday.   The victim was James Coleman, 70. Harms says a cousin had visited with Coleman earlier in the day, and returned to find the house on fire around noon.  The cousin tried to rescue Coleman but was repelled by heat and smoke.  Coleman used a wheel chair and an oxygen tank. The Dunnegan Fire Department found the house along Missouri 32 in Fair Play fully engulfed in flames when they arrived.

BOLIVAR, Mo. -- Polk County Coroner Roy Harms said Tuesday that the autopsy found a small caliber bullet in the skull of a 12-year-old girl who was shot at her home on Saturday night.  Sierra Elliott died on Sunday night at a hospital in Springfield.  Sheriff Steve Bruce previously said the gun was a .22-caliber weapon. Investigators for thePolk County Sheriff's Departmentand the Missouri State Highway Patrol didn't release other information about the autopsy, which was led by investigators from Southwest Missouri Forensics, a private company that does autopsies for several counties.  Harms said he was present at only part of the autopsy at a hospital in Springfield.

NEAR GOLDEN CITY, Mo--An emergency manager reported a tornado touched down east of Golden City Monday morning.  Survey teams will be out today to see if there's any damage.  Tornado sirens also sounded in Polk County but we don't have a report of a confirmed touchdown. High winds damaged a barn near Aldrich, just north of Stockton Lake.  We're also getting reports of trees and branches knocked down in the same area along with power outages. In Springfield a tree came toppling down onto a car at National and Seminole.

POLK COUNTY, Mo -- A concerned citizen's complaint to a state agency about a livestock packing plant in Halfway, Missouri, has led to some disturbing findings. The Halfway Packing Company is no longer in business, but before its doors closed the state found some serious problems with how business was conducted.    And it's unclear what, if anything, has been done to improve the conditions. In 2012, the Department of Natural Resources inspected the operation, which renders the bone and meat of dead livestock to produce bone meal and oil.      The inspectors found dead animals and animal parts had been exposed to storm-water.

JEFFERSON CITY   -   Gov.   Jay Nixon   today named   J. Michael Brown   to serve as the new Prosecuting Attorney for Hickory County. The position became vacant earlier this year after the Governor appointed the former Prosecuting Attorney,   James A. Hackett , as Associate Circuit Judge for Hickory County. Brown, who resides in Hickory County, served as Associate Circuit Judge for Polk County for 24 years before retiring at the end of 2002.

HALFWAY, Mo. -  It's located miles away from the nearest train track.  But, a small manufacturing facility is helping build the nations railroads. On Tuesday, Arrowhead Industries opened it's newly expanded warehouse and production center. It was built with help from Polk County's Enhanced Enterprise Zone tax credit program.  The EEZ incentives serve to assist local businesses for staying local, building local, and hiring local. "It's proof positive that you can have a success in local rural community that also benefits an entire county," stated Jay Kirksey, chairman of he EEZ commission.

POLK COUNTY, Mo.  -- A single car crash near Pleasant Hope on Sunday evening injured one person and stopped traffic for about an hour. A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper told Ky3 News that the car swerved off the side of the road, hit a ditch, went airborne, and struck several trees.      The driver was air-lifted to a hospital; he is listed in serious condition. Authorities said they do not believe he was wearing a seat-belt.     

WARSAW, Mo. -- A man from Eudora in southwest Polk County received a life (30-year) prison sentence for killing his nephew last year.  A jury convicted Shannon Shaffer Sr., 39, of second-degree murder last January for running over Tommy Bryant Jr., 28, in the driveway of Bryant's home near Eudora.   Bryant, who was known to friends and relatives as Bo, died on April 22, 2012. Shaffer's trial was moved from Polk County to Benton County to try to ensure a fair outcome.  Dallas County Associate Circuit Judge Lisa Henderson presided at the trial and sentenced Shaffer after hearing nine victim impact statements on Thursday.  Bryant's mother, Dee Bryant Adams, cried as she made her statement.

BOLIVAR, Mo. -- A third young man will likely be charged for a shooting spree last weekend in Polk County.   The Polk County Sheriff's Department says the high school wasn't the trio's first target on Saturday night. Peter Collins was already asleep on Saturday night, but his friends heard the shots.  "They heard pop, pop, pop, and Wendy immediately jumped up from the chair and went to the window to look out and saw the truck, got a really good description of the truck," said Collins on Thursday.

LINN CREEK, Mo. -- A rescue horse farm near Lake of the Ozarks is taking on horses from an overwhelmed horse sanctuary in Polk County. Missouri Forget-Me-Not Horse Rescue has about three dozen of its own rescues, like Phoenix.  "He fell down and couldn't get up, because he was that thin.  He had no strength," said Connie Hendrix of Missouri Forget-Me-Not Horse Rescue and Sanctuary.  She says Phoenix nearly starved to death, but now...

BOLIVAR, Mo. -- Volunteers are invited to help Ozark Greenways and the Polk County Bike Club spruce up the Frisco Highline Trail in Polk County this Saturday, Dec. 1, 8:15 to 1 p.m.  Volunteers will repair some ditches and washed-out areas by the Hickory Point Bridge near mile marker 32, as well as clearing brush and limbs along the trail. Volunteers should bring drinking water, snacks and work gloves, and, if possible, picks, wheelbarrows, chainsaws, heavy rakes, limb loppers, pruners, shovels.  No RSVP is needed.