37 year old, Kyla Croney has plead guilty to her involvement in a double homicide early this year, Croney was one three people arrested in connection with the double homicide of Richard Kuntz of West Plains and Frankie Ziegler of Mountain View. Croney pleaded guilty to 2nd Degree Murder and will be sentenced in October.
ORIGINAL REPORT:
A woman from Viola and two men from Missouri have been arrested and charged in connection with an alleged double homicide earlier this week in West Plains.
The West Plains Police Department stated the three were arrested Thursday in connection with the alleged murders of 30-year-old, Richard L. Kuntz of West Plains and 28-year-old ,Frankie L. Ziegler of Mountain View. Kuntz and Ziegler were found in a car Tuesday night, dead of apparent gunshot wounds. The three suspects in the case are 34-year-old, Kyla R. Croney of Viola and 37-year-old, Levi Daniel Gunter and 31-year-old, Joey Allen Marcak, both of West Plains. Croney is reported to be a cousin of the two men from West Plains.
Croney implicated herself and Gunter in the crime, after being arrested shortly after midnight Thursday. Gunter allegedly named a third suspect he said fired at the victims with a shotgun, after they were lured to the scene of the crime under the pretense of a drug deal.
Marcak had reportedly told Croney and Gunter the victims had stolen a car and money from him. Gunter allegedly told police the third suspect got out of the vehicle when they got to the location, hid in the bushes with a shotgun until the victims arrived, then fired four or five shots into the vehicle.
Croney said she and Gunter met with a man she didn’t know on Lanton Road, and the three of them went to the location on County Road 4000, after calling the victims to set up a drug deal. She stated that the man had a rifle with him, and when the three arrived, he got out of their vehicle and shot the victims.
The bodies of Kuntz and Ziegler were found in their vehicle parked on a private driveway. The discovery was made by the property owner, who reported the incident to police Tuesday night.
Gunter also reportedly told authorities that after the shootings, the three of them went to his home off of AB Highway, taking Croney’s SIM card out of her cellphone and destroying it on the way. At his home, Gunter said, the third suspect took off the clothes he was wearing and put them in a furnace, along with five spent shotgun shells, police reported.
Gunter said he then borrowed a cutting torch from a friend and assisted the third suspect in melting the shotgun down with it. The unburned pieces of the shotgun and the brass from the shells were then buried in three separate locations near his property.