Convicted killer charged with deaths of three Stoutland residents

A convicted killer who spent about three decades behind bars for a 1979 slaying was being held without bond in southwest Missouri on Monday in connection with the deaths of three Stoutland residents whose bodies were found in a mobile home last week.

Morris McCabe, 51, Lebanon, was released from prison in February after serving out a 30-year sentence.

He now faces three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of armed criminal action in the deaths of Donald Young, 45, Donald Myers, 53, and Sally Amos, 46, at Myers' mobile home near Stoutland.

Camden County Circuit Court Clerk Jo McElwee told The Associated Press said it doesn't appear that McCabe has hired an attorney. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to review his counsel status, she said.

The three bodies were found on Friday when a friend looked through the trailer's window and saw a man slumped over a kitchen table.

A probable cause statement released Monday says McCabe threatened the lives of his girlfriend and her family if the woman followed through with plans to break up with him. McCabe told investigators the two had been dating since August.

One of the victims, Myers, had previously been involved romantically with the woman and had lived with her off and on for about a year, the probable cause statement said.

"(The woman) also stated that McCabe had been threatening to kill several members of her family," an investigator said in the statement. "He is very obsessive and jealous. He assaulted her on Friday, Nov. 26, and returned the next day and told her that she was going to stay with him, she was going to be in love with him and that she was going to do whatever he wanted or he would kill her children. She then told him they need to separate."

The woman called the Camden Sheriff's Office on Nov. 28 to report that she had been assaulted and hurt by McCabe, but she recanted her statement when deputies arrived, investigators said.

Police believe McCabe stole a 9 mm rifle, on Wednesday after trying to borrow it from an acquaintance.

The owner said he left home after refusing to let McCabe use the gun, then received a call from McCabe saying someone had broken into the man's home.