Marion Gerloff may have died as early as Feb. 1, according to a police probable cause statement filed Saturday with the second-degree murder charge lodged against Gerloff's roommate, Karen M. Brinkley.
The statement said Hermann police went to Gerloff's home about 3 p.m. last Friday as part of a missing person/check-well-being request.
After Brinkley gave "verbal consent to search the residence for Ms. Gerloff," Sgt. Shawn Mayberry's statement said, "we located what was suspected of being human remains inside a wooden trunk in the west bedroom of the home."
Mayberry's statement said he had "probable cause to believe" Gerloff was killed Feb. 1, although the statement didn't give details of his reason for that belief.
The statement said Brinkley "made a spontaneous utterance inferring the person inside the trunk was Ms. Gerloff."
After Hermann Police Chief Marion Walker asked the Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control to assist with the crime scene investigation and interview of Brinkley, the statement reported, "Ms. Brinkley confessed to the strangulation death of Marion Gerloff, while under arrest and after advisement of her (Miranda) rights."
Mayberry's statement said officials found "the remains of a decomposed human" inside the home.
The Patrol's news release on Saturday announcing Brinkley's arrest and the murder charge against her said the cause of Gerloff's death "is not being released pending the results of an autopsy" and "due to the ongoing investigation."
Gerloff was 64.
Brinkley, 54, remained in the Crawford County Jail in Steelville Monday, on a $500,000 cash-only bond, where she was being held on the Gasconade County charge.
She is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Wednesday.