The Callaway County Grand Jury has indicted an O'Fallon man in connection with the murder of a man in 1981.
Conrad Schmitt III, 64, was indicted this week on one count of capital murder in the death of Ricky Ridings, 27, of St. Peters. Schmitt is scheduled to be arraigned later this month.
Deputies were sent July 8, 1981, to a report of human remains found in a vehicle parked alongside Little Tavern Creek in the southeast part of the county outside of Portland, according to information from the Callaway County Sheriff's Department.
The body eventually was identified as Ridings, who had been reported missing by his family June 30, 1981. It was determined he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
In June 2017, sheriff's officials received new information on the case, and investigators from the Department of Corrections and detectives from the O'Fallon Police Department assisted in the investigation.
In March of this year, the information gathered was turned over to the Callaway County Prosecutor's Office. That eventually led to the charge and indictment of Schmitt.
Schmitt currently is being held at the Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, where he has been serving a life sentence for a 1995 first-degree murder case in St. Charles County, according to Department of Corrections records. He was found guilty of the charge by a jury and sentenced in 1998.