Body of St. Joseph woman was stuffed in box, dumped near Weston
Two bodies were found at opposite ends of Platte County last week.
According to the Platte County Sheriff’s Department, a body was discovered Sept. 12 by a fisherman along the banks of the Missouri River in southern Platte County, near the Waldron area. Then, Sept. 13, a body stuffed inside a wooden box was discovered near East Dye Store Road in northern Platte County near Weston.
As of The Citizen’s Tuesday deadline, the Sheriff’s Dept. said the cause of death has not been determined in either case, nor do officials know how long each body had been at the location it was discovered or how it got there. A Department spokesperson also said that it does not appear the two cases are related.
On Monday, however, the Sheriff’s Dept. said it had identified the body found near Weston as that of Tangela A. Fisher, a 35-year-old white female from St. Joseph. Officials also say that her body was found inside what appears to be a homemade box.
“Tangela Fisher’s body was found inside an oddly-constructed box — one part of it appears to have been made from material from a ping pong table,” Sheriff’s Dept. spokesperson Sgt. Jerin Almond said.
Almond said also found in the box were various pieces of clothing in both men’s and women’s sizes. He said that the Department was waiting for a toxicology report to help determine the cause of death and said it could be several days or weeks before the results are known.
The Sheriff’s Dept. said it received a call just after 10 a.m. Sept. 13 from a citizen who said they had discovered a dead body near East Dye Store Road and Dye Store Road, in northern Platte County just north of Weston. The Kansas City Area Metro Squad was asked by the Sheriff’s Dept. to assist in the death investigation. Almond said the Metro Squad was briefed Tuesday about the information gathered from the scene Friday and is currently investigating the death.
The body was discovered on land owned by Weston area farmer Donald Wilson. Wilson said he did not discover the body and had not been “back there in a few weeks.” He said people who had permission to be on his property to retrieve “junk metal” discovered the body and called the Sheriff’s Dept.