UPDATE:
Police charged Malissa Ancona and her son, Paul Edward Jinkerson Jr., with first-degree murder for the death of Klan leader Frank Ancona, ABC News reports.
Authorities believe he was shot in his sleep at home on Thursday, and his body was transported in Jinkerson’s vehicle about 20 miles away, where it was disposed. Investigators allege that Malissa Ancona and Jinkerson, 24, collaborated in the crime and tried to conceal evidence.
Law enforcement departments in Missouri are investigating the death of a Ku Klux Klan leader found dead late Saturday near the bank of the Big River, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Authorities identified the body of Frank Ancona, 51, who died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the coroner’s office.
The Klansman was last seen alive on Wednesday morning by his wife, Malissa Ancona, Leadwood Police Chief William Dickey reported. On Saturday, a woman taking her family fishing discovered the body near a river bank in Belgrade, Missouri, located about 70 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen said no one has been charged with Ancona’s death. “But that may change tomorrow,” he added, according to the Post-Dispatch.
However, the police arrested Ancona’s stepson on an unrelated warrant. Investigators are also questioning Malissa Ancona, KMOV-TV reported.
Malissa Ancona denied, to the Washington Post, police reports that her husband wanted a divorce. She suggested that information came from her husband’s family members, who disapproved of their marriage.
“They’re trying to make it look like I did something,” she told the Post. “He’s all I have. I don’t have any family of my own. … What would I get out of this?”
According to the Post-Dispatch, Ancona identified himself as the imperial wizard with the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and the group’s website shows a picture of him. The newspaper said it had previously quoted Ancona in stories about the distribution of KKK leaflets.
SOURCE: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, KMOV-TV, Washington Post, ABC News
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