JEFFERSON COUNTY, MO (KMOX) - Sheriff Dave Marshak announced a criminal charge against the mother suspected in Tuesday's double homicide investigation that left her 2 year-old son and 9 year-old daughter dead.
Ashley Parmeley, 36, of Pevely, Missouri, is charged with one count of second-degree murder from the death of her two-year-old son, who was found unresponsive this morning in a body of water in the 4800 block of US Highway 67 near De Soto and was later pronounced dead.
Parmeley is being held at the Jefferson County Jail without bond.
The investigation into the death of Parmeley’s nine-year-old daughter continues, and investigators with the Sheriff’s Office intend to apply for further charges through the St. Francois County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office began investigating the death of two children Tuesday after Parmeley turned herself into authorities Tuesday and told them she had shot and killed one of her children while drowning another.
According to Marshak, at about 10:30 a.m., Parmeley called police from the Festus Police Department parking lot and said she killed two children.
"When she came in, she was a little disheveled and her clothes were wet," said Marshak. "I don't know whether that was from the original incident crime scene or if that was subsequently part of the drowning."
When police arrived, they found the body of the child, a nine-year-old girl, with a gunshot wound inside an SUV parked outside, while the other child, a two-year-old boy, was found drowned in the Timber Creek Resort in the 4800 block of Highway 67.
Marshak says they did attempt life saving measures on both children, but both were pronounced dead.
In response to the deaths, Jefferson County Sheriff deputies went searching for a third child, who was a related family member, and was able to locate the child alive.
Sheriff Marshak says they believe the 9-year-old was shot in the 9000 block of Highway E in Bonne Terre. Their belief is this was the first of the two killings.
"The investigators have discovered that last night [the victims] were well and accounted for," Marshak said. "we have information based on the data we have retrieved so far that they were alive first thing [Tuesday] morning."
Sheriff’s Office investigators have taken over the case and the Sheriff’s Office is applying for in-custody warrants through the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.