Lynn Marie Messer
(June 4, 1962 – July 8, 2014) was an American
woman who was last seen alive during the early hours of July 8, 2014, in the Bloomsdale, Missouri farmhouse she
shared with her husband. Her disappearance generated national news coverage. On
November 1, 2016, her remains were found on the edge of the farm where she had
lived.
Disappearance
At approximately 4:00 a.m. on July 8, 2014, Kerry Messer woke up to find that his
wife Lynn wasn't in bed beside him. He
looked around the house for her, noticing that Lynn's personal belongings -
including her ID, passport, wallet, cell phone, car keys, and the walking boot
she used to help protect her broken toe - were all still in the house. Kerry checked the areas around their farm
where Lynn would normally be as well as the gravel pathways and roads leading
to their farmhouse, and began checking locations beyond the farm that morning
before his son called the sheriff's office. After 10 months of cooperation and
over 40 in-person and telephone visits with law enforcement, they refused to
share where they were in the investigation. The last known communication Lynn
had with anyone other than her husband was a phone call she made at 11:30 p.m.
on the night of July 7.
Investigation
Police quickly classified Lynn as an "endangered person," given the fact that she had a broken
toe at the time and left without her walking boot, leading police to speculate
that she found herself in physical danger. Local police, professional Search and Rescue, K-9 Teams, highway
patrol, and the FBI were called in to locate her. Search dogs picked up a scent trail leading
away from the farmhouse on the day Lynn disappeared, but later that day Kerry
asked his son Abram to move their herd of cows to a different field, which
destroyed the scent trail. The Messer
farmhouse was meticulously searched on the first day and on later dates by both
local and federal authorities. No evidence indicated any harm or wrongdoing by
her husband Kerry, or any indication of a break-in or struggle of any kind,
leading police to believe that she hadn't been abducted. Neither the police nor Kerry believed that
Lynn had decided to run away from home; she hadn't taken any personal
belongings with her, she appeared to enjoy her marriage and family life, and
she had recently been discussing exciting future plans such as holidays and Bible
classes. After four days of intensive
searching, the local Sheriff said he was convinced that Lynn was not on the
farm. The official search was suspended and law enforcement supported the
family as they continued searching. One of Lynn's sons and one of her
brothers-in-law took over directing volunteer search teams for the next 125
days, expending thousands of man-hours in the search.
It was later revealed that Lynn had left a note prior to her
disappearance, but the note's contents were kept hidden by Kerry Messer. He later released a portion of the note to the public
in an interview. The full note had previously been provided to Sheriff's personnel, but said only that "It was some kind of note of finality,
but I don't know what that means and to this day I don't understand it."
He has said also that "the first
line was an apology (...). It was an 'I'm sorry to put you through this… I love
you from the bottom of my heart.'" Kerry
Messer explained that the note reveals "some
conflicts she was going through.", although he has not explicitly
stated that there was an intention of suicide in the note. However, Kerry has since changed his mind and
has attributed her death to suicide despite his initial insistence to the contrary.
Lynn Messer's son,
Abram Messer, said that his mother
had tried to kill herself one time: "After
I asked her several times about it, she said 'I went out to the barn to kill
myself, and I shot the cats instead.'"
In the first four days, law enforcement directed the search
of the farm and key surrounding areas. From that point, friends and family
organized the search parties beyond the farm to try to find Lynn. However, all
efforts proved unsuccessful. In the months following Lynn's disappearance, over
5,000 acres (2,000 ha) of land were searched, missing posters were posted in Ste. Genevieve County and its
surrounding counties, and a Facebook page
was set up in order to try and find her.
Police sorted through tips provided by members of the public, including
many possible sightings that proved to be mistaken identity, but none of the
tips provided any useful leads.
As hunting season approached, Kerry created a new
not-for-profit educational program, "Support
the Hurting", urging hunters, hikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts to
be on the lookout for anything suspicious in the woods. His new educational
approach was to promote a simple three-step approach to report unusual items
which hunters and others might typically ignore. The three-step rule is: "Don't
Touch, Document Location, Report to Local Law Enforcement".
Discovery of body
On November 1, 2016, bones were discovered on the Messer Farm about a mile from the house.
They were immediately believed to be the remains of Lynn Messer because of glasses and artificial hips found with them,
and shortly afterwards they were positively identified as her by means of
dental records.
Her remains were examined by Dr. Mary Case. According to Jason
Schott, Ste. Genevieve County
Sheriff's Department Major: "She
sent a report back on what she did and from what Dr. Case could determine from
the bones recovered, it does appear (Lynn) was out there for the two year time
period. From the time she disappeared until the time she was discovered."
The cause of death had not been determined and Schott said the case will remain
open until it is. The body was released
to the family in March 2017 and Messer was buried in a private ceremony in Greene County, Arkansas, in June.
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