WEST PLAINS—In Torey Thompson’s 20 years of law enforcement, the Howell County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant has examined his share of bizarre incidents.
When a man appeared to try and cash in on an insurance policy by staging a bloody farm equipment accident, it became the strangest case of his career.
Would-be fraud and gruesome scenes are part and parcel of Thompson’s job, but the combination of those circumstances is odd. The details made it odder.
In November, the Howell County Sheriff’s Office sent out a relatively vague press release to local media about a situation involving a man in Willow Springs who had lost his feet in an apparent “staged incident” with a brush hog, a rotary mower often attached to a tractor.
Lost was a literal term, as the severed feet could not be found by responding medics and law enforcement officers. No other details were provided amid the active investigation.
The case was recently closed. Thompson shared details with the News-Leader on Wednesday about the event that piqued much of the south central Missouri county’s curiosity.