Aug 21, 2008

A 45-year-old Ava man has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of a Branson man on a rural Douglas County road Saturday. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Department said James Earl Hitchcock shot Wendell Dean Hillhouse, 42, dragged him off the road into the woods, then hit him in the head with a baseball bat, according to the statement of probable cause written by Douglas County Deputy Atonya Hampton. Deputy Hampton said she received information at 3:25 p.m. Saturday, from a third party, that a female’s ex-husband had shot her boyfriend and dragged him into the woods. While Deputy Hampton was speaking with the individual, Vena “June” Hitchcock arrived at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and spoke with Sheriff Gary Koop about the incident. Sheriff Koop drove June Hitchcock to the scene of the crime on Douglas County Road 335 where the body of Wendell Hillhouse was located. According to Deputy Hampton’s probable cause statement, June Hitchcock explained to her that James Hithcock asked June Hitchcock and her boyfriend, Wendell Hillhouse, to help him move some vehicles to his residence located in Ozark County. June Hitchcock stated each of them drove a separate vehicle. The murder took place on County Road 335, which runs from Highway 14 to the Trappist Abbey Monastery in south central Douglas County. On the gravel county road, James Hitchcock stopped and opened the hood of his vehicle as if the vehicle had overheated. Both June Hitchcock and Hillhouse stopped and backed up to assist James Hitchcock, she told Hampton. She said Hillhouse got out of his vehicle and walked to the front of Hitchcock’s vehicle. Hitchcock went to the driver’s door of his vehicle, got a “long gun” and shot Hillhouse twice. He then dragged Hillhouse’s body into the woods, returned to the vehicle and got a baseball bat and went back into the woods. When Hitchcock returned he told June Hitchcock he hit Hitchcock twice in the head with the bat to make sure he finished him. Prosecuting Attorney Chris Wade charged James Hitchcock with first-degree murder and armed criminal action and Hitchcock was arraigned on those charges Tuesday afternoon. He is currently being held in the Douglas County Jail in lieu of $250,000 cash-only bond. According to the West Plains Daily Quill on Monday, Hitchcock was found around 3 a.m. Sunday in a field near the Quail Run subdivision a mile west of West Plains. According to the newspaper article, Howell County lawmen were told, by an unidentified source, where they could find Hitchcock. Lawmen were told Hitchcock might be heavily medicated and contemplating suicide.