A Carter County man currently serving time in prison on other charges has been charged with the 1987 murder of Thomas Ray Rowland.
Uel Joe Freeman, 60, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 1987 shooting death of Rowland after newly-obtained evidence made the arrest possible. Authorities on Wednesday were not ready to say what the information was, but reference was made to new technology making it possible to charge Freeman with the crime.
According to the probable cause statement by Poplar Bluff Police Department Detective Bryce Colvin, Rowland’s body was discovered May 14, 1987, in the trunk of a 1979 Oldsmobile Regency 98. The car belonged to Rowland and was in the parking lot of the Valley Plaza Shopping Center in Poplar Bluff.
Rowland had suffered one gunshot wound to the right side of his head and his remains were covered in a significant amount of a green leafy substance that appeared to be marijuana.
According to the investigation, Freeman allegedly was traveling to Wappapello during the evening of May 11, 1987, with another man when Freeman wanted to stop at a convenience store located at the intersection of Highway T and U.S. Highway 60 to buy cigarettes.
While in the parking lot, two men pulled up in a green Chevrolet Nova and spoke with Freeman. About one minute later, Freeman got into the nova and left with the two men.
Rowland‘s wife, Rhonda, who was the bartender at the Duck-In on the day of her husband‘s disappearance, said she noticed Freeman getting out of the Nova when he arrived at the Duck-In at approximately 4 p.m. that day, and that he met with Rowland at the bar.
Rhonda Rowland said her husband and Freeman had a private conversation when she allegedly overheard her husband whisper they would take Highway KK to Highway W as an alternate route to Ellsinore.
Thomas Rowland reportedly left the Duck-In with Freeman in the Oldsmobile Regency 98 at approximately 6 p.m. and was reportedly never seen alive again.
From there, Thomas Rowland reportedly drove Freeman to Route 2, Box 2635B in Ellsinore — also known as the Old Davidson Place — where Freeman allegedly shot Rowland in the head while he sat in the driver seat of the Oldsmobile, according to the probable cause. Freeman then allegedly removed Thomas Rowland’s body from the driver seat and placed him in the trunk of the vehicle. After the shooting, Freeman allegedly drove the Oldsmobile, with Thomas Rowland’s body in the trunk, to the Valley Plaza.
Two witnesses reported seeing a white male with dark hair and a mustache sitting in a maroon car at the Valley Plaza parking lot at approximately 9:30 p.m. on the evening of Thomas Rowland’s murder. Another witness claimed to see Freeman walking across the Valley Plaza parking lot and said she gave him a ride to another person’s house.
While the PBPD was investigating the murder, several people told investigators Freeman was allegedly hired to kill Thomas Rowland.
A woman who resided at the Old Davidson Place stated she was contacted by a man, who allegedly told her he heard Freeman say he could make $5,000 for killing Thomas Rowland, who the woman said had “ripped off” the St. Louis drug connection. The woman said Freeman also was allegedly going to be paid a recovery fee for recovering the marijuana from Thomas Rowland.
This information led investigators at the time to the property in Carter County, where then-PBPD Detective Donwell Clark conducted an examination. Clark located a blood stain on a gravel driveway in front of the residence. The stain was examined and tested positive as human blood and also matched a sample that was collected from the bumper of the Oldsmobile; however, the laboratory was not able to confirm the samples as belonging to Thomas Rowland, officials reported.
Then-PBPD Lt. Chet Vaughn conducted an interview at the time with a man, who allegedly told Vaughn he had been approached by Freeman in April 1987 to assist him with the contract killing of Thomas Rowland.
The man allegedly told Vaughan that Freeman proposed to lure Thomas Rowland to an isolated area under false pretenses and shoot him.
The man said he knew Freeman owned a .38 caliber revolver and that Freeman planned to move to Texas on May 10, 1987. The man said he knew a contract had been placed on Thomas Rowland for not paying for 20 pounds of marijuana and that Freeman wanted to cut Thomas Rowland out and purchase straight from the supplier.
Another man told James Kimbrow, who was then the investigator for the Butler County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, he allegedly witnessed a man offer Freeman $5,000 to kill Thomas Rowland.
Freeman is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, in relation to being convicted of first-degree assault and armed criminal action in a 2005 incident which took place in Butler County.
PBPD Chief Danny Whiteley was a reserve deputy with the Butler County Sheriff’s Department in 1987 and remembers the case well.
“My wife had been out there the same day they discovered the body at Valley Plaza shopping, and (she) had told me something about a really strong odor out there,” Whiteley said. “Of course, we didn’t think anything about it, particularly then — and then, of course, they found the body in the trunk of the car. …
“This is something I’ve been interested in since I’ve become chief and got Detective Colvin assigned to it. Other detectives looked at it through the years, but with modern technology and so forth, they found some avenues to help bring this case to conclusion.”
Whiteley is glad to see the case find some resolution after more than three decades.
“I certainly commend Detective Colvin for researching it the way he did and coming up with enough corroboration with what we believe, that there were charges filed on it,” Whiteley said. “I don’t know if there’s any of the Rowland family still alive, but hopefully there is and they’ll have some conclusion to their deceased family member. … It’s always good to get something like that finally closed down.
“Sometimes the wheels of justice are slow — and in this case it was 34 years slow. It’s not because of a lack of effort — (it was a) lack of technology and I’m certainly glad we got it put together.”