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| AMY LEIGH HARTLEY |
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| ANTHONY BALBIRNIE |
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| KHIGHLA PARKS |
Amy Leigh Hartley, 37, Buffalo, is now the second suspect in the death of Khighla Parks, 15. She is charged with allegedly committing statutory sodomy, first degree child endangerment, keeping or maintaining a public nuisance, tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution, and abandonment of a corpse.
Hartley purportedly washed bedding to impair an investigation into the death. Hartley is alleged to endangered the welfare of a child through allowing the teenager into her residence at 810 Locust St., Buffalo, where methamphetamine was made and used “to engage in sex with multiple partners, some of whom were known by the defendant to engage in asphyxiation sex.” Hartley is believed to have had illegal sex with the teenager in addition to moving and helping dispose of the body, according to documents filed with the Benton County Circuit Court.
Another suspect, Anthony Balbirnie, 47, Buffalo, is facing a series of allegations and charges from a special prosecutor from the Office of the Missouri Attorney General. Balbirnie had been charged with alleged abandonment of a corpse, resisting arrest, burglary, robbery and armed criminal action. Some of the charges were in connection with an incident in Springfield. He had been charged in both Benton County and Greene County. The charge of abandonment of a corpse was from Benton County.
Balbirnie has now been charged by the special prosecutor with second degree murder, statutory rape, child molestation, endangering the welfare of a child, tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse, according to documents filed with the Benton County Circuit Court.
Balbirnie is currently incarcerated in the state prison in Bowling Green in eastern Missouri. He was returned to prison on a parole violation in the fall of 2012 for past convictions. He had been released from prison on parole in August, 2012. This was around a month before Khighla Parks disappeared.
Law enforcement officers arrested Balbirnie in October, 2012, following a pursuit on Highway 65 between Buffalo and Fair Grove. He was charged with purported abandonment of a corpse in connection with the body of Willard teenager Khighla Parks being found weighted in the waters of Truman Lake near the Mile Long Bridge a short distance from Warsaw.
Khighla was last seen by her family on Sept. 20, 2012, near the family residence in the Willard area. She was walking in the vicinity of Rt. EE and Rt. AB. Her body was found in Truman Lake some 10 days after she was last seen. A witness is said to have reportedly witnessed Balbirnie binding, wrapping and preparing the body for transportation and then placing the body in the trunk of a vehicle.
Investigators believe Khighla was in the Buffalo area before her death and certain activity in the Buffalo region may have led to her death. The Office of the Missouri Attorney General alleges Balbirnie took Khighla from Greene County to Buffalo for the purpose of engaging in asphyxiation sex with the child. Further, that Balbirnie inflicted serious physical injury on Khighla. The 15-year-old girl died from her air being cut off, it is alleged.
Balbirnie has an extensive criminal history which includes resisting arrest, unlawful use of a weapon, forgery and several drug-related charges. There are safety concerns regarding certain witnesses and co-defendants. As a result, some documents in the latest filing and the case itself had been sealed by a judge.
