6-year-old boy shot to death in apparent murder-suicide

A St. Louis man and a 6-year-old boy were found shot to death Tuesday night in an apparent murder-suicide at a house on South Hanover Street.

Cape Girardeau police identified the victims as Demetrius Beasley, 40, of St. Louis and Markell Beasley, 6, of Jefferson City, Mo.

In a news release Wednesday, the Jefferson City Police Department reported it had received information Sunday that Markell's mother had allowed him to travel to St. Louis to be with Beasley's family for a holiday party, and Beasley did not intend to bring him back.

Demitrius Beasley

Jefferson City police issued an "endangered person alert" and began investigating possible locations or other people who might know where Beasley and the boy were, the release stated.

An Amber Alert was issued for Markell on Tuesday.

Jefferson City detectives worked with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies statewide to find Beasley and Markell, the release stated.

Jefferson City police received word Tuesday evening that Beasley and Markell were in Cape Girardeau. A short time later, Cape Girardeau police responded to a call of shots fired, the release stated.

About 8:35 p.m. Tuesday, someone flagged down officers in the 300 block of South Hanover Street to report two people had been found dead in a residence, Cape Girardeau police Sgt. Jason Selzer said in an email to local media late Tuesday night.

The victims were found in a residence at 308 S. Hanover St., Selzer wrote.

Markell Beasley

Selzer sent out another email Wednesday morning identifying the two dead people as Beasley and Markell.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton said the cause of death was gunshot wounds.

The case appeared to be "a typical murder-suicide; nothing out of the ordinary," he said.

Clifton said the murder weapon was a handgun, but he didn't know the caliber.

The bodies were sent to Mineral Area Regional Medical Center in Farmington, Mo., for autopsies, and a preliminary report should be issued today, Clifton said.

He said it usually takes eight to 12 weeks to get a complete autopsy report back, including a toxicology screen.

Online court records showed a warrant had been issued Tuesday for Demetrius Beasley on a charge of felony kidnapping. The charge indicated the crime had occurred Saturday.

Beasley also faced a charge of first-degree child molestation in a separate case out of Jefferson County, Mo., online court records showed.

That charge, filed in April, involved an allegation dating to August 2008, online court records show.

In June, Beasley's bond in the molestation case was set at $10,000 cash or surety, with the condition that he have no contact with the alleged victim or any children not related to him, online court records show.

Beasley's relationship to Markell and their connection to Cape Girardeau were not immediately clear.

In its news release, the Jefferson City Police Department identified Beasley as the boy's father, but The Associated Press reported that although Beasley and Markell's mother had a previous relationship, Beasley was not the child's biological father.

According to a report in the Jefferson City News Tribune, Beasley told Markell's mother in a series of text messages he would not return her son, Jefferson City police said. He also made threatening statements toward anyone who might try to take the child from him. Beasley told Gelling during their exchanges that "God would see Markell before she would," investigators said in court documents.

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Pertinent address:

308 S. Hanover St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.