Man sentenced in connection with February body discovery

A man charged with abandonment of a corpse in early February in Cape Girardeau pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison.

LeimbachJanice

According to court documents, Matthew Morris, 22, of Gideon, Missouri — who was arrested in connection to the discovery of 27-year-old Cape Girardeau resident Kadesia Harris' body Feb. 1 in the treeline near Shawnee Park — pleaded guilty to the class E felony of abandonment of a corpse March 22. Morris was sentenced to serve three years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Harris' body was found at approximately 11:30 a.m. Feb. 1 in a creek bank just west of a parking lot in the 1200 block of South West End Boulevard, according to a news release at the time from the Cape Girardeau Police Department. She was believed to have died inside a residence from a self-induced drug overdose. Later, Morris wrapped Harris' body in plastic material and put her inside a plastic container. He, along with Janice Leimbach, transported the body and abandoned it in the woodline near a creek next to Shawnee Park.

Leimbach, 62, of Cape Girardeau, also pleaded guilty to the crime and has a sentencing hearing scheduled for Monday, April 26 before Presiding Judge Ben Lewis.