Year-end 2024: Stories we followed throughout the year

This year, 2024, was a playoffs year.

Teams meet in the regular season, and those games may be important, but they are generally precursors to the final showdown — in the playoffs.

Several big news stories of this year involved long-simmering issues that had a conclusion of some sort (even if it didn’t end or solve the issue).

Some of those stories:

Cape’s water woes continue

Evidence that Cape Girardeau’s water system issues remain unsolved is ample. As of this writing, portions of the city are under a boil-water advisory after a 12-inch water main broke Sunday morning, Dec. 29.

Water main breaks have become commonplace in the city, with several occurring in the past month and others dotting the calendar the rest of the year. The reasons for the breaks are twofold, according to municipal officials. One, many of the city’s water distribution pipes are decades, if not more than a century, old. Two, drought conditions in recent years have allowed the pipes to shift underground, putting more tension and pressure on them.

The city’s water treatment facility is also approaching its capacity.

Having identified more than $100 million in needed repairs and improvements, City Council members asked the city’s voters to raise their own water rates in the November general election. The measure failed, garnering only 44% of the ballots cast.

Since the vote, city officials have not announced next steps toward addressing the water system.

Public safety salaries

Another issue that dragged on beyond one calendar year was an ongoing debate regarding salaries for public safety employees, namely police.

Police officials, including then-chief Wes Blair, lobbied City Council members for more money to pay officers, and the local Fraternal Order of Police group used social media posts to push its case. They contended the department’s salary structure made it difficult to retain experienced officers and recruit new personnel.

The matter came to a head in April, when municipal officials put on the ballot a property tax measure to fund salary increases for all public safety employees. The measure was anticipated to generate about $2 million annually.

The tally was close, but the measure failed by 142 votes out of about 3,500 cast.

Blair left the department in August, and in late November, officials announced that longtime department leader Adam Glueck had been named chief.

Last week, Glueck reported vacancies in the department’s roster had fallen from 13 to five.

Graduation shooting ripples throughout region

On May 19, Cape Girardeau Central High School held its 2024 graduation ceremony at the Show Me Center on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

As one of the seniors was speaking, a gunshot rang out through the arena.

Most attendees had no way of knowing what was happening, but the unfolding incident was not an attack on the graduates, school officials or the audience. The gunfire turned out to be the result of two people, with a history, in a fight. Two people sustained gunshot wounds.

Authorities charged Kris Owens with first-degree felony assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon for his alleged part in the incident.

In the aftermath of the shooting, many questions arose, including why there had not been more security measures in place at the event.

Combined with alleged threats of school violence at various districts in the region, the shooting led officials to announce enhanced safety measures for upcoming on-campus events.

A Southeast Missourian investigation discovered that the Show Me Center’s governing board, responsible for security in the arena, had not met in several years and was functionally not operative at the time of the shooting. The board has announced a meeting, but it is unclear when that meeting will take place.

Cape response to gun violence

A teenager killed because of her proximity to the actual target. A shootout at a downtown nightspot. A parking lot killing that also left a bystander injured.

Those and other gun-related incidents led Cape Girardeau Mayor Stacy Kinder to form a Gun Violence Task Force in July. The wide-ranging group met monthly to learn about gun violence in the city and draft ideas to address it.

The group drafted a set of recommendations. Among them were to “maximize resources available for law enforcement activities” with an eye toward personnel and a “dedicated funding stream” for the police department and create a social services committee to serve as a conduit between community organizations and the City Council. Another component involves juvenile justice reform at the state level.

The group is planning to present its work to the council Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Legal matters

Those weren’t the only ongoing stories the Southeast Missourian followed in 2024.

Two others — legal cases — also garnered attention.

Wavis Jordan, Cape Girardeau County coroner, continued to find himself in courtrooms, civil and criminal, throughout the year.

He is set to face criminal charges in March for allegedly providing false information on vital records and taking a small amount of money from a deceased person’s wallet.

The state Attorney General’s Office filed a civil action to remove him from office.

Those cases have languished on court dockets as Jordan has received a number of extensions, claiming difficulty in finding legal representation.

Jordan ran for reelection but lost the Republican primary in August to Craig Williams. Williams was unopposed in the November general election.

In the latest chapter of the three-decades-old saga of the murder of Mischelle Lawless, a Scott County grand jury recently indicted a man for her murder.

Leon Lamb, who had been linked romantically with Lawless, faces a first-degree murder charge in her death.

Lawless was found dead in November 1992 in her car on an Interstate 55 exit ramp near Benton. She had been shot three times and had suffered a head injury.

The investigation of her death eventually led to the conviction of Josh Kezer. He would spend 16 years in prison before winning his freedom, exonerated after witnesses recanted their testimony.