Prosecutors file charges in 32-year-old slaying

LIBERTY, Mo. -- A prison inmate who says he's become a born-again Christian has confessed to killing a man 32 years ago, telling investigators he was "clearing his conscience."

Based on statements he made to the investigators, Robert Patrick Macon, 68, was charged Monday in Clay County Circuit Court with first-degree murder, as well as with a 1965 bank robbery. He is accused of shooting elevator repairman William W. Van Trease, 44, on Aug. 13, 1970. The slaying was the only unsolved homicide on the books in North Kansas City.

Macon is serving time at the Crossroads Correctional Facility in Cameron for robbery and armed criminal action.

Prosecutor Donald T. Norris said the Kansas City TIPS Hotline got a call last month from somebody who said an inmate at Cameron had information about the shooting.

"North Kansas City officers were made aware of the call, pulled the old case file and reopened their investigation," he said.

Authorities had questioned about 100 people after Van Trease was killed but never identified a suspect.

Detective Kevin Freeman of the North Kansas City Police Department said Macon gave investigators a complete and detailed account of his involvement in the bank robbery and the slaying.

"I want everything settled before I die, because I've been forgiven by Jesus," Macon said in a telephone interview from prison with television station KSHB-TV. "I'm really worried about getting to heaven with all of my family."

Norris said Macon told authorities he wanted to scare Van Trease, who lived in Kansas City, into not telling police about his role in the bank robbery.

Authorities were unsure how Macon and Van Trease knew each other or why Van Trease was in North Kansas City at the time he was shot.

Van Trease was shot several times as he ran between two houses, trying to get away, Norris said. He said that after he fell, Macon shot him again.

Police said several witnesses near the shooting scene agreed they saw a "short, stocky" individual run from the driveway where Van Trease was shot and speed away in a red and white Volkswagen bus. Investigators said Van Trease's bus was found 30 minutes after the shooting.