RosaLee Byrd was a native of Dent County’s Turtle community and was one of the Ozarks’ last grand old women. She’d lived through both the Great Depression and World War II during her 81 years of life, and although aged, was a fixture around town.
Byrd is remembered by friends as a regular church-goer at New Home Baptist Church and participant in senior events. She died March 9, 2015, at her home at the end of McGrath Lane. Her funeral was held at the Dent County Memorial Chapel four days after her passing. Family members and well-wishers from across the state visited Salem to pay their respects. What many didn’t know that day, however, was Byrd’s death had already been ruled a homicide.
“When I found her she was lying in a puddle of her own blood and had large gashes on the back of her head and a cut on her right temple,” says Byrd’s daughter, Linda McMenomy. “I became worried when she didn’t answer her phone after I tried to call her several times. When I went to check, I found her the way she was.”
McMemony says the door to her mother’s Salem Housing Authority apartment was locked and she let herself in with a spare key and called the police once she found what was inside. She says a coffee table had been moved and candy from a dish was spilled on the floor. Items from a shelf had also been knocked off, and her mother had landed on top of several shattered framed pictures.
Although battered, McMenomy says her mother was still slightly breathing, but unconscious. Byrd was rushed to Salem Memorial District Hospital and later Mercy Jefferson Hospital in Festus, where was declared dead later that day.
“At first, my theory was it must have been an accident, that she’d fallen and hit her head,” McMenomy says.
Given the nature of injuries involved in Byrd’s death, the Dent County Coroner’s Office ordered an autopsy to be conducted. The following day, March 10, a licensed pathologist at the Boone County Medical Examiner’s Office in Columbia declared Byrd’s death was a murder, according to Dent County Deputy Coroner Ben Pursifull.
However, the cause of death was not released to the public at that time. Sixteen months later, The Salem News received a tip that Byrd was murdered. The newspaper made a verbal public records request of Dent County Coroner Gina White for the coroner’s report on Byrd. White responded by having Pursifull send a press release to the newspaper.
“The autopsy results showed that Ms. Byrd died from blunt force trauma to the head, with underlying depressed skull fractures,” Pursifull wrote in a July 8, 2016, release. “The manner in which the death occurred, was determined to have been a homicide. The case was turned over to the Salem Police Department, and MSHP DDCC (Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control).”
The Salem News contacted law enforcement in the days after Byrd’s death, and at that time the newspaper was told the incident was being looked into as suspicious, but no mention was made of the pathologist’s homicide ruling. Other than her obituary, the only mention of Byrd’s passing in the newspaper was March 17, 2015, within the weekly police incident report. It stated officers responded to a call of an unresponsive woman at Byrd’s residence, and she was rushed to the hospital where she later died.
Byrd’s younger brother, Ervin Halbrook, says he was never informed of the pathologist’s homicide ruling. He learned of the homicide ruling last week during an interview with The Salem News for this story.
“I was under the impression it was under investigation, but I was not aware of a pathologist’s report,” Ervin says. “I was not personally told by law enforcement it was a homicide. …I know how law works, and I know you have to be careful, but it would have been good to know the basic fact it had been ruled a homicide from blunt force trauma.”
Halbrook further says that another younger brother, the late Gilbert Halbrook, was also not told of the homicide ruling.
“I talked to my brother (Gilbert) not too long after this (Byrd’s death), and he never said anything to me about a pathology report,” Halbrook says. “Gilbert saw RosaLee almost every night. She was only a year older than him, and they were very close. He lived just down the road from her.”
Halbrook says he and his brother each came to the conclusion their sister’s death must have been foul play.
“We became suspicious when we were told at the emergency room that she had two separate holes in her skull,” Halbrook says. “If she’d had one, then okay, maybe she fell, but if there’s two, that doesn’t sound like she fell to me.”
McMenomy also says she became aware a year ago of an investigation but was not told of the pathologist’s ruling.
Byrd’s funeral was held three days after the homicide was declared on March 13, 2015, but many of the bereaved report they thought her death was an accident. Then Mayor of Salem J.J. Tune was an old friend of Byrd and gave her eulogy.
“At that time, I believed what many others thought, that she had fallen and hit her head,” Tune says. “I don’t think I heard they suspected murder until after her funeral. I’m sure I didn’t. I didn’t hear that until I think a month after RosaLee died, and even then I just took it as gossip and innuendo.
“If a pathologist ruled it a homicide then it was. I wish I would have known. I’m sure I would have said (at the funeral) it’s unfortunate her life came to a tragic end, and she wasn’t afforded the opportunity to live out her natural longevity. She was healthy as far as I knew. I was surprised when I heard she died.”
Salem Chief of Police Keith Steelman told The Salem News two weeks ago that Byrd’s death is under investigation in coordination with the highway patrol.
“There is an active investigation, so there is not a lot I can say, but I can assure you this is not something that has been swept under the rug,” Steelman said Friday. “In order to investigate we decided the less information we let out would be to our advantage to make an arrest. There will be some who say they didn’t know it was a homicide, but then there were many who assumed it was. If that was an oversight then I apologize.”
Gilbert Halbrook died Aug. 19, 2015, leaving his brother Ervin as the last survivor of the siblings.
“People keep asking (about RosaLee’s death), and I say ‘I don’t know,’” Ervin says. “I think it’s still under investigation, but my final conclusion was I know how the law works. You’re innocent until proven guilty, and it kind of makes a difference who you are in how hard they try to find out what happened. That’s just how it is. I can’t bring her back, she’s gone, and the only thing you can get is closure, and that’d be good.”
