Headless torso found at I-70 rest stop identified after 12 years of mystery

A decade before her disappearance ever became a mystery to police, it was a body — decapitated, dismembered and dumped at a Wright City rest stop — that flummoxed investigators.

Deanna Denise Howland was a Belleville native whose troubles started early on. By her 30s, Howland was hanging out around the Metro East, prostituting herself, using drugs and detached from her relatives, police say. That may be why the 35-year-old Alton woman wasn’t reported missing when she vanished sometime in 2004.

On Tuesday, investigators announced that recent DNA tests had linked the two cases on opposite sides of the river. The headless, limbless torso found in 2004 at a rest stop along Interstate 70 belonged to Howland.

“This has been haunting me for the last 12 years,” said former Warren County Coroner Roger Mauzy, now the county’s presiding commissioner. “It’s the only body I’ve never been able to identify and it’s cost me a lot of sleep. ...There’s nothing more frustrating than having someone under your care that you don’t know who it is.”

BODY FOUND

The woman’s torso was found at the rest stop on June 28, 2004. She was found down a small hill in a remote part of the rest stop, along a circle drive that was primarily used as a picnic area. Because the remains had not decomposed, police believe she had not been dead for long — perhaps for only hours — when she was discovered. Investigators believe she was killed somewhere else and dumped out of a vehicle.

She was wearing only a black bra. Her identity remained a mystery. Among the only clues were scars from an appendectomy and a Caesaran section.

Investigators checked missing person reports, but found no match. Howland hadn’t been reported missing yet.

Police at one point interviewed a suspected serial killer who was being held by authorities in Alabama. Later, they said they believed a spouse or boyfriend might be responsible for the death. Police found a knife in a storm sewer that they said might have been used to dismember the body. But without a name for the victim, the investigation apparently went nowhere.

Eventually the case went cold.

Estranged from family

Howland was married more than once and went by different names, police said. Her maiden name was Deanna Barker. She also went by Deanna Kinnear and Deanna Froehlich.

Court records say she was born in Belleville, married in 1991 and divorced four years later. She had at least two children.

Family members of Howland couldn’t be reached or didn’t want to talk.

Records show about two dozen criminal cases in Madison County beginning in 1996, including drug and paraphernalia possession, prostitution and solicitation. The last criminal charge listed in Madison County court records was a March 2004 charge of a pedestrian walking on the highway.

Ferguson Capt. Dan DeCarli, commander of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, said Howland lived a “very transient” lifestyle and was estranged from her family. She was known to hang out in Granite City and East St. Louis in addition to the Alton area.

She wasn’t reported missing until last year, authorities said. It’s not clear what triggered that report at that time.

Information about her was posted in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database, which said she was last seen in the Alton area on May 11, 2004.

Case reopened

Meanwhile, in 2014, Warren County Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Schmutz had reopened the torso case.

At some point, investigators in Madison County got information that caused them to contact Warren County about a possible link between Howland’s missing person case and the unidentified torso. It’s not clear what that information was, and authorities declined to discuss specifics.

After sharing information, authorities compared DNA from the torso to samples from some of Howland’s relatives, Warren County Sheriff Kevin Harrison said. His department received test results March 10 confirming the torso was Howland.

The identification resulted from “two investigators getting together, sharing what probably seemed like nothing, and it absolutely was the right information,” Harrison said.

Now, police hope they may finally be able to solve the mystery of how she died and who dumped her remains in Warren County.

“We want to focus on who she is and where she had been,” Maj. Jeff O’Connor of the Major Case Squad said Tuesday as the DNA results were announced. “We are looking for anything. I am sure somebody out there has some information about this.”

Police are asking anyone with information about the case to call CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477.

Joel Currier • 314-340-8256

@joelcurrier on Twitter

jcurrier@post-dispatch.com

Tim O'Neil • 314-340-8132

@timoneilpd on Twitter

toneil@post-dispatch.com

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