** UPDATE ** Police i-d three suspects arrested in discovery of murdered man’s body

KMIZ–MILLER COUNTY, Mo. – Three Miller County men have been charged in the death of a Columbia man who was reported missing last month.

Prosecutors on Friday charged Christopher W. English with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse in the death of Aaron Brantley, 41. William G. Lucas and Daniel Cole were charged with accessory to first-degree murder, accessory to armed criminal action and conspiracy to abandon a corpse. The Miller County Sheriff’s Office said last week that Brantley’s body was found in a wooded area near Brumley.

Brantley, who was reported missing Feb. 9, apparently died of a gunshot wound, the sheriff’s office said.
Accoridng to a probable cause statement filed in Lucas’ and Cole’s cases, the two men helped move Brantley’s vehicle and body after English shot him at a property on Blue Ridge Road in Miller County. They also helped burn Brantley’s bloody clothes and cellphone and use bleach in an attempt to clean the crime scene, according to the statement.

Cole told investigators a large amount of methamphetamine was at a shop on the property Feb. 8, when the killing took place, according to the statement.