Pamela FOLEY pleads guilty to Larry WHITE murder

WHITE, FOLEY, GIBSON

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 7/23/2012 at 17:48:29

The Bethany Republic-Clipper
Bethany, Missouri
Wednesday, June 19, 2002, Pages 1 & 2

Pamela Foley pleads guilty to murder;
state to recommend life imprisonment

Less than a week before the start of her trial, Pamela S. FOLEY, 41, of Ridgeway [Missouri] entered a guilty plea to a charge of murdering her estranged husband at the residence they formerly shared at the Rock House Lake.

FOLEY appeared last Wednesday morning before Buchanan County Circuit Judge Patrick ROBB in St. Joseph where she pled guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in the death of her husband, Larry WHITE, 39, of Mount Ayr.

After accepting her plea, Judge ROBB ordered a pre-sentence report from the state Probation and Parole Board and set sentencing for 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 27.

Keven ZOELLNER of the state attorney general's office, who handled the prosecution, said the state would recommend a life sentence. If the state's recommendation is accepted, FOLEY would serve a term of at least 25 1/2 years.

Authorities said FOLEY and WHITE had long had a rocky relationship. The couple was last seen together in early November of 2000 at a bar in Mount Ayr. On Nov. 10, FOLEY contacted the sheriff's department claiming that WHITE had assaulted her.

Sheriff Rick DIERENFELDT said he interviewed FOLEY at her Rock House residence and was told by FOLEY that WHITE had come to her house in an inebriated condition and had beaten hear and pulled her by her hair. She claimed that WHITE had left her house after the assault.

Officers came to the conclusion that WHAT was acutally slain the day before DIERENFELDT'S interview with FOLEY.

WHITE was reported mising by relatives later in November. On Nov. 27, officers received a tip from an acquaintance of the couple that WHITE had been killed. The Highway Patrol contacted the informant and anotehr acquaintance and persuaded them to alk to FOLEY about her husband's disappearance, supplying them an audio tape recorder.

After reviewing incriminating statements reportedly made by FOLEY in the audio tape, authorities brought the Ridgeway woman in for questioning. FOLEY at first admitted having a fight with her estranged husband, but when she was confronted with the tape recording, she changed her story saying that she had shot WHITE during an argument and had help from others in disposing of the body.

FOLEY professed during questioning that she did not know where WHITE'S body had been taken but offered to telephone someone who might know. She placed a call from the courthouse, but the individual she contacted [Page 2] refused to tell her the location of the body. A few minutes later, however, authorities received a call from an attorney representing an individual who offered to lead them to the body.

WHITE'S body was recovered on Dec. 9, 2000, from a well on a farm west of Eagleville. An autopsy determined that WHITE had been shot in the head with a 22-caliber weapon.

FOLEY'S court-appointed attorney argued at a preliminary hearing in Harrison County Circuit Court Division 2 that authorities had used trickery in obtaining the incriminating statements from their client. But FOLEY was bound over for trial in Circuit Court on first-degree murder charges.

Foley's case was sent to Buchanan County on a change of venue. FOLEY'S attorneys had indicated before the trial that they would present a battered-wife defense.

But six days before the expected start of her trial, FOLEY appeared in court to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. The state attorney general's office, which handled the prosecution of the case, said charges of armed criminal action were also dropped in the plea agreement.

Another individual, Ronald Frederick GIBSON, 22, of Bethany [Missouri] currently is awaiting trial on a related charge of abandonment of a corpse. According to authorities, GIBSON allegedly assisted in disposing of WHITE'S body. His case has been sent to Clinton County, Mo.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, July of 2012