A Hazelwood man is facing a first-degree murder charge in St. Francois County, among other felony charges both there and in Warren County, after he was found covered in blood by Wright City police on Interstate 70 in the early morning hours of Sept. 4.
The next day, Sept. 5, officers with the Leadington Police Department discovered a woman’s body in a ditch off of Highway 67 in St. Francois County. A National Crime Information Center check on the woman, who had suffered from stab wounds, revealed she had been reported missing and endangered by the Wright City Police Department in connection with the incident the previous morning.
Although the deceased woman is not named in court documents, police have identified her as Destiny S. Hooker, 46, of Fairdealing, Missouri.
In addition to the murder charge, Albert L. Walker, 49, was charged Sept. 8 in St. Francois County with armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse. He is charged in Warren County, where he was initially being held without bond before being transferred to St. Francois County, with felony drug possession and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.
Wright City police made contact with Walker at approximately 12:46 a.m. Friday, Sept. 4, at the 200 mile marker on I-70. Although he had been driving a white passenger car right before police made contact with him, the initial contact “was not a traffic stop,” according to Wright City Police Lt. Aaron Sutton.
A Wright City officer was working overtime on I-70 in a construction zone when Walker pulled up at a low speed, hit the median, and exited the vehicle, according to Sutton.
“However, when he exited his vehicle it was still in drive and it was slowly moving along the median,” he said. “When he made contact with our officer it was apparent he was covered in something, which was later determined to be blood.”
When another officer arrived and put the car in park, he noticed a large amount of blood in the passenger seat and interior of the vehicle.
Wright City police obtained a search warrant for the car and discovered identification and medication belonging to Hooker, according to a probable cause statement. When questioned about the blood, Hooker, and the car, Walker requested an attorney.
Police began processing evidence, contacting Hooker’s family members and other law enforcement agencies, checking her address history, attempting interviews, conducting emergency pings on her phone, and generally trying to gather as much information as possible, Sutton said.
In addition to the blood and Hooker’s belongings, police also found approximately 2 grams of cocaine inside a rubber keychain attached to the car keys and a glass pipe containing suspected methamphetamine residue, according to a probable cause statement, allowing them to hold Walker on drug charges in Warren County.
A subsequent search of automated license plate reader data found the car had been in the St. Louis, Jefferson County, and St. Francois County areas that same day, according to police.
Once Hooker’s body was located in Leadington, the murder investigation was turned over to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug & Crime Control.
The investigation found that Hooker had been in court in Madison County on Sept. 3, and later in the day a card belonging to her had been used at McDonald’s in Arnold. Video surveillance showed Walker was a passenger in the car at McDonald’s, according to a probable cause statement.
Sutton noted that the reason Hooker had been in court did not involve Walker. He said he could not comment on a motive in the murder case.
Additional surveillance footage from Sam Scism Ford in Leadington was found to show a white car, matching the description of the one Walker had been driving, stopping at the location where Hooker’s body was found at approximately 10:43 p.m. Sept. 3 for 2 minutes and 18 seconds.
A short time later, the license plate matching the car stopped in Wright City was scanned by an automated license plate reader on northbound Highway 67.
“I’m very proud of our people,” Wright City Police Chief Tom Canavan said of the investigation at the Thursday, Sept. 10 Wright City Board of Aldermen meeting. “Everybody handled it very well, because we didn’t really know what was going on,” he said, when they first made contact with Walker.
Lt. Sutton also noted that in addition to the MSHP and Leadington Police Department, other law enforcement agencies were also instrumental in the investigation.
“While I totally want to give credit where credit is due to our own officers that went above and beyond and definitely invested in locating this woman and contacting her family, and, you know, showing true compassion and concern, we had other agencies willing to step up also and helping,” he said.
“We had people from St. Peters PD checking former residences, lending us resources to get ahold of as much up to date information as we could.”
He also mentioned the Ripley County and St. Francois County sheriff’s departments as agencies that played important roles.
Walker has a lengthy criminal history, with past felony convictions for offenses including attempted rape, first-degree burglary, failure to register as a sex offender, and resisting arrest for a felony.
A public defender listed for him declined to comment on the case. His next local court date is set for Oct. 7 in Warren County Circuit Court.
