On the night of December 28, 2018, tragedy struck a home on the 100 block of Whetstone in St. Charles, Missouri. Police responded to the residence shortly before midnight after receiving a 911 call reporting an active shooting. Upon arrival, officers discovered a horrific scene involving four family members who had been shot. The victims were identified as 39-year-old Kate Elizabeth Moeckel Kasten, her two children, 10-year-old Jonathan and 8-year-old Zoe, and her mother, 61-year-old Jane
Moeckel. While the children and their grandmother were pronounced dead at the scene, Kate was found alive in the master bedroom but later succumbed to her injuries at a hospital.
The suspect was identified as Richard 'Darren' Emery, Kate’s 46-year-old boyfriend who had been living with the family. Following the shooting, Emery fled the scene in his pickup truck. When officers attempted to stop him, he engaged in a shootout, striking a police vehicle eight times before escaping into a wooded area. During his flight, he attempted to carjack a female motorist, stabbing her seven times when she refused to surrender her vehicle; the woman survived her critical injuries. A massive manhunt ensued, lasting several hours until Emery was located the following morning bleeding from gunshot wounds in the restroom of a convenience store, where he was taken into custody.
The legal proceedings revealed that the children and their grandmother had been barricaded in a bedroom when the gunman forced his way in. During the trial, the defense argued that Emery suffered from borderline personality disorder and was in a dissociated state during the rampage, claiming he felt like he was in a video game. However, prosecutors maintained that he was fully aware of his actions. In October 2022, a jury found Emery guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, along with charges of armed criminal action and assault.
Following the conviction, the jury recommended the death penalty, which the judge formally imposed in November 2022. In September 2023, Emery received an additional sentence of 210 years in prison for the other crimes committed during his escape, including the assault on the police officers and the stabbing of the woman during the attempted carjacking. The sentencing brought a measure of closure to a case that had deeply shaken the St. Charles community.
