In the winter of 2018, the life of 36-year-old Aaron Michael Armantrout was tragically cut short in a premeditated act of violence. The male victim from Bonne Terre, Missouri, had been the subject of death threats from his estranged wife, Susan J. Armantrout, for several months leading up to his murder. Despite the encouragement of law enforcement to file a formal complaint against her, Aaron had chosen not to.
This decision would unfortunately precede a series of events that ended in his untimely death.
On December 14, 2018, following a verbal argument after he returned home from work, Susan shot Aaron, killing him. In the aftermath, she went to great lengths to conceal her crime. She meticulously cleaned the scene of the murder and then placed her husband's body in the trunk of his own BMW. The vehicle was then driven to a storage unit in Potosi, Missouri, where the body was left. The strong smell of bleach and other cleaning chemicals in their home, however, raised suspicion.
Concerns for Aaron's welfare grew when he failed to show up for a planned meeting with his sister. His family, unable to locate him and noticing both him and his car were missing from his home, reported him as a missing person. The subsequent investigation by authorities quickly led them to the storage unit where they made the grim discovery of Aaron's body.
Susan Armantrout was promptly arrested and faced a litany of charges, including first-degree murder, armed criminal action, and abandonment of a corpse. During the investigation, she confessed to the elaborate plot to murder her husband and the steps she took to cover it up. In April 2020, Susan pleaded guilty to the charge of first-degree murder. As part of a plea agreement, the charges of armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse were dropped, and she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Her son, Anthony L. Skaggs, was also implicated in the crime and pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence, for which he was sentenced to time served. Another individual was also arrested in connection with the case for their role in abandoning the corpse.
