In early December 2018, the community of Olivette, Missouri, was shaken by the sudden disappearance of a local couple who vanished while running an errand related to their business. Michele Laws, a 43-year-old White female, and her partner had last been seen alive on a Thursday afternoon at a QuikTrip gas station near the intersection of Interstate 270 and Lilac Avenue in North St. Louis County.
The couple was known to buy and sell cell phones, a trade that family members later expressed concerns about regarding its safety. When they failed to return home to take their two young daughters to scheduled activities, including piano and swim practices, their family grew increasingly alarmed and contacted authorities to file a missing persons report.
The search for the missing couple ended in tragedy the following Monday when law enforcement officers located their dark-colored Nissan Sentra in a remote ravine near the bluffs off Riverview Drive. Inside the vehicle, police discovered the bodies of Laws and her 47-year-old partner, both of whom had sustained fatal gunshot wounds. The location of the car, situated in a wooded area off the roadway, required a significant recovery effort. Investigators processed the scene as a double homicide, piecing together the timeline that began with their stop at the convenience store and ended in the secluded area where they were found.
Family members were devastated by the news, describing the couple as dedicated parents who were working hard to support their children, aged 13 and 9 at the time. In the immediate aftermath, detectives explored the possibility that the couple had been targeted during a transaction gone wrong, given the nature of their business dealings involving cash and electronics. Despite the violent nature of the crime and the specific circumstances leading up to their death, public records and media reports from the years following the incident have not detailed any arrests or the naming of specific suspects in connection with the murders, leaving the case as a painful unresolved chapter for the surviving family.
