In the quiet rural landscape near Bonne Terre, Missouri, a sixty-seven-year-old White male named Charles Earl Lewis III lived with his wife, Grace, on their farm. Their peaceful existence was shattered on September 21, 1993, when a trio of men targeted their property with the intent of stealing cattle. The group consisted of William Rousan, his sixteen-year-old son Brent, and his brother Robert, who had driven past the farm earlier that day to scout the livestock.
Determined to carry out the theft, the men parked their vehicle approximately two miles away and hiked through the woods to reach the unsuspecting couple's home.
Upon arriving at the farm, the intruders watched from the tree line as Charles Lewis mowed his lawn on a riding mower. The plan turned violent when Brent Rousan, armed with a. 22 caliber rifle, ambushed Charles, firing six shots that fatally wounded him. The gunfire alerted Grace Lewis, who was inside the house speaking on the telephone with their daughter. When she stepped outside to investigate the commotion, she too was shot by the teenager. Although she managed to retreat back into the house, William Rousan followed her inside, covered her head with a garment bag, and carried her back out, where he ordered his son to deliver a final fatal shot.
Following the brutal double homicide, the perpetrators wrapped the bodies in a tarp and transported them to a property where William Rousan resided. There, they buried Charles and Grace in a shallow grave, pouring concrete over the site and piling horse manure on top to conceal the disturbance. The men then returned to the Lewis farm to steal a VCR, jewelry, a saddle, and the cattle they had originally come for. For an entire year, the disappearance of Charles and Grace Lewis remained a mystery, with their farmhouse standing empty and no sign of their whereabouts.
The case broke open in September 1994, a full year after the murders, when investigators received critical tips. William Rousan's brother-in-law contacted police to implicate him in the crimes, and authorities discovered that the stolen VCR had been sold to a pawn shop by William's sister. These leads resulted in the discovery of the bodies and the subsequent arrest of the three men. William Rousan was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death; he was executed by lethal injection on April 23, 2014. Brent Rousan pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Robert Rousan cooperated with the prosecution, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and served seven years in prison before his release in 2001.
