In the early morning hours of October 24, 2017, a violent double homicide occurred in the Carondelet neighborhood of South St. Louis, claiming the lives of two individuals. 40-year-old Joseph Michael Finger, a male resident of the area, was riding a motorcycle near the intersection of Minnesota and Bellerive Boulevard when he and his passenger, 27-year-old Megan Nieder, were targeted.
Investigators later determined that Finger had been carrying several thousand dollars in cash at the time, but when police arrived at the scene around 1:10 a.m., the money was missing. Both victims had sustained fatal gunshot wounds, leaving investigators to piece together the events that led to the ambush.
The case remained unsolved for years until advancements in forensic evidence and diligent police work pointed to a suspect. Authorities focused their attention on Darnell Rogers, who was 29 years old at the time of his eventual plea. Detectives discovered that Rogers had been in contact with Finger, with cell phone records showing a call placed to the victim the night before the murders. Critical physical evidence also emerged when a black purse, discovered in the basement of Rogers' parents' home, was tested and found to contain Finger's DNA. Further tying Rogers to the crime scene, a strap found at the shooting location matched the purse recovered by police.
In October 2024, nearly seven years after the killings, the legal proceedings reached a conclusion. Darnell Rogers appeared in court and admitted his role in the deaths, pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree robbery, and four counts of armed criminal action. Rogers, who was already serving a prison sentence for a separate robbery committed in St. Louis County just days after the 2017 murders, accepted a plea deal. A judge sentenced him to ten years in prison, with the term set to run concurrently with his existing sentence. During the hearing, the families of the victims expressed their enduring devastation and the pain of the lingering questions surrounding the tragedy.
