On the quiet, rural outskirts of Moundridge, Kansas, the life of 37-year-old Angela Graevs, a female, came to a tragic and violent end on October 30, 2016. Her body, along with those of her 33-year-old boyfriend, Travis Street, and a friend, 52-year-old Richard Prouty, was discovered in the front yard of her home. All three had been shot. The grim discovery was made after a passing motorist was flagged down and alerted to the scene. Inside the residence, deputies found Graevs and Street's 18-month-old toddler, physically unharmed but crying.
The investigation into the triple homicide quickly pointed to a motive rooted in the drug trade. Authorities identified 35-year-old Jereme Lee Nelson and his 31-year-old girlfriend, Myrta Rangel, as the primary suspects. The slain couple, Graevs and Street, had themselves been facing drug and child endangerment charges prior to their deaths. Investigators believed the killings were not a random act of violence but a targeted event. After the murders, Nelson and Rangel fled the state, prompting a manhunt that extended beyond national borders.
In January 2017, the search for the suspects concluded when Mexican authorities apprehended Jereme Lee Nelson and Myrta Rangel south of the border. They were handed over to U.S. Marshals and extradited to Kansas to face charges of capital murder. The subsequent legal proceedings revealed the killings stemmed from a dispute over a drug debt within a methamphetamine trafficking operation. Myrta Rangel admitted to providing the. 40-caliber handgun to Nelson, knowing he intended to collect the debt from Street.
To avoid a potential death penalty, Jereme Nelson pleaded guilty to four felonies, including second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, resulting in a sentence of nearly 40 years in prison. Myrta Rangel pleaded guilty to federal firearms charges for her role in arming Nelson. She was sentenced to six years in federal prison for providing the weapon that led to the tragic deaths of Angela Graevs, Travis Street, and Richard Prouty.
