OPINION|
A 35-year-old cold case, the 1989 murder of Kelle Ann Workman, has new life because a mystery witness has come forward. Three men, now in their 60s, have been charged with murder, kidnapping and rape.
The new witness came forward largely due to the work of an unusual investigative duo, a former San Diego police officer and a former FBI agent.
I'm interested in this case not only because I wrote about it in 2021 while at the Springfield News-Leader, but also because of the unusual way the mystery witness was tracked down.
Also, I'm haunted by the question: Who keeps a secret like this for 35 years?
The three defendants have long been considered suspects in Kelle Ann Workman's death.
They are Bobby Lee Banks, 65, of Seymour; his brother Leonard Dwight Banks, 64, of Gainesville; and Wiley Belt, 69, who lives near Fordland. They were charged Feb. 20. Each man faces charges of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and forcible rape.
All three, despite being under suspicion for decades, never left the Ozarks.
Two of them — Leonard Banks and Wiley Belt — have maintained their innocence to news reporters over the years. They have both acknowledged in news stories that they saw Workman at a small store near Dogwood Cemetery in western Douglas County, where she was last seen the day she disappeared.
Leonard Banks once told a Springfield News-Leader reporter he was “joking” when he said he had killed Workman.
One defendant now under house arrest
Workman was last seen mowing the grass at Dogwood Cemetery, outside Pleasant Ridge Southern Baptist Church at Highway 14 and State Route Z.
Bobby Lee Banks sits in the Douglas County Jail in Ava on a $250,000 bond. His next court date is April 17.
Leonard Dwight Banks is also in the Douglas County Jail on a $250,000 bond, but his lawyer has asked he be released pre-trial because Banks has pancreatic cancer. His next court date also is April 17.
Belt was released and lives under house arrest, according to court records. He is only allowed to leave home for medical reasons or to attend court or to visit his lawyer. His next court date is June 4.
Belt has hired noted defense lawyer Joseph Passanise of Springfield.
“Wiley and his family have fully cooperated with authorities throughout the three-plus decade investigation,” Passanise said via email. “He maintains his innocence, as he always has, and was surprised and shocked when a grand jury indicted him following his years of cooperation.”
All three defendants have asked for a change of venue; 2 requests granted
Workman, 24, lived with her parents, who were dairy farmers. They lived 1.5 miles from the cemetery.
An uncle saw Workman mowing at 5:40 p.m. June 30; her absence was noticed at about 6:15 p.m. Her parents immediately suspected the worst. Workman's car was parked at the cemetery with the keys in it.
A week later, her body was found some 10 miles south of the cemetery and about six miles east of Oldfield in Christian County. It is not known if Workman was killed in Douglas County or Christian County, or somewhere else.
The name of the witness has not been made public. The defendants were charged by a Douglas County grand jury, a legal proceeding that offers prosecutors greater secrecy when filing a charge.
Each defendant has a different lawyer and all three of the lawyers have filed discovery motions wanting the names of all witnesses expected to be called by the prosecutor.
The name of the mystery witness, who has apparently been silent for so long, will eventually become public.
All three defendants have asked for a change of venue to move the case out of Douglas County. Two of those requests have been granted, but Circuit Judge R. Craig Carter has not decided the new location where the cases will be heard.
Judge Carter has not decided whether he will grant a change of venue request from Bobby Lee Banks' lawyer, according to online court records.
Is it an ‘eyewitness' or a ‘key witness?'
What also intrigues me is that in various media accounts, the new witness has been called an “eyewitness,” without an explanation as what the person actually saw.
Was the person an “eyewitness” to the kidnapping? To the rape? To the murder? Or did the alleged “eyewitness” see all three?
One of those using the word “eyewitness” is Douglas County Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Weatherman, who declined to reply to my request for comment for this story.
Nevertheless, the Webster County Citizen in a Feb. 28 story quoted Weatherman as saying:
“Our testimony on this case is rock solid,” he (Weatherman) said. “This is going to be an old-fashioned 1989 case with witnesses and live testimony. There are numerous witnesses who will testify, as well as an eyewitness.”
But one of the two seasoned investigators involved in finding the new witness is Leslie Albrecht, and she does not use the word “eyewitness.” She tells me she used the phrase “key witness.”
‘It ate at the witness'
I spoke to Albrecht most recently on March 7.
“I can't go into details on how we found that witness,” she says. “But we did.”
Why did the witness come forward now?
“Because after 35 years they just knew nothing was going to happen if they didn't,” Albrecht said. “So it ate at the witness.”
Albrecht, 60, worked for the San Diego Police Department from 1989 to 2014. She rose to detective and worked sexual assault cases for seven years and briefly worked in homicides.
She came to Missouri because she has family in West Plains.
In recent years, Albrecht worked as a criminal investigator for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. She was non-sworn, meaning she was not a police officer.
Albrecht left that job in September and became a licensed private investigator in November 2023. She plans to continue to focus on murders that are cold cases, as well as missing persons. Her goal is justice, she says, not money.
She explains that she has a retirement fund and her husband, Steve Albrecht, owns a human resources consulting company that focuses on workplace safety.
It was while Albrecht was working as a criminal investigator for the Department of Health and Senior Services that she met Christopher Holland, a former FBI agent.
Holland still works for the state as a criminal investigator.
As co-workers, Albrecht tells me, she and Holland often discussed cold cases of murder that happened in the Ozarks.
Private investigators work with local agencies on Kelle Ann Workman case
Albrecht first called me in November 2023 to ask me about a four-part series I wrote in 2021 for the Springfield News-Leader on the unsolved 1989 murder of Ronnie Johnson.
Albrecht told me then that she and Holland were talking to the Workman family.
They did not charge the Workman family for their efforts. They found a way to work the case as part of their jobs at the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services, as long as they kept up with their regular caseload of investigations.
Albrecht and Holland do not plan to charge families in the future, either.
They likely will try to dig into cold cases in rural areas where law enforcement agencies can use some experienced extra manpower, in addition to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Albrecht says she and Holland can't help anyone if local police don't first let them in. She notes that Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole was cooperative and willing to work with her and Holland.
Investigation took them beyond Missouri
When Albrecht and Holland first contacted the Workman family two years ago, Kelle's father was alive, although suffering from dementia. James Stanley Workman died in September 2022 at age 85. Kelle is survived by her sister Pam, brother Marc and her mother, Joan. I reached out to Pam and Marc Workman, but did not hear back.
Albrecht said her investigation with Holland took them beyond Missouri.
“I mean we were going so deep and so far into this case. ... Chris and I were able to pull back layer after layer.”
It's certainly going to be interesting, I tell her, assuming any of the cases go to trial.
“It is full of twists and turns,” she says.
This is Pokin Around column No. 166.
