Ava, MO: Two Arkansas Women Charged with Murder at Missouri Roadside Park

Women from Mountain Home, Ar charged with killing Macomb, Mo man

Emily Rittman, Joel Girdner

Reporter, Photographer

10:10 PM CDT, September 15, 2010

Ava, Mo



Two Arkansas women are in jail without bond. Each woman is facing first degree murder, robbery and armed criminal action charges in Missouri.



Investigators say April Quick, 32, and Aimee Herring, 29 killed Phillip Allen Taylor, 43, over a custody battle. Detectives say the two women from Mountain Home traveled to a roadside park near Ava to kill Taylor who lived in Macomb, Mo.



According to court documents, Herring bought a “TracFone” from a Mountain Home Wal-Mart nine days before the killing. Investigators say they used the store’s video surveillance to find her and Quick, the woman she lived with, who had close ties to the victim. Quick and Taylor had three kids together.



Quick, Herring and the three kids lived on Hallmark Circle in Mountain Home. Neighbor Donna Easter says both women were "great with the kids." She says on Friday, September 10, Quick told her about a letter she received from the children’s father "The father had not been in their lives for years and she was not happy about him coming back into the children's lives," Easter said.



Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase says on the same day Quick signed the certified letter, Taylor was found dead at a roadside park on Highway 5 in between Ava and Mansfield. Investigators say Quick and Herring called Taylor to meet them at the roadside park. "Our motive seems to stem from him wanting to see his children," Degase said. Instead a stranger found Taylor stabbed in the back, torso, neck and head. Degase says the fatal blow was from one gunshot to his head. "I think this is a case of I'm going to take the blame and you take the blame," Degase said. Officers are waiting on final forensic reports.



Back in Mountain Home, on the night of the killing, the two women called police to their home to report a stolen .22 caliber handgun. The murder weapon is still missing. Degase says a search warrant did reveal possible clues. "We did locate the burnt knife," Degase said. “We did locate what we believe to be the victim's burnt cell phone." According to Degase, it appears the two women burned evidence in their backyard.



Neighbors who knew the couple are in disbelief and worrying about the youngest victims. "I just wish April would have come talk to me," Easter said. "The kids lost a father they didn't know and now they're losing the mother they did know."



Investigators say the women admitted meeting Taylor at the park and calling the Sunvalley Cinema to find out what movies were playing to create an alibi. Degase says the two women's stories conflict on who did what at the crime scene.



The pair is charged with robbery for allegedly taking the victims cell phone. According to court documents, Quick told investigators Herring also took Taylor’s wallet from his pants and took a $100 bill.



Both women are held in the Baxter County Jail without bond. One woman will be extradited to Douglas County. The other woman will be held in another jail because the two would not be separated in Douglas County’s jail facility.