SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) The sons of a woman killed more than 30 years ago in southwest Missouri say they are happy that someone has finally been charged in the crime that separated them for most of their lives.
The Springfield News-Leader reports that Jason Smith says he “unfortunately” can’t think of many memories of his mother, Cynthia Smith. On Tuesday, Lawrence Gene Timmons was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge. He doesn’t yet have an attorney.
Jason Smith was just 4 in 1988 when his mother didn’t pick up him and his then 8-year-old half-brother, Shawn Goodspeed, from a babysitter. Her body was found about a week later.
The death separated the brothers, with Jason Smith raised by grandparents in Missouri and Goodspeed sent to live with his father in California. Goodspeed says his mother’s death changed “everything.”
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