Man arrested after burned human remains of missing man were found

WASHINGTON COUNTYM Mo.  (KBSI) -A man is facing multiple charges including abandonment of a corpse.

According to the probable cause statement the Sullivan Police Department issued an endangered person advisory on October 22, saying that 63-year-old Dale Ryerson had been kidnapped and that a person-of-interest was identified as 34-year-old Cody Hunt.

According to court documents witnesses saw the two men argue and then heard a physical altercation inside Ryerson’s apartment.

One witness told police they observed Hunt “dragging” what appeared to be a lifeless body out of the apartment and into Ryerson’s Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Police were called, and officers found blood in the apartment and signs of a possible violent assault.

Court documents say two days later on October 24, 2024, Irondale Fire Department was dispatched to a wooded area for a brush fire. While they were extinguishing the fire they discovered a Jeep Grand Cherokee had been set on fire. The Washington County Coroner arrived on scene and located human remains in the front seat of the Jeep. The remains were later identified as Ryerson’s.

Hunt was then located and arrested at a house in Potosi. He’s been charged in Washington County with abandonment of a corpse, knowingly burning or exploding, tampering with physical evidence, tampering with a motor vehicle and unlawful possession of a firearm.

A resident at the house where Hunt was arrested told detectives that Hunt washed his clothes at the house and confided to him that Hunt had killed “that guy.”

The list of belongings found with Hunt when he was arrested included a .22 caliber rifle, an axe, hatchet, machete and a coat with a blood stain.

Hunt was arrested for violating his parole and is now at a state prison in Bonne Terre completing a sentence on a conviction in 2021 for first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle.