ROBY – The sheriff of Texas County shuddered the moment he heard the name Neldon Neal.
One woman was dead, a gunshot to her chest. It was Neal’s wife. A witness fingered Neal as the gunman. But Neal was gone, long gone, last seen running into the woods.
With the mention of Neldon Neal last month, Sheriff Carl Watson knew he was headed for an ordeal.
“I was afraid from the very beginning that with Neldon Neal this would be dragged out a long time,” Watson said.
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The sheriff was right. Since the shooting March 13 in south-central Missouri, Neal has eluded authorities despite apparently never straying more than a few miles from the crime scene. An intense, eight-day manhunt with 100 officers turned up nothing. But, authorities later learned, they got close. As they scoured the Mark Twain National Forest, Neal is believed to have hidden for days inside a hollow tree trunk. Deputies passed within feet of him.
But Neal had help, too. Four women are charged with providing him with food, beer, soap and the occasional shower.
“It’s a big game to a lot of them,” Watson said.
Neal has deep roots in this rural Ozark county. He knows the land and its many concealing caves. He knows the people. He is said to know the Bible better than some preachers. But even at the age of 60, Neal has kept up a lengthy string of run-ins with the law. Kidnapping. Burglary. Robbery.
His pace was not slowed even after he was awarded a $1 million court judgement a few years ago. Most of the money was spent by Neal’s family before he got out of prison, his ex-attorney said. Neal lived with his wife in a dilapidated trailer surrounded by salvaged vehicles and debris.
The hunt for Neal feels familiar to the sheriff, a tall man with three decades of experience as a state trooper and a grandfatherly disposition. It reminds him of the 1987 search for John David Brown, a prison escapee who shot two men and fled into the forests near Rolla about 60 miles from here. Brown became a folk hero for his hiding skills. He eventually was captured. Watson worked that case as a trooper.
But the sheriff also senses something else, something even darker in these recent events: Neal seems to be headed on the same tragic trajectory traced by others in the Neal family.
A mysterious shooting
Authorities are still unclear about what caused Neal to shoot his wife, Judy Lewis.
It was the afternoon of Tuesday, March 13. Neal and a drinking buddy had just returned to Neal’s trailer. Neal, who talked of opening a contracting business but had been unemployed for months, was drunk, Watson said. Lewis, according to neighbors, was a small, quiet woman with bleached-blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Also at the trailer was Lewis’ former daughter-in-law and her 2-year-old daughter.
A fight broke out. Lewis, 51, was shot. Neal fled. The former daughter-in-law and the drinking buddy loaded Lewis into the backseat of a car. The daughter-in-law climbed in and, along with her toddler, sped away.
She raced down the two-lane highway, past the fire department, two churches and several houses before reaching a T intersection. She sped straight and slammed to a stop near the doors to Walt’s gas station.
Linda Openshaw, the station owner, was working the register. She recalled seeing the young woman run inside with her child and yell, “Call 911! My mom’s been shot!”
Openshaw dialed a cordless phone as she walked outside.
“When I looked in the car,” Openshaw said, “I could tell she was already dead.”
A history of pain
The Neal family is well-known in Texas County, home to 23,000 people sprinkled over 1,178 square miles, the state’s largest county. Neal is one of 10 children. They all have first names beginning with the letter “N”: Nealin, Nolan, Netha, Nelton, Narson, Natrila, Narlin, Narlene, Nynal and Neldon.
“Remind me to tell you about Nolan Neal,” Watson said, sitting in his cramped office late last week after another day running down fruitless leads.
The sheriff proceeded to tell the story how Nolan Neal was gunned down one afternoon in 1979 in front of the Houston Bank in downtown Houston, the county seat. His mother-in-law shot him twice, the last shot coming as he scrambled under a car for cover. She was indicted on capital murder. But a Texas County jury acquitted her after hearing evidence that Nolan Neal had regularly beat his wife and mother-in-law.
“That’s the Neal family,” Watson said, adding, “but there are some good Neals.”
‘A millionaire in the pen’
According to the sheriff, Neldon Neal’s criminal record stretches back to 1965. His most recent stint in prison came in 1998 with a 15-year term for stealing beer. While jailed in Miller County, Neal was beaten by deputies, said Kansas City attorney Don Roberson, who was hired by Neal to sue for damages.
On the day Neal won his court case, he was told by the guard escorting him back to his cell that “this is the first time I’ve ever driven a millionaire back to the pen,” Roberson recalled.
The $1 million award was settled for $500,000. After expenses, Neal received a check for about $275,000. While he was still in prison, his family handled the proceeds. The money was mostly gone by the time Neal was released early for good behavior in October 2005, Roberson said.
Neal returned to Roby and married Lewis. But their relationship was soon marred by violence. Late last year, an argument resulted in Neal’s being shot in the shoulder by his wife’s grown son. Neal was stitched up by a friend, the sheriff said. Then Lewis’ son was fatally shot by police in Richardson, Texas, in early March.
“It’s like a big circle, although it is not necessarily connected,” Watson said.
The hunt and the help
In the hours after the shooting, deputies combed the area and set up four roadblocks. The first car they stopped carried Neal’s drinking buddy, a man known as Tator, Watson said. But no Neal. Over the next several days, officers from across the state descended on the county. Nothing.
The search has captivated the county. Some people are locking their doors for the first time. Others keep their guns close at hand. The profusion of ready weapons led to the accidental fatal shooting of a 9-year-old boy by his brother, authorities say.
“Some people are on edge,” Openshaw said.
Some residents believe authorities may have to wait for Neal to come out on his own.
“There are a lot of places out there to hide,” Openshaw said, “and, of course, he’s got help.”
Authorities suspected Neal needed help toughing out freezing temperatures at night. They stumbled on the case’s first break in early April. The fire department reported that three young boys had burned down a shed to stay warm. The heat inside their trailer was broken. Their mother was not at home.
Curious, deputies interviewed the boys, who revealed that their mother and another woman had visited Neal in the forest, Watson said. Two of the boys were Neal’s grandchildren.
Four women, who all knew each other, were charged with hindering prosecution. They admitted to buying Neal food and beer and giving him a tent and sleeping bag, according to court documents. They also revealed that Neal was holed up inside a hollow tree.
A hollow tree to hide
Deep inside the national forest, the hollow tree sits about 100 feet off a gravel road. The forest floor slopes down to the log, which is hidden behind thick stands of gray and brown trees. The log is about 30 feet long and appears to have toppled years ago. Inside is an opening three feet wide – enough space for a man to lie down.
Someone hiding in the log would have ample warning as someone approached.
Watson said they learned how close they had come to finding Neal after interviewing the women. Neal had told the women he was hiding inside the log as a team of searchers rode by him on four-wheelers. They were so close he could see their badges.
Waiting and watching
The manhunt has died down now. The extra patrols are gone. The roadblocks were dismantled weeks ago. The search has been left to the sheriff and his seven full-time deputies.
But the sheriff is not giving up. Turkey hunting season began last Monday. Hunters will be in the forest. The deputies get new leads every day.
The sheriff finds himself driving down the country highways in his gray Ford pickup and casting long glances into the trees along the road, hoping to steal a glimpse of Neldon Neal.
“I don’t have any doubt we’ll catch him,” the sheriff said. “I just can’t tell you when.”