April 14, 2003

BELLFLOWER (MO)
The Fulton Sun

BY KIMBERLY LONG
The Fulton Sun

BELLFLOWER, Mo. — Members of the Bellflower Presbyterian Church are conducting services today without their minister, a 58-year-old Fulton man arrested Thursday for possession of child pornography who is being investigated in connection to a missing-person case.

Commissioned Lay Pastor Jack Wayne Rogers, the Montgomery County church’s interim preacher, awaits a detainment hearing scheduled for Monday in Jefferson City. Outside of the child-pornography charge, law-enforcement officials are investigating a possible link between Rogers and a northwest Missouri man missing for more than two years.

A U.S. Justice Dept. affidavit includes Rogers’ e-mails to a man in Alabama, in which acts of child torture and mutilation are depicted. In the e-mails, Rogers implicates himself in the abduction, rape and murder of Branson Kayne Perry, who was 20 years old at the time of his April 2001 disappearance from Skidmore, a town about 15 miles southwest of Maryville.

An online newsletter posted Friday by the Presbytery of Missouri Union offices in Jefferson City said the Bellflower congregation was aware of the situation and knew that Rogers was being detained.

Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better.
Donate

More News

Back to News