Callaway County charged Jonathan G. Houston with first-degree murder and kidnapping after a whispered 911 call from a Kingdom City hotel.

A charging document is the accusation. A line in those papers that says Houston confessed, and that he planned the killing, is not a guilty plea and has not been tested in court. The woman was never reported missing. Chief Deputy Curtis Hall said the Callaway County Sheriff's Office is already 10 months behind the crime and has to be careful about what it releases.

Callaway County charged Jonathan G. Houston, 44, a former corrections officer, with first-degree murder and kidnapping, and he is being held without bond, the New York Post reported Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. The Post, citing charging documents obtained by KOMU, reported that on Sunday, Oct. 4, one of his seven children called 911 from the Baymont Inn & Suites in Kingdom City and whispered that the siblings had been kidnapped and abused. Deputies found the children with Houston. KOMU reported that the sheriff's office said the children were later placed in protective custody. A whispered 911 call and a booking are how this file opened. They do not establish that Houston killed anyone.

The charging documents say a child told deputies that Houston strangled their mother at the hotel in December 2025, about 10 months before the call, and that the children were present, the Post reported. The documents allege he forced children to help him and then put her body in a trash bag in a hotel dumpster. The Post reported she was never reported missing and has not otherwise been publicly identified. The same papers say Houston confessed and that he had planned the killing ahead of time. A confession written into a charging document is the state's allegation about what he told investigators. It is not a plea, and no jury has heard it.

Chief Deputy Curtis Hall of the Callaway County Sheriff's Office told KOMU that investigators were two days into a crime they were already 10 months behind, and that the office had to be careful about what it made public, the Post reported. The Post also published a KSDK image of Hall speaking about the case. The children are described here only as the group the sheriff's office said it placed in protective custody. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.