A Springfield man has been charged with killing a teenage girl during sex and then dumping her body into a southwest Missouri lake.
Forty-eight-year-old Anthony James Balbirnie faces charges that include second-degree murder and statutory rape. The charges were filed last week in Benton County Circuit Court after county officials dropped a single count alleging that he abandoned the corpse of 15-year-old Khighla Parks and referred the case to the state attorney general’s office.
The felony complaint says the victim died of asphyxiation. The probable cause statement has been sealed.
Balbirnie is incarcerated at the state prison in Bowling Green, where he is serving time for violating parole. A phone call to the Missouri State Public Defender Office wasn’t immediately returned.