CAMERON (AP) – A southwest Missouri man convicted of killing his grandmother has died in prison.

The state Corrections Department says 31-year-old Troy Ford, of Springfield, was pronounced dead just before noon Friday at a northwest Missouri hospital. The agency says an autopsy will be performed.

Ford was serving a life sentence at Crossroads Correctional Center for second-degree murder and armed criminal action for the strangulation of 63-year-old Sharon Rheam in May 2006. Prosecutors alleged that Ford was stealing from Rheam, who was found dead in her Springfield mobile home.

Ford was initially charged with first-degree murder. His trial was already underway in late 2007 when he entered an Alford plea to the reduced charges. An Alford plea does not admit guilt but acknowledges that prosecutors have sufficient evidence for a conviction.

Even with river levels dropping the Missouri Department of Transportation said drivers should still be on the lookout for flash flood concerns around Northwest Missouri.

“They still need to be careful, there’s roads that could flood as the water moves from north to south,” MoDOT District Engineer Don Wichern said.
Flash flooding caused issues for numerous drivers earlier this week as roadways were closed due to fast moving water.

As we previously reported, 8 motorists on I-29 had to be rescued in a joint agency effort Wednesday after flash flooding disabled their vehicles on Missouri Route N north of Mound City.
While those individuals made it out safely, Wichern says it could have turned out much differently and urges drivers to continue to monitor road conditions

“Rain can fall and fill up a creek or a river and it can travel for miles and miles,” Wichern said. “We’ll get inundated with rainfall in Iowa…and it can fill up these rivers so fast and it may take two or three days to get down to our roads and then it will be a sunny day and all of a sudden our roads get flooded.”
Flood warnings across our region are being canceled and many roadways are being reopened. However, Wichern warns drivers to keep an eye on roadways near rivers that are known to flood because anything could happen.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) met with Lieutenant General Robert Brown, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, in his Washington, D.C., office yesterday.

“It was a pleasure to visit with Lieutenant General Brown and get an update on Fort Leavenworth and the Command and General Staff College – the intellectual center of the Army,” Sen. Moran said. “I also appreciated the update on the transition assistance program, Solider For Life, which is designed to support soldiers and their families during the initial transition to civilian life and in the years to follow.”

During the meeting, they also discussed the Army’s initiative to combine its 86 training schools nationwide into an “Army University.” The “Army University” falls under the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

FROST ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM TO 8 AM CDT SATURDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN KANSAS CITY/PLEASANT HILL HAS
ISSUED A FROST ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM TO 8 AM
CDT SATURDAY. 


* TEMPERATURE...TONIGHT WILL DIP INTO THE UPPER 30S ACROSS FAR
  NORTHWEST MISSOURI AND EXTREME NORTHEAST KANSAS EARLY SATURDAY
  MORNING. 

* IMPACTS...PLANTS AND TENDER VEGETATION MAY BE KILLED IF LEFT
  UNSHELTERED OUTSIDE.


PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A FROST ADVISORY MEANS THAT FROST IS POSSIBLE. SENSITIVE OUTDOOR
PLANTS MAY BE KILLED IF LEFT UNCOVERED.