GIRARD, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was found under a rural southeast Kansas bridge.

The Joplin Globe reports that 62-year-old Robert Boyer was discovered Wednesday in shallow water in rural Girard. The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that his pickup truck hit a barbed wire fence before coming to a stop straddling the edge of a narrow concrete bridge.

The driver’s side door was open. Investigators believe Boyer fell from the vehicle, not realizing there was a six-foot drop and tumbled to the bottom of the creek on the bridge’s south side.

Deputies believe Boyer was able to crawl up an embankment and maneuver to the truck’s passenger side before falling into the creek again from the opposite side of the bridge.

BLYTHEVILLE, Ark. (AP) – A jury has convicted a man of second-degree murder in the shooting of a farmer who accused him of applying herbicide to crops that the farmer said drifted onto nearby land and damaged plants.

A Mississippi County Circuit Court jury late Thursday convicted Allan Curtis Jones, of Arbyrd, Missouri, who admitted to shooting Mike Wallace last October, according to arkansasonline.com.

Wallace, of Leachville, Arkansas, had called Jones and accused him of using the herbicide dicamba, a Monsanto weed killer that farmers in several states have said drifts onto crops and causes damage. Wallace had said dicamba damaged his pear trees along the Missouri-Arkansas border .

Prosecutors said Jones shot Wallace seven times when they met on a county road in Leachville.

Jones was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A homeless man who told police he dismembered his wife in a Missouri hotel room then slept in a Kansas storage unit with her remains and their two children is headed to a mental hospital for treatment.

A Kansas judge on Thursday found Justin Rey not competent to stand trial and ordered the treatment.

Rey is charged in Kansas and Missouri with child endangerment. He’s also charged with abandonment of corpse in Missouri. He isn’t charged in his wife’s killing.

Investigators say Rey took photographs of himself with his wife’s body before dismembering her and taking her remains to the storage unit in Lenexa, Kansas. Rey said she died during childbirth and that she killed herself.

He’s also charged in the death of a California man whose body hasn’t been found.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former Coffey County deputy has pleaded no contest to multiple child sex charges.

Matthew Vander Linden entered the plea Thursday. He was charged with two counts each of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and criminal sodomy.

As part of the plea deal, a charge of unlawful sexual relations was dropped.

Prosecutors say Vander Linden had sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old in November 2016. He was arrested and was fired in December 2016.

Sentencing is scheduled Feb. 1.

JEFFERSON COUNTY —Two people were injured in an accident just after 3p.m. Thursday in Jefferson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1995 Subaru Legacy driven by Brian Eugene Bennett, 24, Topeka, was westbound on U.S. 24 two miles east of the U.S. 59 Junction.

The vehicle crossed the center line and struck an eastbound 2002 Kia Rio driven by Cadence Elijah Nunez-Ruckman, 21, Lawrence, head-on.

Passengers in the Kia Mariah Young, 20, and Niya Ruckman, 2-months, were transported to Stormont Vail.

Bennett and Nunez-Ruckman were not injured. All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A 53-year-old Springfield man has been convicted of killing his girlfriend by stabbing her more than 20 times.

A Greene County jury on Thursday found Lorenzo Roy guilty of first-degree murder in the April 2014 death of 26-year-old Jessica Conner.

Investigators said Conner was beaten with a mop and saucepan before being stabbed with a kitchen knife. She was found in a pool of blood at her Springfield home.

Prosecutors say Roy and Conner had shopped for wedding rings but they had a tumultuous relationship.

The Springfield News-Leader reports Roy and Conner argued in the days before her death and Roy believed he was losing control of her.

TOPEKA, KAN. – Two Kansas men were indicted Wednesday on charges of robbing a health club where one of them used to work, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Lesley Jamar Terrell, Jr., 33, Topeka, Kan., and George Bernard Phelps, III, 31, Topeka, Kan., are charged with one count of robbery. The indictment alleges that on Nov. 24, 2017, the two defendants robbed the Genesis Health Club at 2909 Southwest 37th Street in Topeka.

A criminal complaint in the case alleges that a Genesis employee came upon the two defendants in the lobby of the business while they attempted to pry open a box used for money deposits by members of the club. One of the defendants told the employee the robbers did not want trouble and instructed him to wait in an adjacent room. The defendant stood in the doorway of the room with his hand in the waistband of his pants. The defendants removed cash and checks from the box and then fled.

When police arrived, the employee told them one of the robbers resembled a former employee of the business. Investigators identified Terrell as a prior employee of the business who worked as an overnight maintenance worker.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Republican tax overhaul (all times local):

The IRS says taxpayers could begin seeing less money withheld from their paychecks “as early as February” if Congress passes a Republican tax overhaul plan this month.

The agency says in a statement released Wednesday night that it “is continuing to closely monitor the pending legislation in Congress,” and “taking the initial steps to prepare guidance on withholding for 2018.”

The IRS says it expects to issue new withholding guidance in January reflecting the new legislation.

The bill would provide generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Middle- and low-income families would get smaller tax cuts, though President Donald Trump and GOP leaders have billed the package as a huge benefit for the middle class.

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Congressional aides say negotiators have removed several controversial provisions from sweeping tax legislation, including one that would have eliminated the deduction for interest on student loans and another deduction for medical expenses.

Two congressional aides also say the bill will no longer start taxing graduate-school tuition waivers. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss private negotiations.

GOP leaders in the House and Senate have reached an agreement in principle on the biggest rewrite of the nation’s tax laws in more than 30 years, though the legislation is still being finalized Wednesday.

Advocacy groups have complained about the provisions that were removed, especially with college graduates face mounting debt from student loans.

— Stephen Ohlemacher