Arrest warrant issued in missing-man case

Stratford man, in Tulare Co. custody, is suspected of killing a Hanford man.

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008

A Stratford man faces a murder charge in the death of Robert Lee Adams, 65, of Hanford, who went missing in August and whose body has not been found.

Kings County Sheriff Chris Jordan said "direct physical DNA evidence" connects Ricky Erick McConnaughy, 39, to Adams.

He declined to say how the DNA was obtained, but said it was used as evidence Wednesday to obtain a no-bail arrest warrant from Kings County Superior Court Judge Louis Bissig.

McConnaughy was easy for authorities to find: He has been in the Bob Wiley Correctional Center in Tulare County since August on charges stemming from the Adams missing-person case and another alleged crime. He is expected to be brought to the Kings County Jail next week to be arraigned on the murder charge, Jordan said.

Adams and McConnaughy were acquaintances, Jordan said, but he did not elaborate.

Investigators do not know whether McConnaughy allegedly acted alone.

Jordan said he is convinced Adams is dead because he has been missing since August, his truck was found stolen, he had a daughter in the area and he had no reason to disappear.

Deputies and volunteers have searched bodies of water, including the Kings River, for Adams' body and will continue to look for him, Jordan said.

"We would love to have the body, especially for the family to have some kind of closure," he said. "We're looking very hard and often."

The mystery began Aug. 15, when Adams' daughter, Ann Stockton of Laton, went to see her father, a retired well digger, at his trailer outside Armona. He wasn't there, so she called his cell phone and got no answer, then left a note. She filed a missing-persons report on Aug. 16 with Hanford police, then two days later with the Sheriff's Department.

That day, McConnaughy was arrested in Dinuba after a police officer tried to pull him over for a missing license plate tag and he sped off, eventually crashing the truck in a vineyard. McConnaughy was in Adams' pickup and had his cell phone and credit cards.

McConnaughy already was wanted by Exeter police on suspicion of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend in Exeter the day before and beating her. She escaped when she woke up in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Tulare while he was in the store.