WASHINGTON COUNTY — A Sullivan man stomped on his ex-girlfriend, then enlisted the help of his new girlfriend to tie her up, shoot her and set the body on fire, authorities allege in court papers.
Tony Lawrence Charboneau, 36, is accused of killing Amy Hogue in June and burying her in a shallow grave in a wooded area near Charboneau’s home. Charboneau’s girlfriend, Brandi Luffy, is charged with taking part, including acting as a lookout while Charboneau dug the grave.
Tony L. Charboneau and Brandi L. Luffy
Luffy, 40, of Potosi, is the one who led police to the grave, weeks after Hogue’s family first reported Hogue missing.
Hogue, 43, was killed June 20, police say. That was the day before her 44th birthday. Around that time, she had been reported missing in the Richwoods, Missouri, area. Her relatives in the state of Louisiana monitored the search for weeks. Police circulated a missing-person flyer and searched for her into July.
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Amy Hogue, in a family photo.
“Nobody deserves to go the way she went,” Hogue’s daughter-in-law Taylor Crider said on a fundraising page. “She leaves behind a family that loved her dearly.”
The family is trying to raise money to pay for a memorial service.
Hogue’s first grandchild, a boy, was born in Montgomery, Louisiana, just days before she disappeared and she never got to meet him, Crider said. The family was last in contact with Hogue around June 19. They said Hogue’s body was discovered last Friday evening.
Charboneau is charged with first-degree murder; Luffy is charged with second-degree murder. They each were being held Thursday in the Washington County Jail in Potosi in lieu of $1 million bond.
“This case is horrifying in every respect, and my office will not rest until the victim’s killers are brought to justice,” Washington County Prosecutor Jones Jones said in a statement.
In addition to murder, Charboneau and Luffy are charged with kidnapping, abandonment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and conspiracy to commit a felony. Charboneau is also charged with domestic assault.
Details of Hogue’s death are spelled out in court documents. Sgt. Steven Rion of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department said Charboneau argued with Hogue and he punched her and stomped on her.
Charboneau and Luffy put Hogue in a wheelchair and tied her hands and feet to the chair using ratchet straps, Rion said. They left her in the wheelchair while they gathered supplies: shovels, a tarp, a pickax and gun.
They loaded the wheelchair into Charboneau’s vehicle and drove to a nearby wooded hill, Rion said. Charboneau dug a shallow grave, then shot Hogue, Rion said.
Charboneau “spent the rest of the day burring her in the grave, covering her with large rocks and tree limbs,” Rion wrote in a probable cause statement. “Brandi stayed at the vehicle and was a watch out for any persons that may come.”
Charboneau and Luffy left and burned the tarp and ratchet straps, police said. They also dumped Hogue’s purse at a river access in Jefferson County, Rion said.
Luffy talked to detectives and admitted taking part, Rion said. Luffy led police to the spot where Hogue’s body was buried.