James W. "Bud" Brown, 50, wanted to sell his 1990 Ford F-100 pickup truck. He ran an advertisement in the newspaper.

James W. Brown

On Thursday, August 25, 1994, a man called and asked to meet with Brown, because he wanted to take the truck for a test drive. Brown left his home in Jackson to meet with the man at 11:00 a.m.

He was never seen alive again.

When Brown was not home by 4:50 in the afternoon, his wife reported him missing.

The Major Case Squad was activated a short time thereafter.

Investigators quickly determined that a man claiming to be James W. Brown had sold Brown’s pickup truck to a used car dealer later that same Thursday afternoon for $3,000.00. The car dealer later heard that Brown was a missing person and contacted the investigators.

The car dealer turned the truck over to the Major Case Squad. A thorough search of the pickup revealed a blue steel clip for a 9 millimeter semi-automatic pistol. It had slipped behind the bench seat of the truck. Brown’s family noted that he did not own a weapon of that caliber.

Working with the car dealer and his employees, Detective Robert E. McCoy, Jr., was able to put together a composite drawing of the man who had sold Brown’s truck. After it ran on the news, a former wife of Kenneth Allen Bundy contacted the Major Case Squad, reporting that her ex-husband looked like the man in the picture. She was aware that he had recently bought and sold a truck, and then suddenly shaved off his beard and moustache and left town. He had recently purchased a 9 millimeter pistol, but she did not know what had become of it.

A photograph of Kenneth Allen Bundy, 39, was obtained and shown to the car dealer and his employees. They identified Bundy as the man who sold the truck while claiming to be James W. Brown.

A young man, age 22, was soon located who admitted that he had helped Kenneth Allen Bundy sell the truck. The witness claimed that he had no idea what had happened to Brown, but that he was now aware that Bundy had dragged him into something illegal.

A girlfriend of Kenneth Allen Bundy was located in Scott City, Missouri. She ultimately admitted that Bundy had confided to her that he had sold the stolen truck that was being mentioned in the news, but he told her that he had not killed anybody.

Cape Girardeau and Scott County authorities found the body of James W. Brown on Sunday morning, August 28, 1994, three days after his disappearance. It was found under some brush near the Diversion Channel on the north side of Scott County, Missouri, approximately fifteen miles from his home. He had been shot seven times with a 9 millimeter gun. Bloodstains indicated that he had been shot near the roadway, then dragged into a wooded area and covered with brush. Expended shell casings were found at the scene of the shooting.

The girlfriend of Kenneth Allen Bundy was interviewed again. This time she admitted that on Friday, August 26, 1994, before Bundy had left town, she had driven him to the Mississippi River east of Scott City, where he had thrown a gun into the river. He had told her that he had lost its clip.

On August 29, 1994, Scuba divers from the Missouri Water Patrol, following directions given by the girlfriend, found a Springfield Armory semi-automatic 9 millimeter pistol in the waters of the Mississippi River. Andy Wagoner, a ballistics expert with the Southeast Missouri Regional Crime Laboratory, matched the gun to both the clip left in James W. Brown’s truck and to the expended shell casings found near the body of James W. Brown.

The gun still bore its serial number. It checked to the ex-wife of Kenneth Allen Bundy. It had been purchased on August 19, 1994. The salesman who sold the gun recalled that Bundy himself had picked it out, but had put the gun in his ex-wife’s name. The ex-wife confirmed that she had been with him when he bought it.

Fingerprints of Kenneth Allen Bundy were located on the title to James W. Brown’s pickup truck and on certain papers from its glove compartment, which were recovered from the car dealer who had bought it from Bundy.

On September 1, 1994, with the help of the FBI and Mississippi authorities, Kenneth Allen Bundy was located and arrested as he was hiding in a bean field in Tunica, Mississippi.

Kenneth Allen Bundy

On October 4, 1995, Kenneth Allen Bundy pled guilty to murder in the first degree, robbery in the first degree, kidnapping, and armed criminal action. He admitted that when James W. Brown had met him for the test drive, he told Brown that his father in Scott City needed to see the truck before they would buy it, so Brown accompanied him as he test drove the truck to Scott City. When they reached the secluded area near the Diversion Channel, Bundy pulled the gun on Brown. When Brown made a move at him, he shot him, and continued shooting as Brown turned and fled from him. He dragged Brown’s body into the trees and covered him with brush. He then got the 22-year-old man to help him sell the truck by claiming that he thought the young man could get a better deal for it than he could.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Douglas A. Long, presiding over the case on a change of venue, sentenced Bundy to life in prison without parole for the murder, plus concurrent life sentences for the robbery and armed criminal action, plus 15 years for the kidnapping.