In the fall of 1994, a local farmer, William Taylor, murdered his wife Debra, by using the family's cat to lure her underneath a combine and causing the combine to roll over her. Taylor told authorities that he had killed the cat with a hammer and threw it under the combine, to lure his wife under the machine. Once she was under the combine attempting to retrieve the cat, he used twine to pull a lever on the combine, to cause it to roll over his wife when she tried to retrieve it. After he ran over her, he stated that he had moved the combine back from his wife's body, hid the twine and called 9-1-1, stating that there had been an accident at his farm south of Maryville. Taylor was convicted of murder and received a 25-year sentence.