On June 27, 2013, Steve Parsons, owner of Parsons Tires in Maryville and Stanberry, committed suicide in a Nodaway County Courthouse courtroom, using a cyanide capsule that he had purchased online several days before. Parsons secretly slid the capsule into his mouth, after hearing he would be sent to prison for seven years for being guilty of the statutory sodomy of a 14-year-old girl, who was his babysitter. Parsons had a seizure in court and was transported by EMS to Heartland Regional Hospital ER in Saint Joseph. While en route, Parsons went into cardiac arrest, and was pronounced dead by the local coroner upon arrival.