Man convicted in death of woman whose body was found in duffel bag along rural road

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — A man has been found guilty in the death of a woman whose remains were found inside a duffel bag along a rural road in northwest Missouri. Ariel Starcher was killed at a Kansas City hotel. The St. Joseph News-Press reports that Marcus Brooks was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the death of the 21-year-old mother of two. A Missouri Transportation Department worker found the bag with Starcher’s body inside it in February 2020. Starcher had died nearly two weeks earlier of suffocation, and also suffered a broken neck. Key testimony came from Brooks’ accomplice Taylor Stoughton, who pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder.