A sheriff’s warrant application traced the case from a severely malnourished 21-year-old’s death to medical records, an autopsy and amended criminal charges.
POTOSI, Mo. — What began as a March 2025 death investigation inside a Washington County home became a homicide case, then a second-degree murder prosecution and ultimately a 17-year prison sentence for the dead man’s father on three amended charges.
Lawrence A. Riehl, 62, of Sullivan, was sentenced Sept. 14 after entering Alford pleas to first-degree involuntary manslaughter, second-degree domestic assault and abuse of a person with a disability. The path to that outcome can be traced through a three-page probable cause statement filed by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and later statements from prosecutors. The records describe what deputies encountered, what Riehl told investigators, what an autopsy found and what earlier medical records revealed about the 21-year-old’s physical decline. They also show how prosecutors eventually moved away from the murder count initially sought by investigators and resolved the case through different offenses.
Detective Jason Kaempfe wrote that he was called to the family residence on March 26, 2025, to investigate a death. Inside a bedroom, he found Riehl’s son on the floor and described him as obviously and severely malnourished. The filing said the room contained trash, empty food containers and human waste. Riehl told Kaempfe the young man was severely autistic and nonverbal. He described his son as having irregular stretches of sleep and wakefulness and said another son had made food for him before going to sleep. Later, according to the detective’s account, that son woke Riehl and told him his brother had died. Officials have not named the victim in their public prosecution announcements because of his vulnerable status.
Riehl’s account of food became one of the details investigators checked rather than simply accepting at face value. The probable cause statement says approximately 27 pizza rolls had been prepared. Kaempfe calculated their approximate protein and calorie content using product information and compared the total with general federal dietary recommendations. His calculation placed the meal below the daily benchmarks cited in the filing. The detective also recorded a statement from Riehl portraying his son as someone who would readily eat large amounts if allowed. Investigators contrasted that description with the physical evidence of profound malnutrition. The filing does not establish precisely how much food the young man consumed that night or document a complete day-by-day record of his diet.
The autopsy conducted March 27 shifted the inquiry from the condition of the bedroom to the condition of the young man’s body. According to the warrant application, he was 69 inches tall and weighed approximately 50 pounds. Sheriff-based reporting later gave his weight as about 55 pounds, a modest discrepancy that does not alter the documented finding of extreme malnutrition. The medical examiner classified the manner of death as homicide. The filing said the young man died after choking on fecal matter. Kaempfe wrote that, in his investigative conclusion, starvation accounted for the behavior that led to the choking. The autopsy information also said the young man’s knees were locked and that his legs had apparently remained in the same position for a long period.
The investigation then reached backward in time. Medical records from March 2024 documented severe fat loss, severe muscle wasting and significant recent weight loss. They recommended additional calories and protein and a daily multivitamin. The records further indicated that the young man had been having trouble standing and had become unable to walk. Those entries meant investigators were not assessing only what had happened during the final hours before his death. They had records showing that serious nutritional and mobility problems had been identified roughly a year earlier. Prosecutors later described the death as resulting from prolonged inadequate nutrition and care, language that placed the earlier medical findings at the center of the case.
Kaempfe also contacted the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services as part of the investigation. His probable cause statement says an investigator with the department reported that Riehl had been offered and scheduled for services but never followed through. The filing does not identify those services in detail, explain exactly when they were scheduled or provide the full administrative history behind the offer. It also does not identify every person who shared responsibility for the young man’s care. The information was nevertheless included in the probable cause presentation because it related to whether the serious condition documented in medical records had prompted outside assistance and whether that assistance was pursued before the death.
The investigation continued after the funeral period. According to the warrant application, the Washington County coroner told Kaempfe that Riehl called on June 3. The coroner’s account, as summarized by the detective, says Riehl acknowledged that the family knew there was a problem and had been attempting to secure Medicaid and placement in a facility. The filing says Riehl also made two later requests involving the death certificate because his son had a life insurance policy. Those details were part of the investigator’s probable cause narrative. Prosecutors did not charge Riehl with an insurance-related offense or publicly claim that a policy supplied a motive for his son’s death, so the calls do not establish such a motive on their own.
On June 12, Kaempfe signed the probable cause statement alleging second-degree murder and abuse of an elderly, disabled or vulnerable person. The application was filed electronically the next day. It included the death-scene observations, autopsy findings, earlier medical records, information concerning services and the coroner’s account of conversations with Riehl. The document also said a criminal-history review found no prior criminal charges against him. At that point, the murder allegation was an accusation supported by what the detective asserted amounted to probable cause. It was not a conviction, and the case did not end with a jury finding Riehl guilty of murder.
Instead, prosecutors later amended the charges. The Washington County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said the change followed review of the evidence, including the autopsy and medical findings. Riehl ultimately entered Alford pleas to first-degree involuntary manslaughter, second-degree domestic assault and misdemeanor abuse of a person with a disability. An Alford plea allows a defendant to continue disputing the factual allegations while acknowledging that prosecutors possess enough evidence to obtain a conviction. The legal result is still a conviction and permits the judge to impose sentence. The plea avoided a trial that would otherwise have required the state to prove the charged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt before a jury or judge.
Circuit Judge Brice Sechrest imposed 10 years for involuntary manslaughter and seven years for domestic assault. He ordered the felony terms to run consecutively, making the prison sentence 17 years. Riehl received another year on the misdemeanor disability-abuse offense, but that term runs concurrently and therefore does not add time to the total. The prosecutor’s office described the felony sentences as the maximum available for those offenses. Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John I. Jones IV called the death a tragedy involving a vulnerable young man who relied on other people for his most basic needs and said the sentence brought the prosecution to what his office considered an appropriate conclusion.
The final judgment therefore looks different from the case investigators first presented in June 2025. Riehl was not convicted of second-degree murder, but neither was the death investigation dismissed. Instead, the state revised the charges and secured convictions through Alford pleas on manslaughter, domestic assault and disability abuse. The 17-year sentence now stands as the legal resolution of the investigation that began when deputies entered the bedroom on March 26, 2025. Available public records do not show another trial scheduled against Riehl in connection with his son’s death.
Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.