Arrest made in connection with 2021 missing person case
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — An arrest has been made in connection with a missing person’s investigation from 2021. Thomas E. “Tedo” Gamble, 21, formerly of Potosi, Missouri, has been arrested in connection to the disappearance of 19-year-old John Paul Parton, of High Ridge, Missouri. Gamble has been charged with murder, tampering with evidence, and disposing of a corpse.
Gamble was arrested on May 1 in Port Allen, Louisiana, by the Port Allen Police Department, with the assistance of the United States Marshals Service. He is currently being held in the West Baton Rouge Jail, awaiting extradition to Missouri.
On May 16, 2021, Parton went to work in the morning and never returned home. He told his parents that he was going camping with a few friends and would be back the next day.
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His parents later received a call from their son, where Parton admitted to breaking into a property with three friends and stealing $2,000 worth of cash and other valuables. He had been kicked off the property two days prior by the landlord after a fight broke out between him and his girlfriend. After this call, his parents haven’t heard from him.
Parton’s grandmother filed a missing person report with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department on May 24, 2021.
On May 28, 2021, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into Parton’s disappearance. With assistance from criminal investigators with the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control, it was discovered that Parton was murdered on May 18, 2021, at a location in St. Francois County.
On April 25, 2024, Gamble was charged with murder, tampering with evidence, and abandonment of a corpse. Parton’s body has not yet been found.
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The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office ask that anyone with information about Parton’s case contact Missouri State Highway Patrol Corporal Jason Ashby at 314-608-2764 or via email at jason.ashby@mshp.dps.mo.gov.
The video attached is from FOX 2 report from October 2021
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