Teen accused in 'random' killing near Strafford charged in juvenile court

The teen accused of stabbing an 80-year-old woman to death near Strafford on Friday has been charged with murder in juvenile court, according to Greene County’s chief juvenile officer.

Bill Prince, the family court administrator and chief juvenile officer, said Sunday the 16-year-old boy arrested in connection with the killing of Mary J. Shisler, 80, has been charged with seven offenses.

Prince said the equivalent of those charges if they were brought against an adult are first-degree murder, armed criminal action, abandonment of a corpse, second-degree burglary, stealing, attempted arson and tampering with a motor vehicle.

Prince said he could not provide the name of the suspect or copies of the charging documents at this time.

According to a news release from the Greene County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called out to a home in the 8300 block of North Farm Road 223 near Strafford at about 5:45 p.m. Friday to check on Shisler after a neighbor noticed an unfamiliar car in the driveway.

The release says the neighbor told deputies the home had been ransacked, there was a strong odor of gas inside and Shisler's pickup truck was missing.

Authorities later found the truck when it pulled into someone's driveway in Webster County, and the resident called 911 to report suspicious behavior, according to the release.

The release says authorities stopped the truck in the Webster County driveway and arrested the driver, a 16-year-old boy from Republic.

The teen was taken into custody and transported to the Greene County Juvenile Detention facility, the release says.

Later that night, at about 11 p.m., the release says, authorities found Shisler's body in a field near her home. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott said in the release that it appears the incident was "a complete random act of violence with very tragic results," and that neither Shisler nor the suspect had any ties to one another.

The investigation is ongoing, and an autopsy has been scheduled for this week.

A neighbor, who did not want to give her name, said Sunday it still hadn’t sunk in that Shisler had been killed.

The neighbor said Shisler was a kind woman who enjoyed going to the library, being outside and tending to her garden.

“It was nice to know she was always there if you needed her,” the neighbor said. “She was always willing to help.”

The neighbor said Shisler would “do anything for anybody,” and she doesn’t understand why anyone would want to hurt Shisler.

“It just makes you sick,” the neighbor said. “We really miss her.”