Man Convicted in Death of Woman Whose Body Was Found in Duffel Bag Along Rural Road

ST. JOSEPH, Mo.—A man has been found guilty in the death of a woman whose remains were found inside a duffel bag along a rural northwest Missouri road almost two weeks after she was killed at a Kansas City hotel. Marcus Brooks was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Ariel Starcher, a mother of two from Independence, The St. Joseph News-Press reports. A Missouri Transportation Department worker found the bag with Starcher’s body inside it in February 2020 around 45 miles north of Kansas City. She had died of suffocation, and also suffered a broken neck. Key testimony against him came from Taylor Stoughton, who pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder, as Brooks’ accomplice. She and Brooks were arrested a year after the killing....