The true-crime television show Cold Justice is back in the Ozarks with a new episode airing tonight, featuring a cold case from Texas County.
In the new episode, Kelly Siegler and Steve Spingola look into the 2007 shooting death of single father, Ricky Luebbert, 42, of Tyrone.
A neighbor discovered Luebbert dead at 4 p.m. Nov. 10, 2007, in his mobile home, a mile west of Tyrone in Texas County. Former Texas County Sheriff, Carl Watson, told the Quill at the time that Luebbert was inside his home when he was shot.
“The shot came through the front window of the home from outside. There was more than one shot. He was only hit one time. We think a large caliber rifle was used. The ballistics are not back yet,” Watson told the Quill in November 2007. “The autopsy was performed in Springfield.”
At the time, Luebbert worked at Wood Pro Cabinetry in Cabool, Watson said. He was at work Nov. 7 but didn’t show up for work the next two days.
“I feel like this is not just a random shooting. I feel it was damned. It was very detailed,” Watson told the Quill.
An investigation and the autopsy determined that Luebbert died from a gunshot wound, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Texas County Sheriff’s Office initiated a homicide investigation. During the investigation, a person of interest was identified, Tommy Whetzell, who was residing in the Cabool area at the time.
Current Texas County Sheriff Scott Lindsey said the initial investigation resulted in Whetzell being charged and convicted of a federal weapons violation. Whetzell remained a suspect in the open homicide case.
In June, Lindsey announced an arrest had been made in Luebbert’s case. He said that in January, his department had opened a new investigation into the case, aided with resources from the television program Cold Justice.
Investigators from the sheriff’s office reviewed the original case files and evidence. With that information, investigators conducted new interviews of witnesses and a suspect, and had additional analysis performed on evidence in the case, Lindsey said in a press release.
“Based on the information from both the original investigation and the recently initiated investigative effort, a case was presented to a Texas County grand jury by Prosecuting Attorney Parke Stevens,” Lindsey said. “The grand jury returned an indictment for first-degree murder, armed criminal action and discharge a firearm at or from a motor vehicle for Whetzell.”
On June 29, Whetzell, now 63, was arrested by the Barton County Sheriff’s Office at his residence in Liberal, a small town of about 600 people just 35 miles north of Joplin. After his arrest, Whetzell was taken back to Texas County, where he was held in the Texas County Jail without bond, Lindsey said.
“Today represents an important step in seeking justice for the murder of Ricky Luebbert,” Lindsey said in his June 29 statement. “I hope that this arrest is of some comfort to the family of the victim, even though it has taken 14-plus years to reach this point. I would like to commend all the investigators that worked on this case, but especially the deputies that were assigned to re-open the investigation and approached it with dedication and perseverance. I would also like to thank the staff and resources provided by Cold Justice to assist with the investigation.”
“Nearly 15 years later, there is justice for Ricky’s brother Randy and his two boys,” the Cold Justice team said in its press release. “This is all possible due to the hard work of the Texas County Sheriff’s Department and the assistance of Steve Spingola and Kelly Siegler. Our experts Eric Devlin, Kathy Pinneri, and the ‘Cold Justice’ team worked incredibly hard to support the investigation team.”
The new episode of Cold Justice will air at 7 p.m. today on Oxygen True Crime.
Cold Justice has contributed to more than 50 arrests in cold cases around the U.S., and the show’s efforts have also assisted in numerous guilty verdicts, including the 2019 conviction of Robin Mendez, who bludgeoned his wife to death in 1982 at her credit union job in Wisconsin, according to a press release from the Oxygen network.
