48 Hours: Inside the Mischelle Lawless case timeline - A brutal murder that almost led to wrongful conviction

The 48 Hours episode titled "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" revisits the brutal murder of a 19-year-old college student named Mischelle Lawless, who was found beaten and shot to death in her car stalled on the side of a road in a small Missouri town.

Bloomsbury revealed that Stephen R. Snodgrass clearly exposed the chain of manipulation and corruption that almost led to 17-year-old Joshua Kezer's wrongful conviction. He revealed a major flaw in the American criminal justice system through this case.

The failures included law enforcement pressuring witnesses to give false statements, crucial evidence being hidden from the defense, and a prosecutor knowingly relying on testimony that was later withdrawn.

Snodgrass directly interviewed Joshua, collected the evidence, and then explained the case. The investigation was carried out by Reserve Deputy Rick Walter, who first visited the crime scene. The police reported that when they discovered Mischelle slumped over in the seat, they saw a lot of blood in her hair.

Continue reading more about the brutal killing of Mischelle Lawless in 48 Hours.

48 Hours: Mischelle Lawless case timeline

48 Hours revealed that the person named Abbott went to the Scott County Sheriff’s Department and reported that a car was parked at the offramp with the headlights on and the engine still running. The police immediately reached the location, opened the car's door, looked in with their flashlight, and saw a girl slumped over in the seat with a lot of blood in her hair.

November 7, 1992

48 Hours showed that Mischelle went out with her friends in Sikeston. She arrived at the home of her boyfriend named Leon Lamb, and the two spent time together.

November 8, 1992

Mischelle left Leon's house and drove back home. A person named Mark Abbott was driving home that night after drinking, but he suddenly stopped to check on a car parked with its lights on and engine running at the top of exit ramp 77 on Interstate 55 near Benton. Soon, he went to the police and reported what he had witnessed. He said that he saw a woman sitting behind the wheel with blood in her hair.

After this incident, Rick Walter arrived at the crime scene and found that the car was a 1986 Buick Somerset model, and inside it, a nursing student was found assaulted and shot three times from behind in the head. Police collected forensic and physical evidence like palm prints, fingerprints, blood samples, and hair. They also discovered three .380 caliber shell casings.

48 Hours exposed that Mischelle was dressed in unbuttoned jeans, a turquoise sweatshirt, and blue socks while her clothes were covered with grass. She had been hit twice on the top of her head. A trail of blood led from the car to a crash barrier and continued about 100 ft. down a barrier.

Police thought that Mischelle had attempted to flee from her killer. They critically analyzed the scene by spotting grass on her socks and observing the blood outside the car. They also found tissue and blood under her fingernails. They revealed that she was beaten, put back into the car, and then shot.

According to 48 Hours, the investigators revealed that Leon was the last person to see his girlfriend alive, and so they suspected him first. Leon said,

"She was only there about an hour or so, so it could have been 11:30 or 12:00 at night."

At that time, Mischelle's Special Prosecutor Allen Moss worked at the Missouri Attorney General's office while investigator David James handled his cases with the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Office. James said,

"We’re just trying to focus on Mischelle. And what happened? And go back from there. And not start out here at the end, what everyone else says happened, but start from the beginning."

Investigators deeply investigated Leon but found no evidence connected to the crime scene, and he even passed a lie detector test.

48 Hours: The wrongful arrest and conviction

February 27, 1993

Four months after the death of Mischelle Lawless, three inmates at the Cape Girardeau County Jail revealed to police that a 17-year-old high school dropout boy named Joshua Kezer had confessed to them that he killed Mischelle during a drinking session. Joshua claimed that he was present at the time of the crime.

April 8, 1993

48 Hours reported that Joshua was formally charged in Scott County after a grand jury issued an indictment for first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Before the trial began, two jailhouse informants told Joshua's lawyer that their earlier statements were false. Later, they reversed their position and withdrew their recantations, reinstating their original statements. Even so, the proof of their retractions was never shown in court because his lawyer would have been required to step down to testify about it.

May 1994

During the ongoing trial, Abbott stated that Joshua drove into the parking lot and asked Abbott to go with him because Joshua's car had run out of gas. Abbott refused his request, got into his own truck, and went directly to the sheriff's department.

June 13, 1994

The trial was transferred to Ste. Genevieve County and started on this date. Prosecutors revealed small spots on his jacket and suggested that it might be blood, but laboratory tests could not confirm that these spots were actually blood.

A friend of Mischelle, Chantelle Crider, had mistakenly identified Joshua as the killer and said that he joined a Halloween party ten days after the murder.

June 17, 1994

48 Hours revealed that on this date, Joshua was found guilty by a jury in the Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court on the charge of second-degree murder.

June 18, 1994

The Halloween party's host contacted police and revealed that Joshua had not attended the party.

August 1994

In this month, Joshua was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

April 2008

Joshua's defense team submitted a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Cole County Circuit Court. The petition argued that the trial prosecutor named Kenny Hulshof had suppressed evidence favorable to the defense, including a report from an interview with Abbott conducted 10 days after the killing.

During the interview, Abbott stated that the hatchback's driver was a Black man from Sikeston, Missouri. Hulshof elicited perjury from a sheriff’s deputy who claimed that Abbott was never considered a suspect at any time.

February 17, 2009

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard B. Callahan overturned Joshua’s conviction.

February 18, 2009

The charges against Joshua were dismissed, and ultimately he was released.

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