JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — Nearly three years after a missing High Ridge 19-year-old was last heard from, charges have been filed in his murder.
John Paul Parton's body still has not been found, but police said Thomas E. "Tedo" Gamble, 21, fatally shot him on May 18, 2021, and disposed of his body.
Gamble, of Potosi, was charged in April with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse. He was arrested May 1 in Port Allen, Louisiana.
5 On Your Side spoke to Parton's parents last year as they sought answers on their son's disappearance. On the day they last saw him, they said he told them he had burglarized a business with some of his friends, and they had a disagreement about the stolen money.
A probable cause statement detailed how investigators pinned Gamble as the suspect after a break in the case earlier this year.
On March 22, a witness handed over a recording of a conversation they had with Gamble to Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigators. The recording captured Gamble confessing to shooting Parton with a Taurus G2C 9MM handgun and burning his body in a bathtub, court records said.
Over the course of two interviews in April, another witness admitted they watched Gamble shoot Parton in May 2021, while they were riding in a Toyota Camry on Highway 67 near Leadington. The witness said Gamble was sitting in the back right seat and Parton was riding in the front passenger seat when Gamble shot him through the seat.
The witness also said Gamble had committed a burglary in Jefferson County the day prior and the stolen money was used to buy one Taurus G2C 9MM handgun each for the three of them. Gun purchase records supported that account, police said.
After the shooting, the witness said they dumped Parton's body in a creek near Bismark, drove to Gamble's girlfriend's home on Pendleton Road to switch vehicles to a pickup truck with a bed cover, then went back, wrapped Parton up in a carpet and put him in the truck bed. The witness was then driven home and said he didn't know what Gamble did with Parton's body.
A second witness said she was inside the home on Pendleton Road on the day of the murder when Gamble walked in and admitted to killing Parton. The witness said she never saw Parton's body but admitted to later seeing blood inside the vehicle, which Gamble cleaned using water and bleach. She also admitted to cleaning blood from the Toyota Camry and selling the car.
The witness admitted she believed Gamble burned Parton's body at her home on Pendelton Road, saying he took a shovel and rake, drove a four-wheeler back and forth between her home and the woods, and came back with soot on himself.
Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators tracked down the new owner of the Toyota Camry, who said he had replaced the front passenger seat because of its poor condition but told police who had the seat.
Investigators tracked the seat down and seized it as evidence. An obvious hole in the seat was consistent with a bullet hole and investigators found blood evidence in the foam on the back of the seat, the probable cause statement said. Police also removed a bullet from the car's dashboard.
Gamble was being held Friday at the West Baton Rouge Parish Detention Center in Louisiana, where he was awaiting extradition to Missouri. Investigators were still searching for Parton's body.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office asked anyone with information on the case to contact Cpl. Jason Ashby at 314-608-2764 or jason.ashby@mshp.dps.mo.gov.