The Murders of Russell and Rebecca Porter

Sometimes even I am surprised at just what someone will kill, or pay someone to kill, for. This case had so many players it was hard to keep up with them all. While my research was not specific on how exactly investigators were led to all of those involved but it does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

Russell “Rusty” and Rebecca “Becky” Porter were married just about a year when they disappeared on April 18, 2011 from their home near Willard Missouri. It is not clear who reported them missing but there was a search for the couple and a report filed. When investigators went to the Porter home they immediately suspected something was wrong. The door had been left open, cell phones were still in the home, their vehicle was still there and nothing indicated that they had intended to leave.

Three months later two bodies were found in nearby Taney County Missouri but it was not immediately clear just who the bodies were. The bodies had been exposed to the elements for so long they were nearly completely skeletons. Just how the bodies were found does not seem to be completely clear. Some of my research indicates that a young man by the name of Phillip Friend all but told investigators where to look. Other research leans towards the bodies were found before investigators knew for certain what had happened to the couple. In fairness Phillip Friend may have just let investigators know that his father was familiar with a particular area that just so happened, or maybe not just so happened, to be the area where the bodies were found.

Investigators did not have to go far to find someone who had an problem with the couple. The man lived next door... literally. But, this was not one of your standard neighbor feud. The man who lived next to the Porters was Robert Campbell, Rusty Porter's uncle. It was not completely clear if the land in which just the Porters “controlled” was 120 acres or if that was the area in which also included Robert, with his wife Carolyn, and Rusty's mother, Kay Simmons who also lived on what was considered family property. By all accounts at some point Kay had deeded the home, and obviously a plot of some sort, to Rusty. It seemed to be no secret that Robert was unhappy about the situation and had no problem expressing it to apparently anyone who would listen.

Over time hostilities began to rise between Robert Campbell and his nephew, Rusty Porter. There were apparently restraining orders issued on both sides for a while until everyone agreed to stay away from each other. The Porters had installed cameras around their homes but it seems they were of little use. Some information stated that the camera lenses were broken, which could have been true but other information states that the perpetrators returned to the home and took a computer that allegedly had images recorded by the cameras.

By the time everything came out six people would be charged with a variety of things related to the case. Three of them would plead guilty and get a variety of sentences; two would take their cases to trial and be convicted and one, surprisingly the one with the least important charges, would commit suicide. So who were all these people? Well I have mentioned a few of them already. One was Robert Campbell, Rusty's uncle. The others were Tony Friend, Robert's brother-in-law, Tony's wife, Windy, Tony's son, Phillip and Phillip's cousin, Dusty Ray Hicks. Oh and then there was Carolyn Campbell, Robert's wife and Tony's sister. Carolyn would be arrested late in the game on charges of perjury. Prosecutors would allege that she had lied about several things to the grand jury that had been convened in the case. She was arrested on April 1, 2014, she made bail the following day and on April 3^rd she was found dead by an apparent suicide in her home at the age of fifty-nine. There seemed to be little information or talk about Carolyn except for this issue here but I would gander to guess that her suicide had little to do with being charged with perjury and more with the fact that she probably knew way more than investigators could prove and she was probably scared that they would. There just seems to be no way that so many in her family were proven to be involved in this crime that she had not been involved also.

It appears that Tony Friend would be the first to take a plea deal. His son, Phillip may have actually gotten one first but Phillip's deal required that he testify against all of the others that went to trial so he would be the last to be sentenced. Tony would plead guilty to two counts of first degree murder and one count of receiving stolen property in 2013. He received a two sentences of life without parole. Some of my information stated that “life” in Missouri was thirty years but other things indicated that it was twenty-five. The Missouri Department of Correction website and the information it provides is not one of the best I have seen so I was unable to determine if his sentences were to be served consecutively or concurrently.

Also in 2013 Phillip Friend would plead guilty to two counts of felonious restraint and two counts of second degree murder. He was given two sentences of seven years for the felonious restraint right away. His sentencing for the murder charges would not come until after the last trial in the case. He had been promised to get no more than twenty years each but eventually he was given ten years on each count.

The remaining three, Windy Friend, Dusty Hicks and Robert Campbell expected to take their cases to trial Windy would go first in March of 2014. In fact her trial ended in a conviction just the week before Carolyn Campbell would be charged with perjury and later commit suicide. I'll get into the specifics of her trial in a bit. At the time of Windy's conviction Dusty and Robert were scheduled to go on trial themselves separately later that year. Just before Dusty was to go on trial it would be delayed by an accepted plea deal. He would plead guilty to two counts of second degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and two counts of felonious restraint. He would receive two life sentences, two sentences of twenty-five years (for the criminal action charges) and two sentences of seven years. It appears that I may have been able to determine that his sentences were concurrent. After several delays Robert would go on trial in July of 2016.

Robert would be convicted on two counts of second degree murder (prosecutors had asked for first degree) after the jury deliberated for ten hours and was given two life sentences at the age of seventy-two. Prosecutors would say that they were satisfied with the verdict especially considering Robert's age. They argued that the case against Robert was the hardest for them. Robert was considered to be the mastermind of the case but had apparently played no part in the actual murders. It was alleged that Robert had promised to pay $100,000 for the deed to be done but it is not clear as to whether any money every changed hands.

So now you know what happened to the people involved... but what happened to the victims? That would all seemingly come out in Windy Friend's trial. The “star” witness at her trial would be Phillip Friend. I have to be fair here in saying that, no, I do not believe that Windy ever really told the truth about how much she was involved in the planning or the participation of the crime, and she told several different stories, but there is a part of me that feels a little bad for her. Remember her husband pleaded guilty to first degree murder. He was likely at least threatened with the death penalty and prosecutors believed he was the person who actually shot both victims in the head, hence he probably felt he had little choice but to plead in that manner. Both Phillip Friend and his cousin, Dusty Hicks pleaded to second degree murder and at trial Robert Campbell's jury would convict him on second degree murder charges. So aside from Tony Friend, his wife, Windy would be the only other person to receive a first degree murder conviction. In reality there is little difference really in the sentencing and it was likely Windy and her lawyer who thought they could “get one” over on a jury and get either an acquittal or a lesser verdict, but in a way it seems unfair that she got convicted of first degree murder.

Phillip Friend, as I said was the star witness in Windy's trial and would tell about the events leading into the early morning of April 18, 2011. Prosecutors would have other witnesses to things to prove some of the evidence and discount some things that were alleged but Phillip would give a play by play of events. Windy was Phillip's step-mother but it seems she may have also been his aunt. It was said in the courtroom that Windy, who was more than a decade younger than her husband, had married Tony Friend several years after her sister, and Tony's wife, Samantha, had been killed in a car accident. I tried to determine for certain when it was that Samantha died and that Phillip was her son, but I was unable to confirm that.

It does appear that the defense was able to cast a very bleak picture of Windy's life. It was said that her parents had been both drug addicts and alcoholics and Windy had been removed from their care at a young age and raised by her grandmother. It does seem that at least by the time the Porters were murdered that Windy's mother was a part of her life because an incident later involving her mother brought charging of receiving stolen property against Tony. Windy and Tony apparently also had some children of their own together but thankfully little was said about them in the trial. The defense also was able to show the jury that Windy had been conned by her husband, or at least that is what they wanted the jury to believe. Testimony at trial said she believed Tony had colon cancer and she had been taking him to the hospital for treatment for quite some time. It was revealed that during the murder investigation she learned that was a lie and he did not have cancer. But, Tony did have some physical problems stemming from an incident in which he had been “run over” by a car. He was said to be in constant pain and when Hydrocodone had stopped working doctors gave him morphine. I believe it was the defense's intention to likely show that Windy was a controlled woman who lived with an addict. They revealed that the couple would take the morphine and “melt” it down to a liquid and Windy would inject Tony with the medication. However, whatever the defense intentions were the prosecution would point out that if Tony was in such the shape as they described then he would have needed his wife to help him do things, including the murders of the Porters.

According to Phillip Friend on the night of April 17, 2011 several people were in the apartment occupied by Tony and Windy Friend and they were all coming down from what he called a “24 hour meth bender.” Inside the home were Tony, Windy, Phillip, Dusty, the other Friend children and a sixteen year old runaway named Autumn Huff. Phillip testified that up to this point the three men had done little more than stole property that consisted mainly of four wheelers and heavy equipment. Some of that heavy equipment was stored on Robert Campbell's property. According to Phillip his father had come to him with the issue of murdering the Porters for Robert Campbell. The promised $100,000 would get settle a lot of debts the Porters had, including back rent.

Phillip claimed that just before going to the Porter home Tony Friend and Dusty Hicks had showered to remove any loose skin they may have had on them. Tony believed this would lessen the chance of leaving DNA at the scene. Soon after the four adults (Phillip, Tony, Dusty, and Windy) would leave while Autumn Huff stayed at the home with the Friend children. They first went to Robert Campbell's home and parked there it seems. Campbell himself was not in town that evening, something that was likely arranged ahead of time. Once there Tony Friend would place duct tape around the legs of his pants and around the wrists of his gloves, again in attempts to avoid leaving DNA. Both Tony and Dusty had guns with them. According to Phillip while the three men made their way to the Porter home nearby Windy had stayed in the truck. When they got to the home windows and doors were checked and it was first believed that all were locked. Dusty however had determined that a kitchen window was unlocked but he needed help reaching it. According to Phillip, Tony lifted Dusty up so he could cut the screen, open the window, enter the home and let the other two men in. Once inside the three men entered the master bedroom. They proceeded to take zip ties and bound both Rusty and Becky. It seemed a bit unclear at this point if Windy had brought the truck closer to where the men were or if she had remained with it at the Campbell's home. At any rate, the three men led the Porters to the truck. Windy, Phillip and Tony sat up front while Dusty Hicks remained in the back with Rusty and Becky, holding them at gunpoint.

It seemed unclear as to the reasoning but at some point Windy was dropped off in another area while the men took the Porters to a remote area. They were taken to an area that Tony Friend had known as a child in which an old small cabin stood. Inside the cabin Tony shot Rusty and Becky at least once in the head each and killed them. The three men headed back to the home where they took some valuables it seems and the computer in attempts to thwart any effort for law enforcement in determining who was involved. They had also brought bleach with them to scrub the home. It is unclear at what point Windy was picked up or she made it home.

The following day Phillip said that Tony had decided leaving the bodies in the cabin/shed was not a good idea. It seems that the trio, and Windy, headed back to the area where they first dug a shallow hole where they placed the bodies. They then attached a chain of some sort to the cabin from the truck and pulled the building that would fall apart as they did so. The remains of the building landed on the shallow grave.

One of the comments made by Phillip in the trial became one of the reasons in which I believe Carolyn Campbell was way more involved in the planning and the cover up. According to Phillip, Tony told him that Carolyn wanted them to kill Dusty because she felt he was a loose end. Keep in mind that this trial ended one week before Carolyn would be charged with perjury. Her charges would stem from her lying about many things including about knowledge of a stolen tractor on her property, an encounter with Phillip and telling the grand jury that Robert had not been upset with the Porters at all after she had said differently to the police. The tractor had been found during a search of the Campbell property. The trial ended, Carolyn was arrested, bailed out the following day and the day after that committed suicide in her home.

There were other things revealed in Windy Friends trial. She would claim that she had no knowledge of anything what so ever. She claimed to not know that drugs were being used in her home; she claimed she did not know there was a plan to kill the Porters; she claimed she never left her home that night or had access to her phone because she was upstairs caring for her “sick” children. She even went as far as saying that the only person with access to her phone was sixteen year old Autumn Huff. Huff had already told investigators that on the night of the murders she had stayed at the home and watched the children while all of the adults left. It also appears that she may have also informed investigators or backed Phillips story of what happened at the home prior to the murders. Windy would do little more than claim that her husband had said he had a job to do for Robert and that basically their money issues would be gone. She refused to admit that she had heard anything about the planning of the murders or had participated in any way.

Windy's denials did not back up the evidence the prosecutors had. My research said a man named David Arnold testified against Windy. It was the only reference I found to him and I could find nothing more than the little that was stated in the one article I found. However, it seems that his testimony was significant. He would claim that Windy began “blowing up his phone” around 3:30 on the morning of April 18^th and prosecutors would allege that her phone was pinging from the area in which Phillip claimed the men had dropped her off. Prosecutors also argued that the following morning Windy had called her child's school and at that point her phone was pinging near the area in which the bodies had been found.

Several people testified that Tony had been openly going around saying he had a job coming up and that “the job was $100,000 for two birthdays” for as much as a week prior to the murders. While the defense apparently attempted to portray Windy as a meek, gullible, and uninformed person who had no idea what was going on in her home or in the murders, the prosecution pointed out in their closing arguments that between statements to law enforcement, the grand jury and her trial testimony Windy had continually contradicted herself. The jury took four hours to deliberate before returning a verdict guilty of first degree murder on both counts. The courts had no choice but to sentence her to life without parole.

The interesting thing about all of this is it seems that no-one ever got what they wanted. It was said that soon after the murders Robert and Carolyn Campbell would move from their home and yet this land was what the murders had been allegedly all about. It was also said that Tony Friend never saw that $100,000 he kept bragging about. In fact, it appears that Tony and his family were evicted from their apartment and that was just the start of a down spiral. They moved into an RV owned by Robert Campbell's son, Tim. Just where that RV was parked, I cannot say. But at some point an argument had ensued between Tony Friend and his mother in law. The police were called to the scene and it was discovered that the RV was stolen.

As I stated early on, I cannot say just exactly how the bodies were found or how and when the participants were discovered to be involved. I can say that at least for Robert Campbell he was indicted by a grand jury sometime in late 2012. He bonded out but later with all the stolen property issues at hand his bond was revoked and he remained in prison to await his trial. It just amazes me that with all of the precautions taken to all but hide any DNA in the home, no one thought to think that the first person law enforcement would go to would be Robert Campbell and it was a short drop to the others. For all the preparing they did, they sure did not preparing their statements are for that matter ensure no one had their phone on them. One piece seemed to fall right into the next. For as callous as the crime was I believe the sentences for most of the participants were minor.

One thing I found interesting was that in all of my research I never heard any more about Rusty's mother. In initial articles there was a lot of talk about Becky's daughter and brother spearheading searches to find the couple. But, the only reference I saw to Rusty's mother was that she lived on the family property. Another interesting thing is that it does not appear that Rusty and Becky were buried together. In fact Rusty is not mentioned in either of the two obituaries that I found for Becky on the Findagrave.com website. One of them does not even have the Porter name listed, nor is it listed on her tombstone. According to my research positively identifying the couple proved difficult due to the amount of decomposition that had taken place. Becky was identified first and it was said that her funeral was taking place when Rusty's body was officially identified. The bodies had to be identified through DNA and previous surgical procedures. Initially their cause of death was listed as “homicidal violence.” This would seem obvious considering that both bodies were buried together, obviously by someone other than the victims. Whether they could determine the gunshot wounds to the head is unclear.

I know there are some that will disagree with me in my assessment of Windy and her ultimate conviction and/or sentence. Do not take this to mean that I think she was innocent in any way, because I do not. I also believe it was her own behavior either by herself or at the advice of her lawyers is what ultimately gave her the conviction and the sentence she received. Two people had already pleaded in this case prior to her trial. Another would receive a plea deal after her conviction. It is likely she was offered a deal of some sort and thought she could have gotten better through a trial. That did not work out so well for her.