A man is accused of sending chilling and violent text messages to loved ones soon after killing his wife, according to police.
The initial incident took place last week but was first reported by local outlets like KMBC News on Monday based on newly released documents. On Friday morning at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time, police in Kansas City, Missouri, responded to a home on the 7900 block of North Forest after receiving calls from a concerned employer. John Wonder, 31, and his wife, Ashli Erhardt, 29, each worked for the same company and had not shown up that day, prompting the company to request a welfare check.
Missouri, according to World Population Review, has the third-highest rate of people who have experienced domestic violence, adding that 41.8 percent of Missouri women and 35.2 percent of men experience intimate partner physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking.
Upon arriving at the home, officers met with the family of resident Ashli Erhardt, 29. After conducting a search of the home, a dead body, later identified as Erhhardt, was found in the laundry room, nude, with a belt wrapped around her neck, and with a meat cleaver and a butcher’s knife. No one else was found in the home at the time. While open, the door to the laundry room had been secured with a length of bungee rope. Police also noted a particularly grisly detail about the body: the word “wonder” had been written on one of Erhardt’s legs in blood.
Attempts were made by family members at the scene to contact Wonder, to no avail. While the pair had still been married, officers learned that they had been in the midst of a divorce. Police were later contacted by another family member who shared a screenshot of a chilling message they received from Wonder after he went missing on Friday: “Hey kiddo. Sorry about the mess. For the record: it’s way easier and much more satisfying than you can imagine. See you around.”
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Later still, a friend of Wonder’s reached out with several messages he had received from him. In the first message, he claimed that he was heading north to Fargo and would soon be tossing his phone out of his car window. As he went on, the messages became increasingly more distressing and violent.
“Now depleted, in anger I placed her gemstones set next to her body. Her third-eye shakra, her moonstone, blah blah blah – a lot of good they did you, hun,” one message read.
“I’m in the car. I have no doubt I will be caught today. [Redacted] What a gal. To honor her, I will not go out by a gunshot (suicide by cop) but by, hopefully a similar fate as [redacted],” another read.
“Some small town in Northern Mo – I’m guessing they will be finding her body right about now. I started getting calls at 9:30am. I’m sure [redacted] phone received the same,” Wonder wrote in another message.
Wonder was ultimately arrested later in the day in Valentine, Nebraska, a small town of less than 3,000 near the state’s border with South Dakota, roughly 500 miles northwest of Kansas City. He was taken into police custody and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with the alleged killing of his wife.
Newsweek reached out to the Kansas City Police via email for comment.