Trial in 1984 Missouri Teenager’s Death Moved to New County

The trial of a 59-year-old man facing a capital murder charge in the 1984 death of a Missouri teenager has been moved to a different county.

Martin Priest’s trial in the death of 15-year-old Tammy Sue Rothganger of Eldon has been moved from Miller to Laclede County. Rothganger disappeared while walking to school in May 1984. A friend reported seeing the girl getting into a car with an unidentified man and Priest, who was her mother’s boyfriend. Her remains were never found.

Priest was charged in 2016 while serving a life sentence in Kansas for a different murder.

The Camdenton Lake News Leader reports in the early to mid-1980s, authorities in Missouri and Kansas linked Priest to five deaths, but prosecutors gained only one conviction that was upheld.