CHAMOIS  — Mark Musgrave, 62, formerly of Chamois, is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. on March 6 at the Osage County Courthouse for a plea hearing. He faces two felony charges of first-degree sodomy, first-degree child molestation, and possession of child pornography. He will also plead in a separate felony drug possession charge.

Musgrave was arrested after a minor victim told Deputy Dennis Sutton during a Dec. 3, 2020, forensic interview that she was subjected to unwanted sexual contact by the defendants at their home when she was 12 years old. The victim told Sutton that Mark and Elizabeth Musgrave had returned home intoxicated from a fair and that she and the defendant’s stepdaughter were taken into the Musgraves’ bedroom, where they were sexually assaulted.

With that information, a search warrant was executed at the Musgrave residence on Dec. 9, 2020, in conjunction with a search by the Mid-Missouri Drug Task Force.

During the search, officers found a bag containing methamphetamine in the couple’s bedroom. Both admitted to having used and sold meth in the past but told authorities they had stopped using. They admitted the bag of methamphetamine was theirs but said they thought it had been thrown out when they quit taking the drug.

Also during the search, officers seized a 64GB micro-SD card from Mark Musgrave, who had secreted it in his wallet. A separate search warrant to examine the contents of the storage device was obtained and led to the discovery of a video file, which showed what appeared to be a female child, approximately 12, completely nude, engaged in sexual activity with an adult male. A follow-up interview with two Chamois R-1 employees was conducted, during which both identified the female in the video as Musgrave’s stepdaughter, a deceased former student of the school.

The defendant’s (now) ex-wife, Elizabeth Musgrave, pleaded guilty on Aug. 30, 2023, to three counts of first-degree statutory sodomy. She was sentenced to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on each count to be served consecutively, for a total of 21 years. Elizabeth is currently serving her time in the Chillicothe Correctional Center.

Editor’s Note: Some background information came from a story written by Neal A. Johnson and was previously published in the UD.