Mark L. Musgrave, 58, and Elizabeth A. Musgrave, 33, of Chamois, have each been charged with two counts of statutory sodomy, and possession of child pornography following last Wednesday’s early-morning arrest. They were taken into custody without incident, and are being held at the Osage County jail without bond.
“This is absolutely heartbreaking and has been hard on investigators,” said Sheriff Mike Bonham. “The Sheriff’s Office will do everything within the bounds of the law to seek justice for the victims.”
According to court records, the statutory sodomy are dated Jan. 5, 2017, while the possession charge is the result of a Dec. 9 search in which a 64GB micro-SD card was seized from Mark Musgrave, who had it secreted 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 years in age, completely nude. The video showed the child engaged in sexual activity with an adult male.
During a Dec. 3 forensic interview with a minor, Deputy Dennis Sutton was told she was subjected to unwanted sexual contact by the defendants when she was 12 years old at the Musgrave home.
The victim told Sutton that Mark and Elizabeth Musgrave had returned to the home intoxicated from a fair and that she and the defendants’ stepdaughter were taken into the Musgraves’ bedroom, where they were sexually assaulted.
A follow-up interview with two employees at Chamois R-1 was conducted, during which both identified the female in the video as being a former deceased student of the school.
With this information, a search warrant was executed at the Musgrave residence on Dec. 9 in conjunction with a search by the Mid Missouri Drug Task Force.
Mark and Elizabeth Musgrave were charged with possession of a controlled substance following that search, which led to the seizure of methamphetamine in the couple’s bedroom.
Both admitted to having used and sold meth in the past but told authorities they had stopped using around Halloween of this year. They admitted their bag of methamphetamine was theirs but said they thought it had been thrown out when they quit taking the drug.