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James Horn Jr., Suspected in Double-Homicide and Kidnapping, Killed by Cops

James Horn Jr., 47, was shot dead Saturday morning after a nearly month-long manhunt, the Henry County Sheriff said.
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A man suspected of killing an ex-girlfriend and her teenage son after holding her captive was killed in a shootout with Missouri police Saturday, authorities said.

James Horn Jr., 47, was shot dead Saturday morning at a state wildlife area after a dramatic manhunt, the Henry County sheriff said. He had been on the lam since late April, after authorities charged him with kidnapping Sandra Kay Sutton, who told police Horn had kept her in a wooden box for months.

Sutton and her son, 17-year-old Zachary Wade Sutton, were found dead of apparent gunshot wounds Thursday.

Officers received a tip Saturday morning that led them to Horn, who was hiding in a closet in a building at the J. N. “Turkey” Kearn Memorial Wildlife Area, about 70 miles southeast of Kansas City, according to Henry County Sheriff Kent Oberkrom.

Okerkrom said Horn threatened officers with a weapon when they told him to surrender, according to The Associated Press. He didn’t know what kind of weapon Horn had.

A $5,000 reward had been offered earlier in the week for any information that led to Horn’s arrest, according to NBC affiliate KSHB.

Horn was a registered sex offender who served time in prison in an unrelated kidnapping and sexual attack, according to The Associated Press. He served roughly three years in prison in the early 1990s for a kidnapping and rape in Tennessee, according to the AP.

He also served a nearly 13 year sentence for kidnapping and abducting his estranged wife in 1997. He was released from custody in 2011 and his probation jurisdiction was transferred to Missouri in 2012.

Sutton had not requested an order of protection against Horn, according to Clinton police Lt. Sonny Lynch.

IN-DEPTH

— Elisha Fieldstadt