Vacationers assaulted at state park in the Ozarks, cops say. Man arrested 30 years later

Thirty years after two women reported being assaulted — one of them raped — at a Missouri state park, police believe they have solved the cold case.

“Advances in forensic science technology” led Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers to Tony Lee Wagner, who has now been charged following the 1992 assault in Henning State Park in the Ozarks.

The incident happened as two Texas women were vacationing in the Branson area in August 1992. They were walking on the trails of the state park when they were approached by a man, according to the state highway patrol.

The suspect attacked the women with a rock, and one victim was “rendered incapacitated” while the other “played dead,” according to the Springfield News-Leader.

“The man took the unconscious woman to another location, and the other was able to escape,” the News-Leader reported. “She ran to the parking lot and flagged down a passing motorist.”

Officers later found the second woman, who they say had been raped. But the case went cold as no suspects were identified during the initial investigation.

Wagner, of Fort Scott, Kansas, was recently identified as the suspect in the case, according to state highway patrol.

He was charged on Tuesday, Oct. 11, with two counts of assault and one count each of kidnapping and forcible rape, state highway patrol said in a news release.

The victims in the 1992 assault have been notified of the arrest, the News-Leader reported.

“This is all about someone being held accountable for the victims,” Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Mike McClure told the newspaper. “It’s not about us, we’re a tool.”

Wagner is being held without bond in the Bourbon County jail in Kansas, awaiting extradition to Missouri.

This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Vacationers assaulted at state park in the Ozarks, cops say. Man arrested 30 years later."