Domestic Violence Was Motive In Local Killing

Domestic violence was the motive behind the murder of a Trenton woman on Sunday evening.
David Call, a 50-year-old Kansas City man and former Trenton resident, shot 53-year-old Rebecca Taul (also known as Becky Nelson) Sunday evening. Her body was found in her burning home at 602 Grundy St. shortly after 9 p.m. Firefighters found Ms. Taul and her pet, a bulldog, deceased. Autopsy results showed she had been shot seven times with a .380-caliber handgun. Call, who attended Trenton High School in the 1980s, committed suicide with what is assumed to be the same weapon at a house near McFall on Monday evening.
The North Central Missouri Major Case Squad was activated to investigate the case, which early-on focused on Call, with whom Ms. Taul had recently ended a romantic relationship. A probable cause statement notes that Call was “distraught” over the break up. Trenton Police Chief Tommy Wright said a caller from out of state had informed law enforcement officers Sunday evening that Call had phoned her and said he was standing over a dead body and was igniting a fire so that no one would know what had occurred. In addition, a canvass of the neighborhood found that a vehicle resembling the white sport utility vehicle that Call had been driving had been in the area prior to the fire being discovered.
“Within the first couple of hours we had focused on Call, Wright said. “We kept our focus open, but the information we were getting kept pointing to him.”
Wright said it is believed that the murder was premeditated, which is why charges of first degree murder had been filed. In addition, Call had been charged with armed criminal action, arson and abandonment of a corpse. He said because there were hopes of negotiating with Call for his surrender, the issuance of the warrants had been kept as quiet as possible, but he believes Call did learn that he had been charged with murder.
Negotiations fell apart, though, as Call was found to be hiding in a home on Highway T between Route AA and McFall. While McFall is located in Gentry County, the house was located just over the county line in Daviess County. On Monday afternoon, a Daviess County deputy took a farm truck past the house and confirmed that a vehicle matching the suspect’s SUV was at the residence. At that point, a “distant perimeter” was set up, according to Grundy County Sheriff Rodney Herring. Officers made a positive identification of the suspect when he left the house and went to his vehicle and then returned to the house.
After formal charges were filed and a warrant was obtained, officers were ready to contact Call.
Sheriff Herring, Daviess County Sheriff Ben Becerra, Missouri State Highway Patrol Officers Brad Ream, Kevin Fender, Ben Israel and Paul Kimball, as well as NITRO Task Force Member Eric McAllister, went to the scene, parking on Highway T in front of the residence. Sheriff Herring said the officers were using the passenger sides of their vehicles for cover and attempted to get Call to come out of the house.
After about 10 to 15 minutes, he said, Call shot three rounds from a high-powered rifle at the officers. One round struck the tire of Herring’s Dodge Charger patrol car while a second one hit the rear quarter panel of the vehicle. A third round struck the radiator of the Ford truck that Ream and Fender had been in. The shots that struck Herring’s vehicle came from the living room of the home while the round that struck the MSHP truck came from a dining room window.
At that point, McAllister, Ream, Israel and Kimball were able to leave the scene and return to a staging area at the intersection of Routes T and AA while Herring, Becerra and Fender remained pinned behind their vehicles.
McAllister stayed in contact by phone with the suspect, who had no demands other than to talk to his mother and sister. After about 90 minutes, which Herring called the “longest hour and a half of my life,” the St. Joseph Police Department arrived with its Lenco BearCat armored vehicle. Using that vehicle, Herring, Becerra and Fender were able to leave the scene safely. Later, armored vehicles from Buchanan County and the MSHP arrived on the scene, along with SWAT teams from both of those agencies.
As darkness was approaching, the three armored vehicles, one of which contained Sheriff Herring, approached the house with lights on in an attempt to contain Call and be sure he did not slip past authorities. At this point, Herring said, there was no more contact with the suspect. Eventually, a battering ram was placed on the St. Joseph PD armored vehicle and it was used to open a door of the residence. A surveillance robot was thrown into the house and showed Call lying on his back with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Herring said three shell casings from a .338 Lapua rifle were found in the house and are thought to have been from the shots fired at officers.
Chief Wright said it has been confirmed that Call was a certified law enforcement officer in Missouri, although it is thought that he had not served in that capacity in recent years. More recently, he had worked as an auctioneer.
The Kansas City Star, in a story this morning, reported that Call had worked as a Clay County park ranger in 1996. He had pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of child in 2008 and was placed on probation. The Star reported that the charge was amended from statutory rape and stemmed from an allegation that he had sex with an underage girl.
Wright said the suicide of Call leaves unanswered questions, but does not change how the investigation will move forward from his standpoint.
“We will still be following up on leads and document everything just as we normally would,” he said. “We‘re going to leave no stone unturned,” he said.
Wright said there are two things he believes can be taken away from Ms. Taul’s death and the subsequent investigation.
“First, without the cooperation from the community and from those outside the community this would have been a much more difficult case to solve,” he said.
Wright said this is exactly what he hopes people are being educated about on domestic violence through programs such as the “Chief’s Tea” held each year to promote awareness of domestic violence.
“This is the ultimate example of what domestic violence looks like,” he said.