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Missouri authorities are revealing what they say was the key evidence that helped them solve a decades-old cold case, Fox 2 reports.
In 1993, 40-year-old Steven Weltig was shot to death at a liquor store he owned in Arnold, Missouri.
The case escaped resolution for decades. But in 2020, investigators took another look and reviewed a video of a 2015 police interview with a suspect named Loril Harp.
What police had not seen, or did not previously recognize as significant, was that the video included Harp talking to himself during a break when officers had left the interrogation room.
Harp can be seen in the video yelling at himself that he did not kill Weltig. At the same time, Harp was shuffling in his chair, twitching and tapping his feet. The recording also shows Harp telling someone on the phone “I’m not under arrest, but I probably will be before I leave here,” according to Fox 2.
Det. Corporal Josh Wineinger said the footage of Harp’s actions and statements while he thought he was alone were crucial to cracking the case.
“Watching that dead time helped us,” Wineinger told the television station. “I was 100 percent convinced at that point.”
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“He was on the phone with someone saying, ‘I’m going to jail.’ Stuff that would indicate he was guilty of this.”
Detectives brought Harp back in for questioning in 2020 and he acknowledged hitting Weltig but denied shooting him. Harp claimed Weltig came at him with a gun.
Harp also said he had blood on him when he got home after the assault and took a shower—blood he explained as potentially coming from a gunshot wound.
“You had blood on you?” a detective asked Harp, according to Fox News. “I must have if I shot him. Or he shot me,” Harp responded.
Harp then claimed the blood might have been from a fistfight, but investigators did not believe him. He was subsequently arrested and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with Weltig’s death.
In 2021, Harp died at the age of 69 from an illness.
[Feature Photo: Loril Harp/Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office]
