Records cited by investigators show severe fat loss, muscle wasting and lost mobility well before the 21-year-old was found dead.
POTOSI, Mo. — More than a year before a severely disabled 21-year-old Missouri man was found dead and profoundly malnourished, medical records had documented serious weight loss, severe muscle wasting and declining mobility, according to a court filing that later became evidence in the prosecution of his father.
Those earlier warnings became a central part of the case against Lawrence A. Riehl, 62, of Sullivan, who was sentenced Sept. 14 to 17 years in prison after entering Alford pleas to first-degree involuntary manslaughter, second-degree domestic assault and abuse of a person with a disability. The case focused not only on the condition in which Riehl’s son was found on March 26, 2025, but also on evidence that his nutritional deterioration had been recognized long beforehand. Prosecutors ultimately said the young man, who was severely disabled, nonverbal and dependent on others for everyday care, died after prolonged inadequate nutrition and care.
Medical records summarized in the probable cause statement date the documented decline to at least March 2024. They described severe fat loss and severe muscle wasting and recorded weight loss greater than 5% over one month. The records recommended a high-protein, high-calorie diet along with a daily multivitamin. They also documented a major loss of mobility: the young man had been having difficulty standing and was no longer able to walk. The records did not merely note that he was thin or had a limited diet; as quoted in the sheriff’s filing, they characterized several measures of his nutritional condition as severe. Investigators later used those records to argue that the decline visible at his death had developed over an extended period.
The court filing also says help had been arranged but was not pursued. Detective Jason Kaempfe wrote that an investigator with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services told him Riehl had been offered and scheduled for services and did not follow up. The warrant application does not spell out the exact services, their intended duration or every communication between the family and state officials. It therefore does not provide a complete history of efforts to secure outside care. What it does establish is that investigators considered the availability of those services relevant when assessing what happened between the documented nutritional problems in 2024 and the young man’s death in 2025.
By March 26, 2025, the situation described in the filing was far more serious. Deputies responding to the family residence found the 21-year-old on the floor of a bedroom. The warrant application described him as severely malnourished and said trash, empty food containers and human waste were present in the room. Riehl told investigators that his son was severely autistic and nonverbal. He also described long periods of sleeping and wakefulness and said another son had prepared food before going to sleep. According to the filing, the other son later woke Riehl to report that his brother was dead. Authorities have withheld the victim’s name in their official case announcements because he was considered a vulnerable person.
The autopsy the next day supplied investigators with evidence of the extent of the young man’s decline. The warrant application gave his height as 69 inches and his weight as approximately 50 pounds. Later information attributed to the sheriff’s office described him as weighing about 55 pounds. Rather than conceal that small difference, the public record is best read as placing his weight at roughly 50 to 55 pounds at the time of death. The medical examiner classified the manner of death as homicide. Investigators said the young man choked on fecal matter, and Kaempfe concluded that starvation explained why he had consumed it. The filing also stated that his knees were locked and that his legs appeared to have remained in the same position for a prolonged period.
Investigators examined food in the residence as they tried to reconstruct the care provided shortly before the death. Riehl told authorities that another son had made about 27 pizza rolls for his brother. The detective calculated the estimated calories and protein in that amount and compared the figures with general daily nutritional guidance. The filing suggested that even if all of the food had been consumed, it would have fallen substantially below the referenced daily calorie recommendation. That calculation alone did not prove how much the young man had eaten over previous days or months, but it formed part of the larger picture prosecutors evaluated alongside his extremely low weight, lost mobility, earlier medical warnings and autopsy findings.
The investigation continued for about three months after the death. On June 12, 2025, Kaempfe signed a probable cause statement seeking charges of second-degree murder and abuse of an elderly, disabled or vulnerable person. The filing identified the medical records, autopsy and observations from the residence as the basis for probable cause. It also noted that a review of Riehl’s criminal history showed no prior criminal charges. The document represented the investigators’ allegations at that stage of the case, not a trial verdict. Prosecutors later reconsidered the legal charges after reviewing the evidence and autopsy material, eventually replacing the murder count with the offenses to which Riehl entered his Alford pleas.
An Alford plea allowed Riehl to resolve the prosecution without admitting the state’s account of the underlying conduct. Under the plea, a defendant may continue to maintain innocence while acknowledging that the prosecution possesses enough evidence that a judge or jury could find guilt. The resulting conviction is treated as a conviction for sentencing purposes. Riehl entered Alford pleas to first-degree involuntary manslaughter, second-degree domestic assault and misdemeanor abuse of a person with a disability. The change from the original second-degree murder allegation is significant because it reflects the charging decision prosecutors reached after reviewing the evidence rather than a jury verdict finding Riehl guilty of murder.
Circuit Judge Brice Sechrest sentenced Riehl to 10 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and seven years for domestic assault. The court ordered those felony terms to run one after the other, producing the 17-year sentence. The Washington County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said those were the maximum prison terms permitted for the two felony offenses. Sechrest also imposed one year for abuse of a person with a disability. That misdemeanor term runs at the same time as the felony sentences and therefore does not extend the aggregate term beyond 17 years. Multiple prosecutor-based accounts and the mathematical total support the concurrent description of the misdemeanor sentence.
Another element of the investigation concerned what Riehl said after his son’s death. The probable cause statement says the Washington County coroner reported speaking with Riehl on June 3, 2025. According to the filing, Riehl said the family knew there was a problem and had been trying to obtain Medicaid coverage and placement for his son in a facility. The statement also says Riehl later contacted the coroner twice about obtaining the death certificate because of a life insurance policy. The final charges did not accuse Riehl of killing his son for insurance proceeds, and prosecutors have not publicly identified financial gain as a motive. The calls were recorded in the warrant application as part of the investigation, not as proof of an independently established motive.
Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John I. Jones IV placed the case in the context of the young man’s dependence on others. He called it a tragic case involving someone who relied on other people for his basic needs and said no sentence could restore what had been lost. The prosecution’s final theory, as reflected in its public statement, centered on prolonged inadequate nutrition and care rather than a single isolated event immediately before the death. That distinction is reinforced by the March 2024 medical records and the investigator’s account that services had been offered and scheduled. The public filings do not answer every question about who else was involved in the young man’s care or what specific outside assistance was available.
With the Alford pleas accepted and the sentences imposed, the criminal case against Riehl reached its principal conclusion more than 17 months after his son’s death. Available public records do not identify another scheduled trial against him in connection with the case. What remains in the record is a chronology stretching from documented severe nutritional problems in 2024, through an unsuccessful period in which investigators said services were offered, to the death in March 2025 and a prosecution that ended with consecutive felony sentences totaling 17 years.
Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.