A Phelps County jury convicted Stephen Scott nearly four years after two women were killed during a visit to a Missouri residence.
QULIN, Mo. — Two young children were inside a southeast Missouri home when Margaret Delcour and Wendy Rhodes were shot to death in December 2022, a circumstance that became part of the criminal case that ended this summer with Stephen T. Scott convicted of eight offenses.
The children’s presence was not merely background to the double-murder prosecution. Jurors found Scott guilty of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child and a related armed criminal action count in addition to two first-degree murder counts, two other armed criminal action counts, unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of a weapon. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office announced the Aug. 28 verdict, and local reporting now places Scott’s sentencing on Nov. 3.
State officials have publicly identified the two victims but not the children. Law&Crime, citing reporting from KFVS, said a 7-year-old boy witnessed the shootings and that his 4-year-old brother also was in the residence. The attorney general’s office has confirmed more generally that two juveniles were inside the home when the women were killed. Nothing in the reviewed public material indicates that either child was physically wounded, and the reports do not disclose further identifying details about them.
The sequence that brought the children into a homicide case began with what prosecutors described as a visit. Scott went to Rhodes’ residence with his then-girlfriend, Candace Gurley, according to the evidence summarized after trial by the attorney general’s office. Before arriving, prosecutors said, Scott had stolen a firearm from his grandmother in St. Charles County. That allegation about the gun later formed part of the state’s account of how the weapon used in Qulin came into his possession.
During the visit, a confrontation developed. A probable cause affidavit reported by KWOC said a witness told investigators that Scott had been arguing with Delcour and Rhodes before the shooting. Prosecutors later told jurors that Scott used the stolen firearm to shoot each woman three times, killing both. The women were inside a residence in Qulin, a Butler County community in southeast Missouri, while the two juveniles also were in the home.
The first official public account was much narrower. Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs said deputies were dispatched at about 1 a.m. Dec. 4, 2022, to the 100 block of New Hampshire Street after a report that two people had been shot. Deputies arrived to find two women dead with what authorities described as apparent gunshot wounds. At that point, officials did not release their names and said the Butler County Sheriff’s Office and county coroner were investigating.
Authorities identified the women a day later. Butler County Coroner Jim Akers said Rhodes was 48 and lived in Qulin, while Delcour was 36 and lived in Broseley. Investigators had by then identified Scott, then 30 and described as an O’Fallon resident, as the suspect. The probable cause account connecting him to an argument with both women also became public, and prosecutors filed a collection of homicide, weapons and child-related charges.
Scott was taken into custody in Dexter the same morning. The earliest sheriff’s account said he surrendered to police there. Later reporting supplied a more specific setting: Law&Crime reported that officers responded to a Walmart in Dexter after receiving a call about a suspicious person trying to enter before the store opened. Scott was reportedly encountered there at about 5 a.m. The two descriptions are not necessarily inconsistent, but the sheriff’s initial account did not include the Walmart circumstances.
After his arrest, Scott gave investigators his own explanation for the violence, according to probable cause material cited by Law&Crime. He reportedly said he had been high on methamphetamine and believed his life was in danger. That assertion was Scott’s reported statement to investigators. It did not settle whether the shootings were legally justified, and prosecutors continued to pursue first-degree murder. Almost four years later, jurors convicted him of both murder counts.
The progression from the early charges to the final verdicts illustrates how the child-related part of the case remained alongside the homicide allegations. Local reporting shortly after the deaths listed two counts of first-degree murder, four armed criminal action counts, abuse or neglect of a child, endangering the welfare of a child, unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon. The verdict announcement identified the eight offenses on which Scott ultimately was convicted, including one child-endangerment count and the armed criminal action count attached to it.
The case also involved a broader set of law-enforcement agencies than the initial response suggested. The Butler County Sheriff’s Department led the investigation, while the Dexter Police Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol assisted, according to the attorney general’s office. The attorney general served as conflict prosecutor. Assistant Attorneys General Corie Geary-Atkins and Melissa A. Pierce prosecuted the case at trial, with Carl Schwartze and Carrie Boessen providing additional support.
The jury itself was from Phelps County, according to the attorney general’s account and a report by KTTN. That detail differs from one piece of secondary coverage that referred to a Butler County jury. The distinction does not change the eight guilty verdicts, but it is material to an accurate description of the proceeding. State officials announced the result Aug. 28, 2026, more than three years and eight months after the killings.
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said the verdict delivered a measure of justice for Delcour and Rhodes and thanked those who worked on the case. Her office emphasized both the loss of the two women and the accountability produced by the jury’s decision. The public record reviewed for this report does not contain extensive family statements or detailed biographies of the victims, so their lives beyond the basic identifying information released by officials should not be reconstructed from assumption.
What is established is that Rhodes and Delcour were killed inside a home where children were present, that a jury found Scott criminally responsible for the deaths and related offenses, and that the judicial process has moved to punishment. Scott is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 3. Until then, the exact sentence remains undetermined, while the eight convictions returned by the Phelps County jury stand.
Author note: Last updated October 17, 2026.