Identified! MO - Troy, WhtMale 40-80, UP5012, GSW, Bill Blass suit & coat, Jun'84 - Jack Langeneckert

Great work Othram!

Wondering if this sentence in your press release below had a typo. Did you really mean investigators have NOT been able to find a motive? I didn't see one given.

"While the cause of death is known, investigators have been able to piece together the motive for the homicide."
Yes this is correct, but it is unclear. We adjusted the language to make it more clear. Thanks for pointing this out.
 
It seems like he was involved in some sort of lawsuit at the time of his disappearance

Commerce Bank of Fenton v. BPJ ENTERPRISES

The events outlined in that court record might explain things that could have led to his death or pointed to some business practices that got him into trouble with other associates who killed him.

In 1979, Mr. Langeneckert and some associates named in the link had borrowed $25,300.00 from Commerce Bank of Fenton. The loan was in the form of a promissory note, to which the other associates signed as guarantors. The loan was allegedly to purchase restaurant equipment, with the equipment being collateral for the loan.

From my reading (IANAL), the signatures of the guarantors was obtained fraudulently. The money was not repaid to Commerce Bank of Fenton, who filed the lawsuit in December of 1980 to collect. It dragged out with no resolution for a couple of years. In 1982 the defendants answered and appealed, but the court ruled it was unsatisfactory. The defendants basically said the money was given to someone else who spent it on other things and it was the bank's fault for not
preventing that.

The Appeals Court issued their ruling on October 18, 1983

Not sure what else happened after that, but it seems someone (not Commerce Bank) may have taken revenge on Mr. Langeneckert for that or some other problem. JMO.

ETA: I don't want to say any of the people named in the lawsuit had any involvement in his death, just that it indicates Mr. Langeneckert was involved in a line of business that might have resulted in his demise.
 
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Authorities said remains were found in a pump house on Highway F farm in June 1984. He was reported missing in 1982. His car was discovered at a St. Louis airport a week after he disappeared and the remains were never identified.

Investigators said the person identified had been dead for six months at the time his remains were first discovered in 1984.

Langeneckert was a real estate agent at the time he disappeared from the public.
 
Authorities said remains were found in a pump house on Highway F farm in June 1984. He was reported missing in 1982. His car was discovered at a St. Louis airport a week after he disappeared and the remains were never identified.

Investigators said the person identified had been dead for six months at the time his remains were first discovered in 1984.

Langeneckert was a real estate agent at the time he disappeared from the public.


St. Louis Post Dispatch article from 15 March 1977 shows Jack Langeneckert was manager of a real estate office in Spanish Lake, MO, which was about half-way between St. Louis & Troy, MO.
 
He was reported missing in 1982. When he was found in June 1984, it was estimated he had only been dead 6 months -so around Dec 1983. It's interesting how the estimated time of his death was off by at least a year (Dec 1982?) or perhaps more.
As far as I know, it's harder to be precise with skeletal remains. Also, the rate of decomposition can be affected by a number of factors. He was found inside a building. If the building was secured rather than open, he would have been sheltered from sun, rain, snow, animal predation, etc. His body wouldn't look the same as one that had laid in the open woodland for that length of time.

Very much MOO
 
There's lots more info here. He was last seen in early March, 1982. Remains from 1984 cold case identified


According to Capt. David Hill, who heads the department’s cold case unit, Langeneckert told his wife he was going to show a home Tuesday, March 9, 1982. She never spoke to him again, and a week later, his car was found parked at Lambert Airport.
Hill said they found no indication Langeneckert had purchased a plane ticket or had any reason to fly out of town.
 
According to Capt. David Hill, who heads the department’s cold case unit, Langeneckert told his wife he was going to show a home Tuesday, March 9, 1982. She never spoke to him again, and a week later, his car was found parked at Lambert Airport.
Hill said they found no indication Langeneckert had purchased a plane ticket or had any reason to fly out of town.
Leaving a car at the airport is a much used trope in police and detective fiction shows, to create an impression of a victim having left of their own accord, but also hiding the vehicle in plain sight where it won't be questioned by neighbours or parking inspectors. Especially in the longterm section. I bet whoever left it thought it would take them much longer than a week to find it.

MOO
 
There's lots more info here. He was last seen in early March, 1982. Remains from 1984 cold case identified
Good article, with more background information. I wonder what his family and co workers thought happened to him? Did they see him exhibit any suspicious behavior, phone calls, meetings, etc.? How were things going with his job? I think some of them or their families might still be living. Hope LE interviews them. They were in a sort of real estate partnership where they sometimes developed entire subdivisions, then sold the homes.

Sounds like Lincoln County is following through on the investigation.
 
There's definitely other missing persons cases where the car was left at the airport. One that comes to mind from this era is this lady whose case has no similarities to his, but her car was left at an airport and it says it wasn't discovered for two years. Yeah, you would expect longer than a week, but two years?! OH - OH - Helen Robinson, 57, Zanesville, 23 March 1981
 
There's definitely other missing persons cases where the car was left at the airport. One that comes to mind from this era is this lady whose case has no similarities to his, but her car was left at an airport and it says it wasn't discovered for two years. Yeah, you would expect longer than a week, but two years?! OH - OH - Helen Robinson, 57, Zanesville, 23 March 1981

Randy Potter, Kansas City International Airport:


The difference here is that Mr. Potter was in the vehicle the entire time....
 
The building he was found in must not been opened frequently if he was in there from March of 1982 to June of 1984. Also, rereading that lawsuit, there was a lot of activity in that case in early March of 1982, and then Jack vanishes days later on March 9 of 1982..
 
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The building he was found in must not been opened frequently if he was in there from March of 1982 to June of 1984. Also, rereading that lawsuit, there was a lot of activity in that case in early March of 1982, and then Jack vanishes days later on March 9 of 1982..
It said he was found in a pumphouse. As far as I know, pumphouses are structures built to protect the machinery to do with irrigation systems and wells, and I don't think people go in them very much except for routine maintenance and when they break down.

MOO
 
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SEMO’s Anthropology Department has uncovered their fifth cold case identification.

“Through the genealogy process, the individual previously known as the ‘Lincoln County John Doe of 1984’ was identified as a man named Jack Langeneckert,” professor of anthropology Jennifer Bengston said.

Bengston said Langeneckert was in his early 50s and went missing around 1982. He was a realtor in St. Louis who left to go to work and never came home.

According to DNASolves, Langeneckert’s body was found on a farm near Troy, Mo. His cause of death was a gunshot wound to his head. His death has now been ruled as a homicide.

“In 1984, they did the best they could with the information and technology that they had at the time to identify him, but they were unable to,” Bengston said. “Fast forward to 2022. We started working on the case when we got the remains from the coroner at Lincoln County. We brought [the remains] to the lab and did a full inventory and renewed anthropological analysis on the remains, which is the first thing we do.”

“We then come up with a list of forensic testing that we think would be helpful and send it in,” Bengston said. “We send the list to law enforcement for approval, and if they do approve, we start doing the testing.”

 
SEMO’s Anthropology Department has uncovered their fifth cold case identification.

“Through the genealogy process, the individual previously known as the ‘Lincoln County John Doe of 1984’ was identified as a man named Jack Langeneckert,” professor of anthropology Jennifer Bengston said.

Bengston said Langeneckert was in his early 50s and went missing around 1982. He was a realtor in St. Louis who left to go to work and never came home.

According to DNASolves, Langeneckert’s body was found on a farm near Troy, Mo. His cause of death was a gunshot wound to his head. His death has now been ruled as a homicide.

“In 1984, they did the best they could with the information and technology that they had at the time to identify him, but they were unable to,” Bengston said. “Fast forward to 2022. We started working on the case when we got the remains from the coroner at Lincoln County. We brought [the remains] to the lab and did a full inventory and renewed anthropological analysis on the remains, which is the first thing we do.”

“We then come up with a list of forensic testing that we think would be helpful and send it in,” Bengston said. “We send the list to law enforcement for approval, and if they do approve, we start doing the testing.”

It’s encouraging to see that the Lincoln County SO is interested in pursuing Mr. Langeneckert’s killers.
 

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