Stephen Scott was detained in Dexter hours after two women were found dead, and a jury convicted him nearly four years later.
DEXTER, Mo. — Hours after two women were found shot to death in a home about 30 miles away in Qulin, police encountered Stephen T. Scott in Dexter, ending the immediate search for a suspect and beginning a criminal case that would take nearly four years to reach guilty verdicts.
The location of that encounter later drew attention because Law&Crime reported that officers had been called about a suspicious person trying to enter a Walmart before it opened. Scott was reportedly taken into custody at about 5 a.m. The Butler County sheriff’s initial account was more concise, saying Scott surrendered to police in Dexter later that Sunday morning. Whatever the precise sequence of the encounter, Scott was in custody only hours after Margaret Delcour and Wendy Rhodes were found dead.
By Aug. 28, 2026, the focus had moved from the circumstances of the arrest to a courtroom. A Phelps County jury found Scott guilty of eight crimes: two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action connected to the killings, first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, armed criminal action connected to that offense, unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of a weapon. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 3, according to KWOC.
The case began shortly before Scott was seen in Dexter. Butler County deputies were dispatched at about 1 a.m. Dec. 4, 2022, to the 100 block of New Hampshire Street in Qulin after authorities received a report that two people had been shot. Sheriff Mark Dobbs said deputies found two women dead inside the residence with apparent gunshot wounds. Investigators identified Scott, then 30 and from O’Fallon, as a suspect while the scene was still under investigation.
Officials initially withheld the victims’ names. The next day’s public update identified them as Rhodes, 48, of Qulin, and Delcour, 36, of Broseley. Butler County Coroner Jim Akers released the identities, while the sheriff’s office continued investigating the circumstances. A probable cause affidavit reported by KWOC said a witness told investigators that Scott had been arguing with both women before shooting them.
Prosecutors later presented a fuller account of what preceded that argument. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office said Scott had traveled to the Rhodes residence with his then-girlfriend, Candace Gurley. Before that visit, according to the evidence summarized by prosecutors after trial, Scott stole a firearm from his grandmother in St. Charles County. The state said he brought that gun to the residence and used it during the fatal encounter.
The trial evidence showed that Scott shot Delcour and Rhodes three times each, according to the attorney general’s office. The state’s summary did not publicly provide a detailed moment-by-moment description of the confrontation, and such detail is not necessary to establish the core facts proved at trial. The jury was asked to decide the criminal charges based on the evidence presented in court and returned guilty verdicts on both first-degree murder counts.
Two juveniles were also in the house. Law&Crime, citing KFVS, reported that a 7-year-old boy witnessed the shooting and that his 4-year-old brother was inside as well. The attorney general’s office confirmed the presence of two minors without publicly naming them. Their presence ultimately was reflected in Scott’s conviction for first-degree child endangerment and the accompanying armed criminal action offense, making the impact on the children part of the judgment rather than simply an incidental fact in the case.
Scott made statements to investigators after his arrest that pointed to a possible explanation he would offer for his conduct. According to probable cause material described by Law&Crime, he said he had been high on methamphetamine and believed his life was in danger. Those statements were allegations about his own state and perception at the time, not findings that the shootings were justified. Prosecutors continued to treat the deaths as first-degree murders, and jurors ultimately convicted him of those crimes.
The charges reported in the earliest stages were broader and somewhat differently organized than the final eight convictions. Soon after the killings, Scott was reported held on two first-degree murder counts and armed criminal action. A subsequent KWOC report listed four armed criminal action counts along with child-related and weapons charges. The post-trial announcement clarifies the convictions that now matter: two murder counts, three armed criminal action counts overall, one first-degree child-endangerment count and two weapons offenses.
Responsibility for the case was spread across several agencies as it progressed. The Butler County Sheriff’s Department led the homicide investigation. The Dexter Police Department, whose officers were involved after Scott reached Dexter, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol assisted. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office was appointed as conflict prosecutor. Assistant Attorneys General Corie Geary-Atkins and Melissa A. Pierce tried the case for the state, with support from Carl Schwartze and Carrie Boessen.
The venue description also requires care. The attorney general’s office identified the panel that returned the guilty verdicts as a Phelps County jury, as did KTTN. One secondary account referred instead to a Butler County jury. The primary state account and corroborating local report support Phelps County as the accurate description. The verdict itself was announced Aug. 28, 2026, and ended the fact-finding stage of a prosecution that had been pending since December 2022.
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said the verdict brought a measure of justice for Rhodes and Delcour and thanked the judge, jury and prosecution team. Her office also credited investigators and law-enforcement agencies whose work connected the initial scene in Qulin, the arrest in Dexter and the evidence eventually presented at trial. The statement did not suggest that the verdict could repair the losses caused by the killings, but it characterized the convictions as accountability for them.
That leaves one major proceeding still ahead. Scott has not yet been sentenced. KWOC reported that the hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3, meaning the court’s punishment decision will come more than three years and 11 months after deputies first entered the Qulin residence. Until then, the case stands at a point far removed from the unusual early-morning Walmart encounter: Scott has been convicted of murdering Delcour and Rhodes and of six related child, weapons and armed criminal action offenses.
Author note: Last updated October 17, 2026.