Woman Strapped to Wheelchair, Forced to Watch Ex Dig Grave Before Killing Her: Police

Tony Charboneau, 36 of Richwoods, has been charged in relation to the death of Amy Hogue, 43, according to Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John Jones. He is facing charges of first-degree murder, first-degree domestic assault, first-degree kidnapping, abandonment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and conspiracy to commit a felony.

He is being held on a $1 million cash-only bond with a preliminary hearing scheduled for August 28. This comes following his arrest on August 5, according to KTVI, after Hogue's body was found August 2. Police had been looking for her since she was reported missing in mid-June.

The one-time couple purportedly got into a fight on June 20, the day Amy Hogue was reported missing. As reported by KSDK, Charboneau punched and stomped on his ex-girlfriend, according to Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen, before he and his new girlfriend Brandi Luffy kidnapped her, according to the probable cause arrest affidavit.

According to police, Luffy admitted to her role in the crimes and helped lead investigators to Hogue's body. As the investigation unfolded, authorities learned the extent of Charboneau's alleged crimes against his ex.

According to the Washington County Sheriff's Office, after Charbaneau attacked Hogue, he and Luffy secured her to a manual wheelchair with ratchet straps. They then allegedly gathered shovels, a pickaxe, tarp, and gun, per KTVI's coverage, putting them and Hogue into the back of the vehicle.

The couple then drove the victim to a wooded area across from his home where investigators reported they unloaded their still-bound victim and wheeled her to a wooded hill. There, Charbonaeu reportedly left Hogue watching from the wheelchair as he dug a shallow grave.

After this was completed, per authorities, he took Hogue out of the chair, shot her in the head, and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day burying her and covering her shallow grave with large rocks and tree limbs. According to Luffy, she stayed in the car as lookout.

The couple then allegedly burned the ratchet straps and tarp before throwing Hogue's purse in a nearby river access point in Jefferson County. The victim leaves behind three children unrelated to Charboneau, per KSDK.

For her involvement, Luffy has been charged with second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, abandonment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and conspiracy to commit a felony. She is also being held on a $1 million cash-only bond, set to appear in court today for a bond reduction hearing.

"This case is horrifying in every respect, and my office will not rest until the victim's killers are brought to justice," Jones said in a statement.

Charboneau had previously been charged with two instances of domestic assault against Hogue, according to the sheriff's department. Those charges are still pending with the Washington County Associate Circuit Court.

"This crime is heinous, and it was pointless," said Sheriff Jacobsen. "That makes it even worse, the fact that she finally got enough and she was ready to leave and get away from this situation, and she was killed for it."

In a GuFundMe set up by the victim's family to help cover memorial costs, Hogue's daughter-in-law Taylor Crider wrote, "As you can imagine, we were not prepared for this at all. We are all devastated." She also shared that Hogue went missing "just 4 days" after her grandson was born.

"Due to us being in Louisiana, and Amy in Missouri, Amy never got to meet her first grandchild," wrote Crider. "She was taken away from them way too soon. Nobody deserves to go the way she went. She leaves behind a family that loved her dearly."