BELLA VISTA — Police have talked with a woman found shot and beaten in a creek bed May 11.
Annette Rapalee, 54, of Jane, Mo., was found by two men on horseback. She remains in stable condition in a hospital in Springfield, Mo. She didn’t suffer brain damage, but will require further surgeries, Capt. Tim Cook said Monday.
“Her injuries are very serious in nature, and she needs time to heal,” Cook said.
Officers went to Springfield on May 16 to talk to Rapalee for the first time. She was cooperative and police are following up on information from the interview, said Chief Ken Farmer.
“This is going to be our attempted homicide investigation,” Cook said, after the crime scene was located in city limits last week.
The investigation is a collaborative effort with the McDonald County ( Mo.) Sheriff’s Department with assistance from the Springfield Police Department. Rapalee lives a half-mile from where she was found, just south of the Missouri border off Arkansas 340 near Derwent Lane.
“This will remove any problems with jurisdiction, if and when charges need to be filed,” Farmer said of the joint investigation. “We have not developed sufficient evidence to arrest or detain someone for our part of the investigation.”
A suspect was taken into custody in McDonald County on May 13 and released the next day. There was not enough evidence to hold the suspect, said David Roark, McDonald County chief deputy.