Inset: Daniel W. Russell (Gasconade County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The boat ramp in Gasconade, Mo. (Google Maps).
A Missouri man has been jailed after authorities say he killed a man who had been living in his garage, placed the body in a barrel and discarded it in a river.
Daniel W. Russell, 53, is charged with first-degree murder, abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the death of Michael A. Graham, whose age was not immediately released.
Graham was first reported missing in February 2019, law enforcement officials said. Two months later, in April 2019, investigators discovered human remains inside a plastic barrel along the Gasconade River in Gasconade, a small town about 90 miles west of St. Louis.
Russell had been known to investigators for some time, according to a probable cause statement obtained by St. Louis-based NBC affiliate KSDK. Police said detectives first interviewed him the day before the barrel was discovered near a boat ramp.
During that conversation, Russell allegedly told investigators that Graham had been staying at his home but that he had not seen him in several days.
Russell also allegedly claimed Graham owed him money and had left behind a debit card to settle the debt, authorities said. Investigators noted what they viewed as a troubling detail: Russell “consistently referred to Graham in the past tense,” according to the charging document.
Detectives later searched Russell’s home and concluded that concrete had recently been poured in the garage, citing a distinctive semicircle of leftover concrete, the probable cause statement says. They also recovered several of Graham’s possessions inside the residence, including his motorcycles.
That piece of concrete matched with a chunk of concrete recovered from inside the barrel containing Graham’s remains, police said.
After the remains were identified by the Boone County Medical Examiner, detectives spoke with Russell again. When asked outright if he was involved in Graham’s death, the defendant allegedly said he knew nothing. Investigators, however, wrote that those denials were “largely inconsistent with the circumstances surrounding the investigation,” according to the probable cause statement.
Despite Graham’s missing status first being reported in February 2019, the case may well go back substantially further.
A witness told investigators Russell enlisted their help to move a foul-smelling barrel in September 2018, the charging document alleges, according to Columbia-based ABC and MyNetworkTV affiliate KMIZ.
An informant cited in the probable cause statement told investigators Russell admitted to the killing because Graham had planned to move out after suspecting the defendant and his family were taking advantage of him, the Gasconade County Republican reported.
The informant also claimed to have spoken with Russell’s wife, who allegedly said she saw the victim “lying in a chair” in the garage “deceased, and it appeared that he had been struck in the head with something,” according to the charging document.
The case was reviewed in 2021 and formally reopened in 2025, according to the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Office.
Detectives ultimately charged Russell after new evidence drawn from Facebook messages allegedly connected the defendant to one of the victim’s motorcycles, according to the sheriff’s office.
The defendant was arrested over the weekend by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and is currently being detained without bond in the Franklin County Adult Detention Center.
