Torry Upchurch, Jefferson City, Missouri man walks into local police station covered in blood and confesses to murdering two people on Thanksgiving day as cops sought his arrest.
‘I know I just committed two murders.’ A Missouri man suspected in the murder of a woman and a teen on Thanksgiving Day has been arrested after walking into a police station covered in blood and confessing to the killings.
Torry Andre Upchurch, 27, walked into the Jefferson City Police Department on Friday, November 29, and told officers at the lobby, ‘I know I committed two murders,’ KRCG-TV reports.
The man’s arrest follows Upchurch first going to the home of 17-year-old Earle Key Jr., who he is believed to have known, knocked on the front door, and shot the teen in the face with a 9 mm handgun upon the boy opening the door. Cops said the youth was killing instantly.
Police said the nature of the Torry Upchurch’s relationship with the teen male victim was unclear. No possible motive was provided in the youth’s slaying.
Having shot the teen, 6 pm on Thursday, Upchurch was seen man running from the scene. Responding officers were unable to find the suspect.
Murder motives not immediately clear:
At around 8:45 pm the same evening, police responded to another shooting a few miles away in the 2300 block of Southridge Drive and found 33-year-old Shantae Hill-Cook of Columbia dead on the street with multiple gunshot wounds and her car missing.
Cops were able to deduce that the shootings had been committed by the same person.
A witness told police that Upchurch had been in a romantic relationship with Hill-Cook for the last few months and that the 27-year-old was upset that she wanted to help the witness with her belongings and child.
According to a probable cause statement filed in connection to the incidents, Upchurch told Hill-Cook to ‘stay in the car’ before eventually pulling out a handgun and firing at her. The 33-year-old was struck multiple times and died at the scene.
Upchurch fled from the location in Hill-Cook’s car, as authorities sought to find him, only to turn himself the following day while still covered in blood The Jefferson City News Tribune reports.
Told the suspect as he entered Jefferson City Police Department in the early hours of Friday morning: ‘I know I just committed two murders.’
Upchurch has since been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a firearm, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
