Man gets life in prison for killing Willard-area teen, AG says

A Springfield man was sentenced Friday to life in prison and an additional 20 years for the 2012 murder and statutory rape of a Willard-area teenager.

Anthony Balbirnie, 51, had previously been found guilty of second-degree murder, statutory rape, tampering with evidence and abandonment of a corpse after authorities say he killed Khighla Parks, 15, in September 2012 and then dumped her body in Truman Lake.

Balbirnie stood trial in Cooper County. The Missouri Attorney General's Office prosecuted the case.

According to a news release from the attorney general's office, the judge said Balbirnie showed “no remorse” and was “stone-faced” during the sentencing.

"(Balbirnie) does not deserve to be free in society," the judge said.

In total, Balbirnie will serve life in prison for second-degree murder, 15 years for statutory rape, and five years for tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse, the release said, and most of those sentences will run consecutively.

“This man will spend his life in prison for these horrible crimes,” Attorney General Chris Koster said in the press release. “I hope the judge’s sentence will allow the victim’s family to begin the healing process.”

Court documents say Balbirnie communicated with Khighla Parks on Facebook and then arranged to meet her on Sept. 20, 2012. Her corpse was found in the lake 10 days later.

Balbirnie's criminal history is more than three decades long. He was arrested, booked and stood for mug shots 21 times in Greene County.

He has also been charged with murder in connection with the 2008 death of Theresa Mohler, 31. In that case, he is accused of holding a woman against her will, injecting her with meth and raping her over several days. Mohler later died of an infection from the injection allegedly given by Balbirnie.