Man charged with killing ex-girlfriend in Washington County with new girlfriend’s help (2024)

WASHINGTON COUNTY — A man stomped on his ex-girlfriend, then enlisted the help of his new girlfriend to tie her up, shoot her and set the body on fire near Richwoods, Missouri, authorities allege.

Tony Lawrence Charboneau, 36, is accused of killing Amy Hogue in June and burying her in a shallow grave near his Richwoods home, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis. Investigators say Charboneau’s girlfriend, Brandi Luffy, took part, including acting as a lookout while Charboneau dug the grave in a wooded area.

Police say Luffy, 40, led them to the grave last Friday, weeks after Hogue’s family first reported Hogue missing.

Hogue, 43, was killed on June 20, police say, which would have been the day before her 44th birthday. Around that time, she was reported missing. Her sister in Franklin County and other out-of-state relatives waited weeks for word on her whereabouts. Police circulated a missing-person flyer.

Sgt. Steven Rion of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department said in court documents that Charboneau argued with Hogue and he punched her and stomped on her.

Charboneau and Luffy then put Hogue in a wheelchair and tied her hands and feet to the chair using ratchet straps, Rion said. Investigators believe Charboneau and Luffy left her in the wheelchair while they gathered shovels, a tarp, a pickax and a gun.

They loaded the wheelchair into Charboneau’s vehicle and drove across Charboneau’s property to a nearby wooded hill, Rion said. Charboneau dug a shallow grave, then shot Hogue, Rion said.

Charboneau “spent the rest of the day burying her in the grave, covering her with large rocks and tree limbs,” Rion wrote in a probable cause statement. “Brandi stayed at the vehicle and was a lookout for any persons that may come.”

Charboneau and Luffy left and burned the tarp and ratchet straps, police said. They also dumped Hogue’s purse at a river access in Jefferson County, Rion said.

“Nobody deserves to go the way she went,” Hogue’s daughter-in-law Taylor Crider wrote on a fundraising page to help pay for a memorial service. “She leaves behind a family that loved her dearly.”

Hogue’s first grandchild, a boy, was born in Montgomery, Louisiana, just days before she disappeared, and she never got to meet him, Crider said. The family was last in contact with Hogue around June 19. They said Hogue’s body was discovered last Friday evening.

Charboneau is charged with first-degree murder; Luffy is charged with second-degree murder. They each were being held Thursday in the Washington County Jail in Potosi in lieu of $1 million bond.

“This case is horrifying in every respect, and my office will not rest until the victim’s killers are brought to justice,” Washington County Prosecutor John Jones said in a statement.

In addition to murder, Charboneau and Luffy are charged with kidnapping, abandonment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and conspiracy to commit a felony. Charboneau is also charged with domestic assault.

Charboneau lives in a trailer in the middle of a field on Haven of Rest Road, west of Richwoods. His property has no electricity. Luffy lived there with him.

Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen told the Post-Dispatch that Hogue had been abused by Charboneau before, including in May 2023. Jacobsen said police took the case to prosecutors, but no arrest warrant was ever issued.

Then this summer, her family reported her missing. Authorities weren’t sure if she had gone missing in Franklin or Washington counties because she was known to move around a bit and had friends in both places.

Investigators aren’t sure why she was back at Charboneau’s home this summer.

“All we know is that she was trying to leave,” Jacobsen said. “She was just ready to leave the residence, and that’s when the brutal assault took place.”

In mid-July, her purse was recovered near the river access in Jefferson County.

“That’s the day we realized she was probably dead,” Jacobsen said.

Police went back to the prosecutor’s office to ask about an arrest warrant from the May 2023 assault. The court then issued the arrest warrant, and police picked up Charboneau. He has been in custody since.

Investigators focused on finding where Hogue was and what happened to her, fearing it was a homicide investigation. The remote country locations meant officers couldn’t rely on technology.

“We are trying to piece this together with no cell service so it’s hard to ping phones,” Jacobsen said. “So it’s old school police work, knocking on doors, interviewing everybody that we encounter, executing search warrants. They are literally boots on the ground. No technology in God’s country. And with no cell service, you’re not leaving a digital footprint.”