SEDALIA, Mo. — Decomposing human remains have been found at two locations in a mobile home park outside Sedalia. FOX 4 learned more Monday night about the man who lived in the mobile home where the remains were found. Joseph Arbeiter lived in the trailer in question and was charged with a woman’s stabbing death in 1966, but never served time after complications with the investigation.
Arbeiter is also on probation for leaving the scene of an accident and currently in jail, charged with the attempted rape of a neighbor. It was that alleged attack that led to the discovery of the remains.
A foul odor led residents of the Goodwill Chapel Trailer Park to the discovery of partial human remains Sunday.
“Oh yeah, it was real. It was actually two arms, a leg and what looked to me like a decomposed nose,” said maintenance man Jeremy Faulk.
Faulk said the parts were found inside a metal bin that was sitting in front of trailer 19 for several months.
“It was about from here down. It was just laying there like this,” said Faulk.
Arbeiter, 65, was arrested inside the trailer last week after a neighbor reported Arbeiter attacked and attempted to rape her. At the time, deputies said they had no reason to search the home.
“The alleged incident did not occur here, and they came to the trailer and arrested him without incident,” said Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond.
Arbeiter’s landlord says after his arrest, he called her to clean out his trailer. As she was doing so Sunday, she told FOX 4 that a foul smell led them to the find.
Investigators then found more human remains in the woods nearby. Evidence from both scenes was still being collected and processed Monday afternoon. Now neighbors are wondering what else may be buried in plain sight.
“I still don’t really believe that anything like this could happen here,” said one neighbor.
Sheriff deputies aren’t yet naming Arbeiter as a suspect, but also aren’t ruling out that possibility. They removed several tools, a mattress and carpeting from the trailer Monday as well as evidence from the second scene where remains were found, the woods behind the trailer. The autopsy has been scheduled for Wednesday.
