Renee Pernice's body will never be recovered, prosecutor says

LIBERTY, Mo. - Both prosecutors and defense attorneys believe it might have been challenging to get a murder conviction without Renee Pernice’s body.  They agreed to a plea deal of voluntary manslaughter for  Shon Pernice on Tuesday.

“We would have liked to see him getting more time than he will get,” said prosecutor Dan White.

White said his team will never be able to recover Renee Pernice’s body.  He said they attempted a recovery years ago but wouldn't confirm the exact landfill.

“We went to the dump and basically was told that it would be 11 acres about 20 feet deep which would be impossible,” said White.

Deffenbaugh has a landfill in Shawnee.  A spokesperson said finding a body in a landfill would be harder than finding a needle in a haystack. 

Every day, somewhere between 5,000 to 7,500 tons of trash are compacted and buried in the landfill.  Somewhere between 1.4 and 1.7 million tons of compacted trash fill the landfill every year.

White said not giving Renee Pernice a proper burial is tough for him and her family.

“My heart breaks for them, because in this job sometimes you meet some of the greatest people under some of the worst circumstances and this is a situation where I feel like that,” said White.

Shon Pernice’s attorney, Eric Vernon, said his client has sincere regret for hitting his wife, which ultimately caused her death.

“His intent at the time was not to kill her, but in the moment he hit her hard enough in a way that he knew could seriously harm her,” said Vernon.  "Shon today began accepting the responsibility and consequences for his past mistakes."

Pernice will be sentenced on May 11.