Lynn Messer case timeline |GoFundMe for Abram’s family

Thank you for joining Lynn’s family in honoring Lynn’s memory on this 5^th anniversary of her disappearance and death, and to pray for answers, truth and justice.  I’m Carolyn Deevers, a local advocate and I minister to women living in, or leaving, destructive marriages/relationships with angry and controlling men. Like many of you, I’ve been following Lynn’s case since day one of her disappearance. I come from a background of domestic abuse and I was concerned I was seeing similarities in my background and Lynn’s case. I’ve written extensively about Lynn here on my website. Many of the articles can be found under Lynn Messer case history, or by typing Lynn Messer in the search bar.

Today I’m going to review the timeline surrounding Lynn’s July 8, 2014 disappearance.

• In the years before Lynn’s disappearance Kerry has been heard by his sons and by church members jokingly saying, “We don’t believe in divorce. Murder, yes. Divorce, no. Lynn had car accidents, falls, and times when she thought she must have accidently taken the wrong medication or too much medication. That is how she would explain some of her accidents and injuries to her family.
• January 2014 Kerry purchased life insurance policies on Lynn, Abram, and Abram’s wife Elizabeth.”
• 2014 early spring there was an unexplained fire at Abram and Elizabeth’s home which the fire department was able to put out just short of the fire reaching the propane tank on their property.
• Since 2012 and leading up to Lynn’s disappearance, Abram took issue with the way his dad, a married man, interacted with Spring Thomas.
• May 9, 2014, Coincidental or not, was the day Spring Thomas’ estate probate case was finalized for inheriting her parents’ estate. Information from Missouri Case Net court records.
• Coincidental or not; a week before Lynn went missing law enforcement went to Abram and Elizabeth’s house asking about Kerry burning some of his mail on the neighbor’s property.
• A few days before her disappearance Lynn told a friend she was on her way to visit a friend who kept cattle in Wildwood for her family. Family said this had to be Spring Thomas.
• Sunset July 7, 2014. Kerry Messer washed the dog in the back of his truck. His family had never seen him do this before because Lynn always took care of the dogs.
• 9:30 PM Lynn arrived home from supply shopping at Walmart for VBS the next evening. She had plans to watch her grandchildren the next day and to teach at VBS again.
• 11:45 PM someone reserved a spot at the church picnic on the computer before midnight and shared something about Lynn’s favorite summer activities on Facebook.
• Kerry claims he awoke at 4AM, July 8^th to find his wife gone.  Her purse and cell phone were still in the house.
• 4:15 AM Kerry went to Abram and Elizabeth’s house. Kerry had a key to their house but didn’t know about the new chain lock on the door. When he opened the door, the chain lock caught and woke the dogs, alerting the family to an intruder. After the dogs began barking Kerry called for Abram. When Abram went to the door his dad announced, “I can’t find your mom” and then asked about the 4-wheeler. No one knows what his intentions were for entering their home.
• 6 AM Elizabeth watched Kerry casually drive the 4 wheeler to check on the cows. She never heard him drive all over the farm searching for Lynn as he claimed later to have done.
• Kerry insisted that Abram move the cows to a specific pasture. This was odd to Abram because his mom was the one who always took care of pasture rotations. Why would Kerry be thinking of such an insignificant detail during an emergency?
• Between 7:30-8:00 AM Kerry mentioned a note to Aarron.
• 8 AM Aarron called the authorities to report his mother as missing.
• Kerry told Abram NOT to come down to his house. Instead of wanting Abram to help locate Lynn, he wanted him to move the cows, and stay home. 
• Kerry was irate that Aarron called the police and he told his sons to leave his house.
• Law enforcement arrived.
• Law enforcement asked if Lynn suffered, or ever suffered from depression, or took medications for it. Kerry said, “No.”  Elizabeth interjected and said that’s not true. Yes, she has.
• Kerry left the house and left his cell phone in the kitchen. A cell phone is an essential tool for communicating during a missing person emergency; unless perhaps, you don’t want your phone to be pinged for location identification.
• Kerry allegedly tells law enforcement he didn’t make copies of the note, when in fact law enforcement would find out months later that Kerry made multiple copies of the note.
• Lynn’s scent trail is followed to the pasture where the cows were moved, but the cows being moved along with a freshly mowed lawn made it difficult for the dogs to stay with Lynn’s scent.
• Although Kerry says he didn’t know Lynn was missing until 4 AM of the 8th; the timeline allows 9:30 PM of the 7^th as possibly the last time Lynn was seen alive.
• July 10^th Kerry began writing the Find Lynn Messer Facebook page.
• For 3 days grid searches were performed by search teams and by trained search and rescue canines. Searches were done by foot, by all terrain vehicles, on horses, and by air. Searches were done during daylight and during the dark of night.
• July 11 professional searchers pulled out and handed the search over to the family to be continued by civilian volunteers so that the sheriff’s department could continue their investigation on other levels.
• At some point Kerry and Ray Rolland organized a search from Kerry’s house to Spring Thomas’s house to look for Lynn under the premise that Lynn may have been on her way to her close friend Spring’s house. Lynn’s kids were deliberately kept unaware of this search.
•  The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported Spring Thomas was seen by police among search parties organized soon after Lynn’s disappearance. Searchers commented they were seeing something relationally going on between Spring and Kerry.
• A note was found. Lynn’s sons say their dad kept them from knowing the note’s true content and asked the local sheriff’s department to keep the note from them to protect them in case something bad happened to Lynn. Kerry said he didn’t want his sons to blame themselves. Abram was told by his father that the detectives told Kerry he was not allowed to talk about the note to anyone because investigators wanted the letter to be kept a secret. It appears Kerry kept both sides from the truth.
• Mid-August Abram receives a text message from Spring Thomas… asking if it was appropriate for her to continue to participate in searches.
• Early September Spring communicated to law enforcement that she was in a relationship with Kerry Messer.
• A few hours after the investigators heard from Spring, Kerry Messer called the sheriff’s office to inform them about his ongoing friendship with a woman named Spring Thomas.
• Kerry told investigators he had sexual needs and needed companionship. He also confessed that he was earlier interested in a younger woman from church but she was offended, so he continued with Spring. This is eight weeks after Lynn disappeared and Kerry was already romantically interested in two different women.
• This is when Kerry stopped cooperating with the investigation.
• Spring also refused anymore interviews with investigators.
• Around September a towel was found at the edge of the creek downstream from where Lynn’s remains would later be found. Kerry allegedly knew the protocol for not handling evidence and allowing investigators to document location, photograph, and collect all evidence. Kerry walked up to the towel and asked, ‘has anybody touched it?’ He was told, “No.” Kerry stated ‘Well I’m going to touch it’ and he reached down and picked it up, rubbed it all over his face, up and down both of his arms, the back of his neck and then he says he doesn’t “think this is anything.” Abram said the towel matched the towels from his parents’ bathroom.
• Fall 2014 Abram and Kerry took the cows back to Spring’s farm, in conversation Kerry said to Spring, ‘I just got rid of one wife; I’m not in a hurry to get another! It seemed that Spring thought it was the funniest thing she had ever heard.”
• November 2014 Kerry encouraged hunters to become volunteer searchers and report anything unusual to law enforcement by taking a photo and a GPS ping or other location documentation.
• Late 2014 when after Abram told his father that he believed his behavior around Spring for several previous years was inappropriate Kerry flew into a rage.
• Weeks after Lynn disappeared Kerry sent out a letter seeking financial support for Missouri Family Network. He lamented that he was financially crippled from a summer of distraction. Kerry told Abram the letters brought in more money than ever before and he was thinking of sending another one. According to his sons, Kerry was not hurting financially because he owned properties in multiple states and had a large amount of financial assets. His sons said they nor Lynn knew about Kerry’s financial investments until months after Lynn was missing. The land was purchased “etux” which means married but wife not present. Kerry owned land in two counties outside of Missouri.
• 2015
• May 2015 after failing a polygraph Kerry was found to have lied to investigators multiple times about leaving the farm. He denied he had left the farm the morning of July 8 when in fact he had.
• June of 2015 Kerry admits to his sons he was romantically seeing Spring Thomas and sneaking around to be with her, but only after Aarron discovered their father was in an illicit, and what Kerry called a “covenant relationship’, with  Spring Thomas. Kerry said his relationship with Spring began around Christmas 2014 — about five months after his wife disappeared.  Major Schott of the Sheriff’s Department said detectives had confirmed a relationship between Kerry and Spring months earlier — about eight weeks after Lynn Messer disappeared. Detective White also confirmed this with me.
• Lynn’s sons attempted to bring Kerry before his church for public discipline as scripture admonishes but were unsuccessful in having him held accountable by his church as his pastor refused to do anything. This is typical secondary spiritual abuse and is common amongst abuse survivors. Churches tend to take the side of abusers over that of victims and survivors. To not speak is to agree to something wrong that God has called sin. The absence of empathy and understanding causes great harm to the innocent.
• June 2015. Kerry admitted to writing a fake suicide note that’s sole purpose was to manipulate people who disagreed with him.
• Feb. 2016 Aarron and Abram were going into Kerry’s bathroom and counting his Viagra pills; which were dwindling in number; despite Kerry denying a physical relationship between him and Spring.
• Early June 2016 Kerry unilaterally dissolved the legal partnership/job with Abram, and used creative accounting to claim that Abram owed him $5,000. Which is roughly equivalent to the 5% ownership of Missouri Family Network which Abram owned. Kerry’s way of getting out of paying Abram.
• June 4, 2016, Abram and his family have to leave their home, which Grandpa Messer had given Abram, but Kerry had creatively kept out of Abram’s name. They left for safety concerns and because Kerry was demanding they start paying rent for the house that belonged to them. They couldn’t pay since Kerry had just fired Abram. They left with a few possessions and some, but not all, of their pets. They were never allowed to return for their other belongings.
• Abram and Elizabeth were evicted by Kerry from their home in Jefferson City. In this home they discovered a peep hole directly above the on suite bed with a pair of men’s white underwear stuffed in the hole to blend with the white ceiling. Elizabeth, who did the laundry in Jeff. City identified the underwear as belonging to Kerry. Upon going back for their possessions, after being evicted they found Kerry had installed cameras so they had to leave their belongings from that home behind.

• Shortly after Abram and Elizabeth moved Detective White asked if they knew a young woman in Farmington who claimed she was being stalked. She reported being followed, then the next day the man followed her to work. She called the cops and it was allegedly Kerry.
• Late summer and into fall Aarron saw Spring trying to sneak onto the farm without being seen. He found Spring’s car hidden in a barn. He saw Spring and Kerry driving through the field sitting side-by-side and saw Spring helping Kerry with farming.
• October 2016 two weeks before Lynn’s remains were recovered Aarron witnessed Kerry and Spring kissing in Kerry’s kitchen.
• Law enforcement acknowledged the FBI could not conclude that Lynn wrote the entire note.
• Detective White confirmed with me the FBI was involved in different aspects of the case.
• August 2016 Aarron says, “Of the many wrongs my mother experienced—not recognizing the signs of abuse and not helping her is one of my biggest regrets.” Aarron, many abused women don’t know they are being abused, and if a mom wants to hide it to protect her children there is nothing you can do.
• November 1, 2016, Lynn’s granddaughter discovers Lynn’s remains while scouting the farm for a place to hunt.
• Nov. 4, 2016, Lynn’s dental records are a match and the authorities confirm the remains found were Lynn’s. 
• Late November 2016 Aarron’s daughter comments, “Grandma didn’t write that note. Grandma didn’t call grandpa, ‘Pa’ she called him ‘Pop.’”
• Kerry and Spring cleared Kerry’s house of Lynn’s belongings giving them away without allowing Lynn’s sons and all her grandchildren to have mementoes and belongings of Lynn’s.
• December
• The pathology report states Lynn was deceased and her body exposed to the elements the entire time. 
• Detective White told Lynn’s sons that he would not release Lynn’s remains to Kerry until a cause of death was determined, but while Detective White was on vacation Lynn’s body was released to Kerry.
• Kerry had Lynn’s remains transported across state lines to Arkansas. He and his girlfriend held a private burial without telling his and Lynn’s sons.
• Aarron called his dad and said, “I heard that you buried mother yesterday?” Kerry angrily responded: “Why do you care?”
• March 26, 2017. Disappeared: American Gothic—The Lynn Messer Case from Investigation Discovery Channel aired.
• Kerry’s friends, church family, and supporters are confused because they are being told that the investigation is closed, that Kerry has been cleared in the investigation of Lynn’s disappearance and death, and that Kerry did not become involved with Spring Thomas until fifteen months after Lynn’s disappearance. I called Detective White to clarify. He confirmed that the investigation was not closed. Kerry Messer was not cleared in the investigation of Lynn’s disappearance and death. As for Kerry and Spring not becoming involved for fifteen months; he didn’t know where that information came from but it didn’t come from law enforcement. Law enforcement knew about the relationship early in the investigation and knew what type of relationship it was.
• July 6, 2017 Death certificate is released: Undetermined at this time. ….upon completion of investigation.
• July 9, 2017, On Find Lynn Messer Kerry writes, “ I expect to eventually donate most of Ma’s personal items myself (To Sunshine Ministries.org). No mention of his sons and their families.
• August 19, 2017 – Lynn’s supporters could not understand why First Baptist Church Festus/Crystal City would choose to be more conduit to Kerry’s deception. The church decided to cancel the memorial service Kerry planned for Lynn.  Reasons cited were the pastor and deacons were not pleased with Kerry’s ongoing behavior or his different accounts of investigative information, church members’ were concerned about Kerry’s relationship with Spring, safety concerns and possible protests.
• October 2017 Kerry left a letter on the door of Aarron’s home telling Aarron he, Kerry, was doubling Aarron’s rent for his house on the family farm. Kerry also placed restrictions on Aarron’s use of the farm demanding that he only drive down the driveway and leave the same way; going nowhere else on the property. Aarron asked if Kerry really wanted to raise the rent or if he wanted Aarron and his children to leave the farm.  Kerry responded that he wanted them to leave his farm.
• Throughout the entire time Lynn has been gone Kerry wrote on Facebook of his loneliness and longing for Lynn as if Spring Thomas didn’t exist.
• Throughout all of this time I was been told by some of Kerry friends, fellow church members, some people in the homeschooling community, some of his financial supporters, and the groups he lobbies for in Jeff. City that Aarron, Abram, the media, and law enforcement were lying about there being a romantic relationship between Kerry and Spring.
• August 4, 2018, Kerry and Spring were married.

“Lynn’s disappearance and death raise many questions: How did Lynn die? How could a small woman with an injured toe and with hip replacements walk through pouring down rain in a thunder storm, in the dark of night, over muddy ground, and according to family members, have to avoid electric fences in the dark, and open and close multiple heavy gates to arrive at her destination? Was it murder? If so, was it premeditated? If it was murder, was her body moved or somehow concealed to keep search and rescue from finding her? Trained dogs should have found her scent; especially after a few days of her remains being in the hot and muggy summer elements. Tonight we pray for truth, answers, and justice. We pray they are on their way and right around the corner.