Camdenton Man Makes Alford Plea In Abandonment Of Corpse Case

In a Camden County courtroom on Monday, a man from Montreal, Missouri, received a four-year sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections. This decision came after he entered an Alford plea.

41-year-old Eric Cole, faced charges related to the abandonment of a corpse, which were connected to the June 2022 death of Tanner Elmore. Elmore was last seen at the Camdenton Walmart on June 7, 2022.

Camden County detectives engaged with Cole on July 13, 2022, while he was in the custody of the Cole County Jail. During their interaction, Cole revealed that he and Elmore had traveled to Camdenton to acquire drugs. Cole further stated that Elmore had a severe adverse reaction to the drugs, and his efforts to obtain Narcan from a friend were unsuccessful.

According to Cole’s account, he then left Elmore’s body in a wooded area at the Lake of the Ozarks State Park. Additionally, Cole took Elmore’s cell phone, which he subsequently sold.

Initially, Camden County prosecutors filed several charges against Cole, including felony counts of Second-Degree Murder, Conspiracy to Commit an Unclassified Felony, Abandonment of a Corpse, and a misdemeanor count of Stealing.

Online court records indicated that Cole’s trial had been scheduled to begin yesterday, but he opted to enter an Alford plea on the same day. An Alford plea is a guilty plea made by a criminal defendant who does not admit guilt but pleads guilty as part of a plea bargain.