Body found last month is missing Bartlesville man
BY LOUISE RED CORN World Correspondent
Thursday, January 17, 2013
1/18/13 at 9:35 AM
PAWHUSKA — The state Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Monday that the body found Dec. 29 off U.S. 60 west of Bartlesville is that of Timothy Hauser, 62, who had been missing for more than five months, according to Osage County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Charlie Cartwright.
Hauser, who was from Bartlesville, is believed to have been killed in a robbery after he left the Osage Casino near Bartlesville early Aug. 9.
Trysta Shaffer, 28, and Rusty Petty, 36, both of Bartlesville, have been charged with the robbery, and Cartwright said he expects that prosecutors will amend those charges to include murder.
In arrest affidavits, investigators say Petty and Shaffer admitted robbing and assaulting Hauser but that each says the other dealt the fatal blows with a four-way tire iron.
Last month, Petty said in court that he was mentally ill and thus incompetent to stand trial. A psychiatric exam was ordered by Special Judge Stuart Tate, and a competency hearing based on that exam is set for Friday morning.
Associated Images:
Timothy Hauser’s niece Melanie Anderson and friend Ashley Fugate hug as Osage County Chief Deputy Charlie Cartwright stands by near where a body that was believed to be Hauser's was found in a thicket in rural Osage County west of Bartlesville on Dec. 29, nearly five months after he disappeared. The Medical Examiner's Office has now confirmed that the body was Hauser. LOUISE RED CORN for the Tulsa World file
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