An autopsy will be performed this morning on a Poplar Bluff woman who was fatally shot, allegedly by her boyfriend.
Katrina Suiter, 36, was pronounced dead after 7 p.m. Wednesday at her residence on County Road 476, off of the West Outer Road, according to Butler County Coroner Andy Moore.
Dr. Russell Deidiker will perform an autopsy on Suiter at 9:30 a.m. at Farmington, Moore said. Preliminary autopsy results are expected this afternoon.
Suiter’s 46-year-old boyfriend, Michael Joseph Choate, is being held in the Butler County jail on suspicion of second-degree murder in connection with her death.
Butler County authorities learned of Suiter’s death at about 5:30 p.m. when Choate called 911 and reported “his girlfriend was shot,” said Butler County Chief Deputy Wes Popp.
When deputies arrived at the camper where they couple was apparently living, Popp said, they found Suiter had “actually been shot in the face, and he was claiming it was an accident, that she was waving a gun, and it went off.”
As the scene was processed, “we don’t believe that is true at all based on the evidence of the way everything was laid out, her, the gun, where the entry wound was,” explained Popp, who described the firearm as being a .22-caliber automatic pistol.
Popp said deputies worked until about 2 a.m. today and are meeting back at 10 a.m. to resume the investigation.
“We still got a lot to do” on the investigation, including “some follow-up stuff” and “forensic type of stuff,” Popp said.