Originally Posted by
2009AD
Mason City native charged in wife's murder near KC
Thursday, July 16, 2009, 11:27 AM
by Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City
A murder late Tuesday in suburban Kansas City has left a Mason City native dead and another Mason City native jailed on a murder charge. The Kansas City Star newspaper reports that court records show that 37-year-old Michael Adams Junior is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 36-year-old Amber Hartwig. Both were 1991 graduates of Mason City High School.
Court records say that Hartwig's 18-year-old daughter found her mother dead on the floor of the couple's house with her father sitting next to her smoking a cigarette. Adams was also shot in the incident at about 10:30 PM in Belton, Missouri, which is about 20 miles south of downtown Kansas City. Police say they think Adams also shot himself and sustained a superficial wound to his chest after shooting Hartwig in the head with a 45-caliber handgun.
The court records say that on the night of the shootings, Adams attempted to jump from the car during a family trip to the grocery store and was restrained by his daughter. After returning home, Hartwig told the children she was leaving for the night and would take them with her. The daughter said that moments later she heard gunshots, called 9-1-1 and stated that Adams had shot Hartwig, with the dispatcher telling her to get her brother and get out of the house.
Adams apparently for a year or two had been considering a sex change operation as he was dressing as a woman, taking hormones to grow breasts, and was using the female name of Mischelle Sabrina Adams on his Facebook account.
7-22-09
Adams makes first appearance in Hartwig death
By The Associated Press
HARRISONVILLE, Mo.— Relatives and witnesses say a 37-year-old Belton man accused of shooting the mother of his two children had been arguing with her because he had started dressing as a woman.
Michael Adams Jr. made his first appearance Monday in Cass County Circuit Court on a charge of second-degree murder. Adams was released earlier from a hospital where he had been treated for a superficial, self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police said Amber Hartwig, 36, was shot in the head with a .45 caliber handgun. Michael S. Adams, 37, was charged last Wednesday with second-degree murder and armed criminal action and is being held on $1 million bond in the Cass County, Mo., jail.
Hartwig was a 1991 graduate of Mason City High School. Adams attended Mason City High School but did not graduate.
He reportedly liked to dress in women’s clothing and had a Facebook social networking account in which he went by “Mischelle Sabrina Adams.”
According to court papers, the couple’s 18-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were in their bedrooms when the daughter heard two gunshots. She went to find out what happened and found her mother dead on the kitchen floor with her father sitting nearby, smoking a cigarette.
The daughter called 911. Hartwig was determined to be dead at the scene.
Neighbors said Adams had been dressing as a woman for more than a year.
—The Globe Gazette contributed to this story