Mo. farmer pleads guilty to shooting Wis. brothers, burning, dumping their bodies over cattle deal
09/30/2022 3:28 pm PDT
BRAYMER, Mo. (TCD) -- A farmer has pleaded guilty in connection with the murder of two Wisconsin brothers over a cattle deal.
According to a news release from the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office, Garland Nelson pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and the burning and disposal of Nick Diemel and Justin Diemel. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole.
Nelson avoided the death penalty as part of his plea deal, WDAF-TV reports. The Diemel brothers were the operators of Diemel’s Livestock, which dealt with the trade of cattle and other livestock, and Nelson agreed to feed and pasture the cattle. Nelson also agreed to sell loads of cattle and send Diemel’s Livestock the profits, WDAF reports.
Nelson was sent cattle from November 2018 through April 2019. According to WDAF, Nelson sold, traded, and/or killed many of the Diemels’ cattle without providing the brothers with payment.
Nelson allegedly defrauded the Diemels by continuing to send them bills for feed and yardage for the cattle that had already been sold, traded, or had died. WDAF reports the Diemels went to visit Nelson in Braymer, Missouri, in July 2019, to collect over $200,000 in debt.
Nelson killed the brothers to cover up the cattle scheme, and he tried to hide their bodies, WDAF reports.
The brothers’ remains were later found on Nelson’s farm and in a livestock trailer in Nebraska, KMBC-TV reports.
After shooting the brothers, Nelson confessed that he placed the bodies in barrels, burned them, and then dumped their remains, with one in a pile of cow manure on the Nelson farm and the other in a mineral supplement bucket found in Nebraska.
Before pleading guilty, KMBC reports that Nelson was originally charged with two counts of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with a motor vehicle, abandonment of a corpse, and stealing of a motor vehicle.
According to WDAF, in December 2019, the Diemel brothers’ families sued Nelson for wrongful death, and the families were eventually awarded a $2 million settlement.
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