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High-profile Columbia murder suspect to appear in court Monday

21-year-old Emma Rose Adams remains jailed in Boone County (January 2023 mug shot courtesy of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department website)

A Columbia woman charged with the horrific murder of an autistic Mizzou student is set to appear in Boone County Circuit Court this afternoon.

21-year-old Emma Rose Adams is charged with second degree murder and three other felonies. She’s pleaded not guilty.

Boone County prosecutors say Adams killed Mizzou student Samuel Michael Clemons on January 10, then dragged his body through a north Columbia yard and setting it on fire in her fire pit. The graphic four-page Columbia Police Department’s probable cause statement says officers found a smoldering human body in the fire pit, with an odor described as burning flesh.

Court documents quote Adams as telling Columbia Police that she killed Clemons in self-defense after he beat her. However, the Columbia Police Department’s probable cause statement says Adams never called 911, and that Adams “attempted to destroy physical evidence by burning the victim’s body.”

Boone County assistant prosecutor Susan Boresi is prosecuting the case. Ms. Adams is represented by defense attorney Jeffery Hilbrenner.