KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, man who disappeared in 1991 and declared dead after his family could not contact him was identified Tuesday as a man who died in a fire last month in Lebanon, Missouri.
Police in Lebanon, located about an hour northeast of Springfield, Missouri, along Interstate 44, said a man who was discovered dead in a fire on March 19, 2023, belonged to that of Stephen E. Winn.
At the time, police described circumstances surrounding the body found inside the burnt 1979 Chrysler New Yorker as “suspicious” and sent the remains for an autopsy.
Using DNA evidence, the autopsy identified the remains as Winn, 71.
Police say that Winn had been living with his wife, Khristine Winn and their children in Kansas City, Missouri, at the time of his disappearance in 1991.
His family was never able to contact him again and had him declared dead.
While searching through items last month in the charred Chrysler, police located identifying documents belonging to Khristine Bechard, who was the maiden name his former wife used before they were married.
When Lebanon police contacted the family of Khristine Winn, the family told police she had died five years ago in 2018.
Police believe that Stephen Winn assumed Khristine Winn’s identity, remarried and then lived under the name Khristine Bechard.
Additional evidence from the charred car and documents found in Winn’s Camdenton, Missouri, residence led police to believe that Winn’s death was self-inflicted.
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