ARNOLD, MISSOURI: A person of interest related to a 1993 Missouri cold case was compromised while making comments when police left a room during a 2015 interrogation. As the detectives left the room and closed the door, Loril Harp was seen talking to himself and chatting on the phone, saying things like, "I'm not under arrest, but I probably will be before I leave here."
He was grilled at the time about the shooting death of Steven Weltig, a 40-year-old liquor store owner in Arnold, Missouri.
Cpl. Brett Ackermann and Detective Corporal Josh Wineinger took charge of the case in 2020 which included a review of several hours of the 2015 interview. It was at that time the authorities noticed the suspect talking to himself.
What did Loril Harp say in the video?
According to Fox News, Harp was seen cursing out at a woman in one of the seven videos. In another clip, he was seen yelling at himself, saying he didn't kill Weltig. He was constantly twitching, shuffling in his chair, tapping his feet.
"Watching that dead time helped us," Wineinger told FOX 2 St Louis during an on-camera interview, adding "I was 100 percent convinced at that point."
Ackermann pointed out a phone call Harp made when no one was in the room and paraphrased the conversation. "He was on the phone with someone saying, ‘I’m going to jail.' Stuff that would indicate he was guilty of this," Ackermann said.
It was enough for the detectives to bring Harp back for interrogation again in 2020 when he was 68 and in failing health. He avoided questions, played dumb and was evasive for more than three hours of a three-and-a-half hour interview.
Towards the end of the interview, Ackermann told Harp they knew he was present in the shop at the time of Weltig's death and they knew a gun went off. They only needed to know how.
"How did it happen?" Ackermann asked Harp, adding "How did it happen that (Weltig) got a bullet hole in his head? And you're the only other person there, Loril?"
Loril Harp denied shooting the victim twice
Harp denied shooting Weltig twice and claimed Weltig charged at him with a gun. Harp began to describe the altercation and then momentarily paused. "Keep going," Ackermann said.
"I grabbed his hand and hit him until he dropped the gun. And then I hit him again, and then I took off out the door," Harp said, adding "I hurt him. I know I hurt him. Like I said, I fight. I hit him f------ hard. But I didn't shoot him."
The shooter used the store's side door to make his getaway, so the detectives' ears bucked up when Harp mentioned the side door. They asked him what he did when he got home. "I showered, I had a bunch of blood on me," Harp told the Arnold detectives.
One of the detectives repeated what he had said. "You had blood on you?" the detective asked. "I must have if I shot him. Or he shot me," Harp said. "You weren't shot," one of the detectives replied.
When was Loril Harp arrested?
Harp tried to backtrack and said the blood was from a fist fight but it was already too late by then. The detectives had him. He was arrested on September 30, 2020, and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
At the end of the interview, Wineinger asked Harp, "Doesn't that feel better? After 27 years, to know that you don't have to worry for the rest of your life with this hanging over your head." Loril died a year later at the age of 69 from an undisclosed illness.
