A dark night in Missouri’s Bootheel
Around 11 p.m. on July 9, 2023, according to the disciplinary complaint, Michelle Anders, injured, alone, and allegedly intoxicated, was lying on the side of U.S. Highway 412 when she saw the red and blue lights of a Dunklin County sheriff’s cruiser.
She told Deputies Joseph Philpot and Nicholas Cobb she was walking from Little Rock and was fleeing a violent situation. Visible bruises stained her face, and there was a knot on her head. She stated her shoulder was broken, according to the disciplinary complaints in both deputies’ cases.
On body camera video, provided to First Alert 4 Investigates, the deputies asked her if she wanted an ambulance, and she declined. They then pressed her to tell them where she was trying to go, and she said she was heading to Chicago to see her son.
Anders told the deputies she did not have a phone, was not familiar with the area, and asked them for a ride to the nearest gas station.
After a conversation with each other, it became apparent that it was not going to happen.
“You want to give her a ride?” Philpot is seen asking Cobb.
“Not really,” Cobb replied.
The deputies then told her to walk and told her if she needed to rest, to do so in the grass and not on the shoulder of the highway, the footage shows.