Eric Townsend to Receive Mental Evaluation Before Next Hearing

On Monday, a Cooper County judge ordered a mental evaluation of Eric Townsend before his next hearing. Townsend was arrested in October 2021 after hitting a woman’s car, hauling her out, hitting and strangling her, then stealing her car in Cooper County near Boonville. As officers were arresting Townsend in Saline County, he allegedly told them he only stopped to find someone else to kill.

Though hospitalized for her injuries the woman survived.

Townsend is charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault resulting in serious injury, armed criminal action, kidnapping, tampering with a motor vehicle, and leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in injury.