Geneva Phelps Hastings

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Butler County Sheriffs Department (MO)

Offense Location:

Poplar Bluff, MO

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

On Friday evening June 27, 1975, 18-year-old Geneva Phelps Hastings, went to an outdoor party at Wolf Creek, located outside of Poplar Bluff, MO. Geneva had given birth just 3 weeks earlier to a baby boy she named Tommy. Geneva had wanted to go out to see her friends and had her mom watch her son. Geneva Phelps Hastings was known as a kind teenager, she grew up in rural Missouri. Everyone was surprised when she announced her pregnancy. She didn’t have a boyfriend at the time and the pregnancy was not planned. Geneva got an apartment and was ready for her baby. Geneva’s family supported her. Saturday, June 28th at 1:00AM, Tom Phelps, Geneva’s stepfather, was returning home when he noticed her blue car abandoned by the side of the gravel road only .2 miles from their home. He thought she was having car trouble, so he stopped, but she was not in the car. Her car was running with the driver’s door was open, lights on, her purse was lying on the front seat. Tom and Shirley, Geneva’s mother, returned to Geneva’s car and drove it home. Five days later a neighbor noticed buzzards circling above a gravel stretch known as a love’s lane off Pine Valley Rd., which was a heavily wooded area off County Road 522, six miles north of Poplar Bluff. Geneva’s body was found by a Butler County deputy 117 feet from the road. Geneva had been stabbed twice with what authorities believed to be a small pocket knife. The coroner determined that she died of stab wounds to the chest. Her body was not covered or buried.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 23, 2025