Aurora’s Mackey gets life for Republic murder

Almost three months after he was convicted of murdering a woman in Republic, an Aurora man was sentenced to life in prison. Shane Leon Mackey, 49, received the sentence on Friday, April 7, at the Greene County Justice Center in Springfield.
Mackey was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2020 death of Rachel Sanders. Police came to the house where they were living on Nov. 9 of that year to perform a well-being check. There, they found in disarray, with blood on the floor of the kitchen and living room, broken glass on the floor, broken furniture and couches torn apart.
Mackey was found in the bedroom giving CPR to Sanders. He was arrested and transported to the Greene County Jail after giving multiple inconsistent statements to the police about what happened. The officer who responded to the scene said he asked multiple times if Sanders was okay, despite having performed CPR on her. But, during the interview, he said he knew she was deceased. He also told dispatch and the officer on scene that Sanders was sick the night before as a possible explanation of events. He also said in the interview that Sanders took pain pills and asked if an overdose could be a possible explanation.
Mackey was convicted of Sanders’s murder on Friday, Jan. 20, after a three-day bench trial. As of press time, he remained in custody at the Greene County Jail, where he has been held since his arrest, pending his transfer to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
In Missouri, life in prison is actually 30 years. According to online court records, Mackey will receive credit for his time in jail towards his sentence. On the same day as his sentencing, Mackey filed a notice of appeal of his conviction to the Missouri Court of Appeals.