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MO: Convicted murderer wields machete at gas station

Posted at 10:53 PM, May 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-16 23:53:36-04

A 54-year-old Missouri woman is facing assault charges after threatening a gas station clerk with a machete.

Her neighbors say they knew she wasn’t a model citizen, but they had no idea just how violent her past really is.

Russel Kinsaul has video of the attack, and records from her prior murder conviction.

"Scary, scary. It is scary," said Paulette Hudson, a neighbor.

Paul and Paulette Hudson were shocked to learn their neighbor caught on surveillance camera threatening a BP clerk in Crystal City with a machete was also a convicted felon.

"It’s weird to find out somebody like that was your neighbor," said Hudson.

54-year old Lizette Von Horstman is charged with two counts of assault and one count of unlawful use of a weapon.

Before her arrest, she lived in a home near the gas station.

On one window is a no trespassing sign, another has a drawing of a skull and scratched in the glass of the storm door are the words "leave alone."

Neighbors say she acted oddly played music loudly at all hours and once tried to start a fight.

"It was a little scary, you could clearly see that she was drinking. She had very bad potty mouth and there’s children around here and I just asked her to leave," said Hudson.

Online we found court records showing Von Horstman pleaded guilty to a 1992 murder in Florida.

She and another woman lured a 66-year old man to this hotel in Hollywood, Florida where they strangled him and beat him to death with a tire iron, then stuffed his body in the trunk of a car.

She was sent to Lowell Correctional Center in Gainesville where she served just eleven years.

In Crystal City, she’s said to be a regular customer at the gas station where she waved around that machete.

"I’m just surprised she’s even out, I’m surprised she’s not in prison," said neighbor, Cindy Goodall.

Neighbors say the frightening scene caught on camera was bad enough, but find it scary to know a convicted murder has been living nearby.

"And she lives, I guess, a block away from me," said Goodall.

The gas station altercation ended when a customer distracted Hortsman and the clerk wrestled her to the ground.

She is in jail with a cash only bond set at $150,000 after being checked out by mental health professionals.

CORRESPONDENT: Russell Kinsaul