Drexel, Mo. ? Neighbors had long complained about the loud, heavily tattooed man who cut down their trees for firewood.

Most suspected the 33-year-old who had spent the past decade in and out of prison was up to no good.

Still, they were shocked by reports that Michael Lee Shaver Jr. had burned the bodies of seven reputed drug dealers after luring them to his rented home in rural Drexel, and that he had killed and dismembered them there.

Shaver, who has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, told authorities he sprinkled his victims’ shattered bones around the backyard of the 3- to 5-acre property.

About 80 people, including troopers from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, combed the property for bone fragments Thursday in a search that resembled an archaeological dig. The search, which could last another week or longer, was expected to yield about 1,000 fragments.

“I knew these guys were pretty much dopers,” said neighbor Russ Feeback, who lives in the area. “I didn’t know they were killers.”

Shaver lived in a log house on the wooded lot with his mother, 53-year-old Shirley Ann Bryson, who is free on bond in an unrelated case. Relatives and neighbors said Bryson’s boyfriend also lived in the home, but authorities have not released his name. Neither has been charged in the killings, though the Cass County prosecutor has not ruled out charges against others.

The family did not make friends when it moved into the area about five years ago. Deputies soon began responding to the home, logging a total of about a dozen visits over the years, said Cass County Sheriff’s Cpl. Kevin Tieman.

Cadets with the Missouri Western Regional Police Academy scour a Drexel, Mo., property where it is believed that murder suspect Michael Lee Shaver Jr. distributed his victims' bones. On Thursday the cadets were looking for evidence and placing flags next to anything that could be used in the homicide case. Shaver, 33, has been charged with a single count of first-degree murder and is being held on million bond after authorities said he told them he killed seven people and dumped their shattered bones in the backyard of a rural Drexel home.

‘Tormented people’

Bryson met the home’s owner, Jim C. Messmer, while she was working in a nursing home where he was staying, said his son, Jim P. Messmer, 59, of Lee’s Summit. The younger Messmer said Bryson offered to care for his father at the rural house.

“He was just adamant to find someone who would watch him, who would be able to give him 24-hour care,” Messmer said.

He said Bryson “took fairly good care” of his father, but relations became strained after his father gave power of attorney to Bryson. The two men barely spoke until the week before his father’s death, Messmer said.

As Messmer prayed while his 84-year-old father lay dying in February in the Harrisonville hospital, Bryson and Shaver prayed with him. The two also asked Messmer to pray with them when he went to check on his father’s home, where Bryson and Shaver continued to live after the older man’s death.

“They are both pretty much tormented people,” Messmer said in a phone interview. “We know that God didn’t create an alcoholic or a drug addict. He just sent his son (Jesus) back to get his kids back.”

For four months after his father’s death, Messmer let the two live in the house rent-free, then began charging rent. But on Aug. 18, weary of police calls to the home and complaints from neighbors, Messmer filed a complaint in Cass County Court seeking to evict the family.

That same day, the first bone fragments were removed from the rural property after Shaver told authorities he knew about human remains that could be found there.

“There was too much going on,” Messmer said. “Too many problems for us and the neighbors.”

Spotty criminal record

When he was arrested last week, Shaver already was on probation for a December 2005 conviction for unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. In that case, he had threatened workers at a Harrisonville Wal-Mart with a knife after he was spotted stealing some items.

His criminal record dates to at least 1996, when he was released on probation after serving less than four months of a five-year prison sentence for felony stealing. He returned to prison in March 1997 after threatening a Kansas City police officer with a knife before being shot by police.

Shaver received a conditional release in February 1999 but returned to prison in July 2001 for having possessed a controlled substance in December 1997 while serving time at the Moberly Correctional Center. He received another conditional release in October 2002 but returned to prison in March 2003 after violating the terms of his release. He was freed again in October 2003.

Shaver told authorities that between prison stints, he lured the victims – all between 20 and 40 years old and from the Kansas City area – to his home and then shot them.

The probable cause statement filed in support of the first-degree murder charge alleges the killing “possibly” occurred in mid- to late fall 2001 – during a time when Shaver was in prison. Cass County prosecutor Teresa Hensley said the statement was later amended to include all of 2001 to the present.

Jeff Martin, the public defender assigned to Shaver’s case, declined to discuss the timing.

“I can’t comment on the client’s case or how it will proceed,” he said. “We certainly investigate all avenues.”

Charges in Salina

Shaver also faces criminal charges in Salina, Kan., about three hours west of Kansas City.

The Salina Journal, in a story for today’s editions, reported that Shaver is accused in what prosecutors said was a scheme to steal guns and other property and exchange them for drugs.

His preliminary hearing in that case is set for Sept. 5, but Saline County Atty. Ellen Mitchell told the newspaper that she expects it will be postponed.

Meanwhile, Shaver’s mother is free on bond after she was arrested last week on one count of stealing by deceit and one count of hindering prosecution of a felon. Like her son, Bryson’s criminal record also stretches back to the mid-1990s, including an October 1995 conviction for carjacking an elderly woman in Roeland Park, Kan.