Oskaloosa ? The shroud of mystery that has draped the slaying of a rural Lawrence man the past 29 months started to unravel Wednesday.

Prosecutors charged two men and a woman for roles they allegedly played in the slaying of Clarence Rinke. They say the trio went to Rinke’s secluded Jefferson County home bent on robbing the gun collector, who prosecutors allege dealt drugs. But the robbery went awry. There was a struggle; then a gun blast.

The accused:

l Collin E. Cady, a 32-year-old McLouth man charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery. He is in the Jefferson County Jail on $500,000 bond.

l Noah J. Gleason, 42, rural Lawrence.

l Charlotte M. Bennett, 29, Lawrence. She and Gleason each are jailed on $250,000 bond. Each is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery.

The three were arrested Tuesday, about 2 1/2 years after the Oct. 14, 1999, shooting. The arrests came after a task force of Jefferson County Sheriff’s officers and Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents spent months chasing leads.

“They spent a lot of hours and an incredible amount of work,” Jefferson County Atty. Jim Vanderbilt said of investigators.

More charges are possible and the investigation is continuing, Assistant County Atty. Vic Braden said.

During the suspects’ first court appearances Wednesday afternoon, Braden gave a brief outline of the events that prosecutors said occurred the night Rinke died:

Bennett drove Cady and Gleason to Rinke’s farm near 21st and Republic streets in southern Jefferson County, about 10 minutes from downtown Lawrence.

Bennett lured Rinke from his house where he was confronted by Cady, who was armed with a sawed-off shotgun.

Cady and Gleason entered Rinke’s home. Cady struck Rinke in the head with the shotgun, Braden said. A struggle ensued. Rinke was shot.

Bennett then drove the others away from the 70-acre farm.

Braden said the shotgun had been recovered, but he wasn’t specific about where. He did say officers and KBI agents searched the area around Rinke’s farm as recently as Wednesday afternoon. Officers near a pond at a property adjoining the former Rinke home told the Journal-World they had found “significant evidence” there.

Braden also was vague about what led to the arrests or where the suspects were when the arrests were made.

No other arrests expected

Braden declined to release any other details, saying that the investigation is continuing and he still is studying additional investigative information. No other arrests were expected, he said.

Braden didn’t say how the suspects got to Rinke’s farm, which was about a quarter mile up a private lane with the entrance blocked by an electronic gate.

The night of the slaying, Rinke made a 911 call to the Sheriff’s Office to report he had been shot. Sheriff’s officers and emergency medical personnel responding to the farm were unable to open the gate and had to go by foot to the house.

Officers found Rinke dead in his kitchen from a gunshot wound.

Links to drug ring

Last year Rinke was named in a federal drug investigation that centered on a marijuana ring based in Ohio. Federal court documents filed in Cleveland said Rinke conspired with members of the drug ring to sell 220 pounds of marijuana in Kansas.

An associate of Rinke’s, Duane K. Nevins, a rural Baldwin pilot, also was charged and convicted as a result of that investigation.

The day before he was killed, federal investigators said, Rinke was in Omaha, Neb., with Nevins passing drug money to another suspect in the federal case.

Braden said he is still familiarizing himself with information about the suspects in Rinke’s death. He said he was unsure of any link to the drug cases.

The suspects went to Rinke’s home expecting to rob him of “property,” but Braden wouldn’t say specifically what they were looking for or if they took anything.

Neighbors living near Bennett in eastern Lawrence contacted by the Journal-World said they did not know the woman. They expressed shock, however, that someone living so close had been arrested and charged with murder.

“This doesn’t look like much of a neighborhood but it’s really pretty quiet,” said Nathan Hughes, 34.

Ivy Reed, 76, agreed.

“I didn’t expect anything like that from anyone in this neighborhood,” she said.

No one at Bennett’s residence would comment.

Jefferson County Magistrate Judge Dennis Reiling set a preliminary hearing for all three suspects for 9 a.m. Tuesday. Attorneys were appointed by Reiling to represent the suspects. It is likely those hearings will be continued.