CAMERON, MO. ? Neighbors and acquaintances here said Raymond Boothe seemed an ordinary man with a fondness for singing country music on karaoke night at a local bar. He also loved auto racing.

Far from the man who now is a suspect in the death of his son, Raymond Boothe was a union carpenter who until recently was working on construction at the new Cameron Regional Medical Center, they said.

Acquaintances said Raymond, 34, and his wife, Lisa, 31, recently inherited some money, allowing them to buy a car, truck and a house.

The family had lived in an older, ramshackle home on a corner lot near downtown Cameron. The house was owned by Billy and Verna Treece, who, until about a year ago, lived across the street from the Boothes.

“They just moved from there like last week and then three days ago, Raymond came to see me and said Lisa had gone into rehab,” Verna Treece said Wednesday. “He was all stressed out and wanted to know if it would be all right to leave their stuff there for a few more days, and I said that was fine.”

Treece, who manages McCorkle’s Eatery and Pub in downtown Cameron, said she never had reason to suspect anything was wrong at the Boothe household.

‘Beautiful kids’

“We never had any trouble with them, and those kids were just really, really sweet and they were beautiful kids.”

On occasion, Lisa Boothe worked as a cook at McCorkle’s. But she hadn’t worked there for about a year, the Treeces said.

“I never saw anything that would make me think she had a problem with drugs or alcohol nothing,” Treece said. “When Raymond said she was in rehab, I was surprised.”

Treece said Raymond, accompanied by Lisa, was a regular participant in McCorkle’s country-music karaoke nights.

“When he was in town, they’d be here on Wednesday nights,” Treece said. “And then on Friday nights, they’d go to the Cactus Grill for their karaoke.”

Raymond was also well known for his love of driving race cars at U.S. 36 Raceway in nearby Osborn.

“He had a yellow (Plymouth) Duster,” said Billy Treece, who works for the city of Cameron. “He just got through putting a new engine in it.”

Tony and Christine Fish live behind the Boothes’ house.

“They were a nice family, but I thought something was going on because they haven’t been here all week,” Christine Fish said. “Their kids played with our kids all the time those are good, little kids. Lisa loved those kids.”

Fish said she never had reason to suspect either of the Boothes were using drugs.

“No, nothing like that,” she said. “They were a good family.”

Hothead or just strict?

Fish’s 27-year-old daughter, Rachel, disagreed with her mother’s assessment of Raymond Boothe.

“He’s a hothead,” Rachel Fish said. “He’d yell at those kids. I stayed away from him.”

Christine Fish disagreed.

“He was strict with the kids, that’s true, but he wasn’t mean to them. He was just being a parent.”

Chris McQuinn lives one door south of the Boothes. He, too, said they were good neighbors, though a couple of months ago he called the police after realizing Lisa Boothe was mowing her lawn at 11 p.m.

“I didn’t really care, but it woke me up and I figured it was bothering the neighbors,” McQuinn said. “The police came, I heard her tell them she could see what she was doing and she wanted to get it done. But when they asked her to quit, she shut it off and went inside. She wasn’t drunk or anything.”

McQuinn said it wasn’t unusual to awake early in the morning and see lights on in the Boothes’ house.

“It wasn’t a problem or anything,” he said. “I asked him about it once, and he said he couldn’t sleep sometimes.”

Early-morning mayhem

McQuinn called the police again early Wednesday morning when he awoke to find a fire burning between his house and the Boothes’.

“I looked out there at 2 o’clock in the morning and saw somebody burning something,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on, so I called police.”

When police arrived, McQuinn said, he heard an unidentified man say he was moving out of the house and burning trash. Police put the fire out and the man left without incident, McQuinn said.

Tony Fish said Raymond Boothe had told him earlier that he was letting a “17-year-old redhead” stay with them.

“He said the kid was a crackhead,” Tony Fish said, “and he was trying to help him get straightened out.” Fish could not identify the 17-year-old.

Early Wednesday evening, Billy and Verna Treece arrived at the house the Boothes hadn’t yet emptied of their belongings. Upset over the fire, they entered the house to find that someone had left the stove on, ruining the stove and damaging the kitchen.

“Oh, this just makes me sick to my stomach,” Verna Treece said. “Whoever did this could have burned the house down. The place is a mess.”

Efforts to contact Lisa Boothe were unsuccessful. She was not at the family home. Some people in Cameron said they thought she might be en route to Lawrence to be with the children.