BLOOMSDALE, Mo. – Abram Messer, son of Kerry Messer, is calling for Kerry to straighten his story about the disappearance of Lynn Messer.
“For two years, I have been begging my father to tell the truth and to be open, to come clean about what he knows that he’s not sharing,” Abram said. “I have gone to him in private. I have endeavored him to engage in our church community. Every time I have pressed him or requested him to tell the truth, his reactions have become angrier and more volatile. In the last two years, I have not turned my back on my father. He has pushed us away every step of the way. Every time we have reached out, he has pushed us away.”
“Now we’re publicly asking him to please tell the truth. The truth will set you free.”
The finding of skeletal remains Tuesday night believed to be Lynn Messer is just the most recent twist in the Messer saga over two years in the making. Wednesday, the family came forward and shared that two of Kerry’s granddaughters, in fact, found the remains. Lynn, who went missing on July 8, 2014, is believed to have been found by the family who found the remains while scouting for deer stand locations.
Abram said his father was unaccounted for hours of the morning Lynn went missing – and had left his cell phone behind, a habit that has continued as a new romantic relationship for Kerry developed.
“He goes out of his way to hide what he was doing, not only from me but from anyone else,” Abram said. “He would start doing things like walking back and forth or getting a ride. He’s still fabricating stories on Facebook, pretending he’s pining away for his wife.”
Abram has clashed with his father throughout the investigation over bizarre behavior and continuing story changes from Kerry, who is the husband of Lynn. Kerry serves as the president of the Missouri Family Network and as a former lobbyist for the Missouri Baptist Convention, Samaritan Ministries International, Americans United for Life, and others.
“I asked my father to resign from Missouri Family Network until the investigation was over so all these questions could be answered,” Abram said. “I was not asking for him to turn it over to me. I didn’t want his money. I didn’t want his organization. I wanted him to do what was right. We know plenty of qualified and godly people to keep things organized until these things can be settled.
“My father said that he was going to go ahead and turn it over to me. He was going to transfer our home to me. So ‘when the investigation turns south,’ we would not be left without a home.”
Abram and his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children previously lived on the Messer property in a separate house about half a mile from Kerry and Lynn’s residence. In the interim of legislative sessions, Abram had helped manage the farm. After the dust cleared from search parties after mid-August of 2014, Abram resumed his duties on the farm. In 2015, Abram and his brother learned of Kerry’s relationship with Spring Thomas.
“By the end of 2015, he was lying to my face over and over about this woman and refusing to give me time to search for my mother.”
As tensions came to a head during the investigation, Abram and his father sought counseling at their church, where they attempted to work through their conflict.
“At the end of the meeting, my father was ready to walk out normally,” Abram said. “He put on his church face. You see it at the Capitol. He pretends he is someone he is not. My father is a very different person at church or at work than he is at home.”
A new romantic relationship and a fake suicide note from Kerry brought more tension to Kerry and Abram’s relationship.
“He started telling people about this friendship with Spring. He admitted to the pastor that he had written a fake suicide note. I’ll admit [the note] worked when I initially discovered it. I immediately shared it with law enforcement. Then he told me it was fake and that showed me what he was capable of.”
Abram fully believes Kerry’s relationship with Spring began long before Lynn went missing.
“No one is naive enough to believe this was a new relationship,” Abram said. “There was no time to have a relationship, no opportunity to spend meaningful time with someone. I don’t know how my father could say that they were just friends. It was way more than a friendship. Besides, I don’t know what kind of friends you need to take Viagra or Cialis to visit.
“While we were trying to figure out when this relationship could have started, we realized we had been taking cattle up to her farm for years,” Abram said. “I was never comfortable with the way my father acted around her. She acted like a boyhood crush had visited. Then we figured out why there was this sudden rush of stress.”
Abram noted and attributes late family tension before his mother’s disappearance to his mother learning of his father’s possible infidelity.
“We know that my mother went to visit Spring two weeks before she went missing. We don’t know what happened because Spring will not cooperate with law enforcement. [Lynn] asked one of her friends to pray for her and she went to visit Spring. Suddenly there was this outpouring of stress.
“She seemed to not know how to manage this stress.”
Abram believes Lynn was tipped off after she got onto Messer’s Facebook.
“The only thing that makes sense was that my mother went to visit Spring. That was the confrontation she was worried about having or the confrontation with my father.”
Abram’s continuing quest for the truth is his main motivation, even after the remains were found.
“As this goes on, we’ve found more details, the motivation behind the disappearance and now questions about what else could be hidden. There is no doubt in my mind that my father knows so much more than he will admit to because he can’t decide what he wants to admit to. He is not cooperating, Spring is not cooperating.”
“My father is the main suspect in my mother’s disappearance. I would covet everyone’s prayers to bring us the truth. His grace would seek closure as we move forward.”
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Rachael Herndon was the editor at The Missouri Times and also produced This Week in Missouri Politics, published Missouri Times Magazine, and co-hosted the #MoLeg podcast. She joined The Missouri Times in 2014, returning to political reporting after working as a campaign and legislative staffer.
Rachael studied at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She lives in Jefferson City with her husband, Brandon, and their two children.
