James Horn: Man fatally shot by police after killing woman he held in wooden box

Horn was found in a closet, armed, refusing to surrender

A man suspected of killing a woman and her son in Missouri has been was shot and killed by police.

James Horn, 46, was charged with two homicides, kidnapping, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon, CNN reported.

He was killed by police after officials found his ex-girlfriend, Sandra Sutton, 47 and her son Zachary, 17, shot to death.

From early January to April 30, Horn allegedly held Ms Sutton captive in a wooden box she helped build at his home in Sedalia, Missouri. The suspect threatened the victim with a tire jack and only permit her to exit the box when he returned home from work.

After she escaped, Ms Sutton and her son moved in with her brother but Sonny Lynch, a Clinton Police official, said the Clinton Police Department was unaware of the victim’s living arrangements.

"We did not know she was living in our community," he said. "We're still investigating those details. We were not notified that she was in our community."

Mr Lynch told reporters that Horn was found in a closet, armed, refusing to surrender and after he threatened the officers, he was shot and killed. The suspect had been at large since April 30, when the victim first escaped.

In the early 1990’s, Horn spent time in federal prison for raping and kidnapping an ex-girlfriend in Tennessee and for another rape and kidnapping in Mississippi, the News & Observer reported.

In December 2011, prosecutors argued that Horn was too dangerous to be released from prison. However, a judge wrote there was no clear proof that he had mental issues and after 13 years in prison, Horn was released.