Man acquitted of Lincoln County murder still faces charge

A Ferguson man who was acquitted of killing a Lincoln County teenager almost 20 years ago still faces a rape charge.
A Boone County jury issued the not guilty verdict in the first-degree murder trial of 46-year-old Michael Dowell.
He was accused of killing 18-year-old Stephanie Hogland, who disappeared from a Winfield convenience store on Jan. 6, 1991. Her body was found a day later near Elsberry.
Dowell was charged in December 2006 after a DNA sample he submitted to his probation officer in an unrelated case matched a profile created six years earlier from Hogland’s underwear.
The case was moved to Columbia on a change of venue. Dowell still faces a forcible rape charge in the Hogland case.
He will remain in the Lincoln County Jail until a trial date is set.