POLK COUNTY, Mo. – A man convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Trudy Darby in 1991 has been arrested again. Jack Rush is back behind bars after Polk County deputies say they discovered three guns in his possession.

Rush had been released on parole in his life sentence for the murder of Darby in Camden County. Polk County deputies obtained a search warrant and say they found a black, semi-automatic, 9mm pistol and a rifle in his possession.

On Oct. 6, Rush was arrested and transported to the Polk County Jail before he was transferred to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

“The citizens of Polk County are safer today because Jess Rush is again behind bars where he belongs,” Polk County Sheriff Morrison said. “A monster like him should never be granted the freedom to live among us. We hope his arrest gives some comfort and relief to the Darby family.”

Rush was 15 years old when he, his brother, and another young man kidnapped and later murdered Trudy Darby from her workplace at a convenience store in Macks Creek in Camden County at about 10 p.m. on January 19, 1991.

Rush admitted to several people that he was involved in her murder before he was convicted, including writing a series of thirteen letters to an inmate he was convinced could help him avoid prosecution.

In the letters, he detailed how he had encouraged his brother to dispose of Darby’s body by burning it. However, Darby’s body was found in the Little Niangua River with two gunshot wounds to the head. It was later determined that she had been sexually assaulted during her kidnapping, which Rush later confirmed in his letters.

Rush was originally sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1997, but a ruling by a judge in 2012 demanded he be allowed parole since he was a juvenile at the time he committed the crimes.