Ten days ago, Elizabeth McKeown was not on the Springfield Police Department's radar.

The 46-year-old had no appreciable criminal record and hadn't been contacted by a police officer all year.

Then last Tuesday afternoon, police say McKeown purposefully ran over a total stranger, 57-year-old Barbara Foster, in an apparent road-rage killing.

McKeown was charged with first-degree murder, and prosecutors called her "a potential danger to every single person in this community."

Her alleged statements after the crash, that she "tricked" Foster and then "slammed into her," caused many Springfieldians to cringe at McKeown's seemingly flippant attitude.

Through interviews and public records, the News-Leader has learned McKeown is a former nurse, a wife, a mother, a real estate company employee and someone who struggled with bills and drugs.

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Court documents from as recently as June say McKeown worked at Family Home Solutions of Southwest Missouri, a real estate company, but her background is in nursing.

In Arkansas, where McKeown lived before moving to Missouri, she worked at St. Edward's Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith, but an email obtained by the News-Leader shows she was fired in 2006.

Fred Knight, general counsel for the Arkansas State Board of Nursing, said McKeown's nursing license was suspended after she was twice caught stealing Nubain, a prescription painkiller, in August 2006.

Knight said McKeown took the drugs out of the hospital's internal system but never gave the drugs to the patient. When pressed, McKeown admitted to using the drugs herself, according to Knight.

After a hearing where the suspension was handed down, Knight said the Arkansas State Board of Nursing had no further contact with McKeown. She did not follow through on the conditions of her suspension, which included "a complete psychological evaluation/addiction evaluation," participation in a treatment program and random drug tests.

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Springfield police spokeswoman Jasmine Bailey said it's too early in the investigation to determine whether McKeown was under the influence of any substance at the time of last week's homicide.

McKeown also had a nursing license in Missouri, which expired in 2013. Spokespeople for the two Springfield hospitals — Cox and Mercy — either declined to say or did not respond when asked if she had ever worked there. An online search did not reveal any professional discipline cases involving McKeown in Missouri.

Court documents also detail a string of money problems McKeown has encountered over the past decade.

Cox Medical Center came after McKeown in 2009 alleging $11,000 in unpaid medical bills.

Tax liens filed in Greene County show that McKeown failed to pay $1,100 in income taxes in 2007 and then she and her husband failed to pay $2,700 for the 2010 filing period.

During an interview with police after the homicide, McKeown allegedly pointed to a looming bill as a source of stress that afternoon.

McKeown allegedly told police she got upset sitting in afternoon rush-hour traffic behind Foster's vehicle on Nov. 20 on Campbell Avenue near University Street because she was in a rush to get to the bank to make her car payment.

A probable cause statement says McKeown told police that when Foster "wouldn't go," she started nudging Foster's car and then "decided to hit it full out."

After the impact, the statement says Foster got out of her car to assess the damage, and McKeown hit Foster with her Ford Mustang.

McKeown allegedly told police she "tricked" Foster into thinking she would be still and then she "slammed into her and cut her in half."

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Prosecutors say the victim was dragged 58 feet under McKeown's car.

Foster's body had to be cremated because it was too mangled for a traditional open-casket funeral, according to Foster's brother.

After hitting Foster, police say McKeown was involved in another crash a couple of blocks away at the intersection of Campbell Avenue and Sunshine Street. It's there that authorities say witnesses helped box in McKeown's car before police arrived on scene.

Court records indicate McKeown pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Her case was referred to the public defender's office. An attorney is not yet listed for the case.

McKeown is being held in the Greene County Jail without bond.

In Missouri, first-degree murder is punishable by either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

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