RICHMOND, Mo. -- Ray County prosecutors were tight-lipped on Friday, but they apparently have enough evidence to get a grand jury to indict a man in a 23-year-old murder case.

Ronald Wrisinger, 67, appeared in Ray County Circuit Court on Friday where he entered a plea of not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

Wrisinger has been charged with the 1986 killings of his wife Sherry Wrisinger, 40, and their 16-year-old daughter, Johnna. The Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested Wrisinger, 67, on Wednesday at his home in Marble Hills, Ark.

Sherry and Johnna Wrisinger were last seen about midnight June 6, 1986, but were not reported missing until months later. A Dec. 17, 1986 newspaper detailed the mysterious disappearance of the two women. Investigators said the two women were reported missing by Wrisinger's brother but the case has remained a mystery all these years.

"It's a relief knowing someone's been working on this case the last 23 years," said Stephanie Bryant, who knew the victims.

Bryant, who went to the same high school as Johnna, remembered when she disappeared. Bryant now lives in the house next door to Johnna's old house off of Ottman Street in Richmond. She has always doubted Wrisinger's story that his wife ran off with a veterinarian and took Johnna with her.

"Every time you seen her, she was smiling," Bryant said. "(She) wasn't troubled by any means. (She was the) last person you'd expect to run off."

Ray County Prosecutor James Thompson would not talk about the evidence that led to the arrest. The bodies were never found.

"We spent the last four to five months taking a real hard look at the case," Thompson said.

Wrisinger is being held on $500,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 3. On Friday, investigators spent the day searching through Wrisinger's old house in Richmond.