Missouri healthcare worker who had contact with a hospitalized patient infected with bird flu developed mild respiratory symptoms but was not tested for the virus, U.S. officials said on Friday.

A third close contact of a patient in Missouri who was hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu has reported that they also experienced symptoms, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

A second health worker in contact with the Missouri patient who tested positive for bird flu also developed symptoms but wasn’t tested for influenza, the CDC said Friday.

A Missouri judge denied a motion to vacate a condemned man's death sentence despite attorneys, including one prosecutor, saying evidence was mishandled in the 1998 trial that could have exonerated Marcellus “Khaliifah” William.

Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening for the brutal killing of former Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia “Lisha” Gayle Picus in 1998 in her University City home.