Sounds more like a five lined skink. Their range extends into MO. You may not have seen it's legs. Here is a link that might be useful: skink pic

A baby Timber rattler would have a small rattle, or at least a button, on the tip of it's tail. Rattlers also have wider spacing on the blotches and a light head with a dark streak. http://kylehorner.blogspot.com/2010/10/pit-vipers.html has a good young one. I'm not familiar with the non-venomous snakes of that area, but it might be a juvenile ratsnake. Here is a link that might be useful: Snakes of VA

There are NOT baby "water moccasins" (Cottonmouths). Your friend clearly doesn't know much about snake identification. This is a hatchling of either the Southern Black Racer (Coluber constrictor) or possibly the Eastern Coachwhip (Coluber flagellum) (the babies are difficult to distinguish from just the head. These snakes are harmless lizard eaters. The Southern Black Racer is one of the most common snake in Florida and that is the way I would lean on this one based on this photo. This post was edited by FHFchrish on Mon, Sep 16, 13 at 8:25

Last fall we found a fully grown rat snake in our chicken house (pic 1) You can see how big it is in the second pic after I grabbed it to evict it. It had come in through a couple of holes in the chicken yard fence that have since been closed. I didn't want it in there because I was afraid it might kill one of the hens if they got curious with it. Being constrictors it could easily do it even though my hens are too large to swallow. it now uses a large hole in one my live oaks for home and gives fits to the wild birds if they spy it going up or down that tree!.