Kylr Yust Found Guilty In Deaths of Kopetsky and Runions

Above, Kara Kopetsky, missing since 2007.

The jury verdicts against Kylr Yust has been handed down and Yust has been found guilty in the murders of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions.

According to Fox4KC:

HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — A jury has found Kylr Yust guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Kara Kopetsky and second-degree murder in the death of Jessica Runions on Thursday.

After deliberating for hours and asking to review several pieces of evidence, the jury came back with the decision Thursday evening.

Seventeen-year-old Kopetsky disappeared after leaving Belton High School in 2007. Yust was suspected but not initially charged.

Then 21-year-old Runions disappeared in 2016, last seen leaving a house party. Runions’ car was found burned the next day. Yust was arrested and charged with burning the car, but that charge was dropped when murder charges were filed.

After years of searching for Kopetsky and months of searching for Runions, the women’s remains were discovered in spring 2017 in rural Cass County.

Above, Jessica Runions. 

Voluntary manslaughter and second degree murder?! This, to me, is almost tantamount to a slap on the wrist. Yust can be paroled in a few years to victimize the community again. 

To read more, go here.

 

UPDATE (04/17/21):

The jury recommended a life sentence for Yust.  

Remains Positively Identified As Kara Kopetsky's

Above, Kara Kopetsky.

A ten-year mystery I've followed from the beginning has finally been solved.

The Kansas City Star reported:

Ten years after Kara Kopetsky walked out of Belton High School and was never heard from again, her remains have been identified. 

DNA tests have confirmed that the second set of human bones found in early April in Cass County belonged to Kopetsky, the high school junior whose 2007 disappearance captured — and has kept — the community’s attention. 

Police officials from Belton and Cass County went to the home of Kopetsky's family Wednesday afternoon to tell them what the parents have said they already knew in their hearts.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article167627987.html#storylink=cpy

Remains Found: May Be Kara Kopetsky

Above, Jessica Runions (left) and Kara Kopetsky.

Nearly ten years ago, I began to follow the kidnapping and murder case of Kelsey Smith in Kansas after seeing reports about her kidnapping on Greta Van Susteren on Fox News.

At about the same time, another high school girl, Kara Kopetsky, went missing. Her case turned out to be unrelated to Kelsey Smith's case. Smith's killer is now sitting in prison. Since then, I have been following the Kopetsky case. Now there may be a big break in the case.

On Monday, two skulls had been found near a quarry. One, it turns out, is from another missing girl, Jessica Runions. Both women had been involved with the same man, although nine years apart.

Fox 4 in Kansas City reported yesterday:

CASS COUNTY, Mo. —  Two mothers, each facing the fear and grief of a daughter gone missing, now await answers from the FBI and Cass County investigators after two human skulls were found near each other in a wooded area near E. 233rd and State Route Y, south of Belton. 

The first human skull was found Monday evening by a mushroom hunter. As investigators brought in their teams and tools and searched a five-acre area, they found another human skull on Tuesday. After that, they contacted the families of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions, two young women missing from the Kansas City area. Kara has been missing since 2007; Jessica since Sept. 2016. Kara was 17-years-old at the time of her disappearance; Jessica was 21 when she disappeared.

Although Jessica and Kara likely never knew each other, and although Jessica is about five years younger than Kara, there is something else they have in common; a man named Kylr Yust, 28. Jessica was acquainted with Yust, who was Kara's former boyfriend. Yust was questioned about their disappearances and while never charged in the disappearance of Kara Kopetsky, he was charged with 'knowingly burning' Jessica Runions' car, which was found set on fire near Bannister and Blue River Road. He pleaded not guilty and is currently in custody at the Jackson County Detention Center. His case has been sealed but his trial for the Class D 'knowingly burning' felony is scheduled for October 16, 2017.

Just a few hours ago, Fox 4 reported that one of the sets of remains found was identified as Jessica Runions.

CASS COUNTY, Mo. -- Investigators say that one of two sets of human remains found in Cass County are missing woman Jessica Runions, who hasn't been seen since September. The Jackson County Medical Examiner made the identification, and her family has been notified. 

Police were previously investigating her case as a disappearance, and it's now been classified as a homicide. 

Two human skulls were found near each other in a wooded area around E. 233rd and State Route Y, south of Belton, earlier this week. The second set of remains hasn't been identified, though investigators think they may be Kara Kopetsky's, who has been missing since May of 2007.

Considering the similarities of the two cases and their ties to Kylr Yust, I would be very surprised if the second set of remains aren't Kara Kopetsky's. If enough teeth and other bones are found and how intact they are, positive identification could come relatively soon or up to a year.

Suspect May Have Connection To Kopetsky Disappearance

Above, Kara Kopetsky has been missing since 2007.

The arrest of a man in connection with a missing Kansas City area woman may possibly shed new light on the nine-year disappearance of Kara Kopetsky.

The Kopetsky case came to my attention at the time of the kidnapping and murder of Kelsey Smith. Kopetsky disappeared just a few weeks prior to the Kelsey Smith kidnapping.

According to The News & Observer:

Investigators looking into the Missouri disappearances of a woman and a teenager nine years apart have taken bullets and other items from the home of a man considered a person of interest in at least one of the cases, court records show. 

Kylr Yust was returned to Kansas City on Wednesday to face a charge that he knowingly burned 21-year-old Jessica Runions' vehicle. The woman from the Kansas City suburb of Raymore was last seen leaving a party Thursday night. 

Yust, who turned 28 on Wednesday, had been jailed in Benton County, southeast of Kansas City, since his arrest Sunday.

It will be interesting see if evidence is found connecting Yust with the Kopetsky disappearance. Could this be the break the police have been looking for?

Read more here.

Police Searching For Kara Kopetsky?

Sheriff deputies are draining and searching ponds in Johnson County, Kansas "for a body," possibly that of Kara Kopetsky, a high school girl who has been missing since May 2007.

KCUR-FM in Kansas is reporting:

Twenty Johnson county Sheriff's Deputies were able to get within inches of the bottom of a pair of ponds south of Leawood today. They've been searching for human remains.

A tipster last week gave a credible enough account to send deputies to a remote area near 164th and Mission Road.

The site where these ponds are located was the former site of the Kuhlman Die Casting company.

A surveillance video at the high school Kopetsky was attending shows her walking out of school in Belton, Missouri, but she has not been heard from since. Weeks later, high school graduate Kelsey Smith of nearby Overland Park was abducted from a Target store near her home. She was found days later and her killer is now serving a life sentence. Many have speculated that the Kopetsky and Smith cases are related.

So far, no body has been found during this week's search.

No Clues Found In New Kopetsky Search

A search today of a wooded area near Kansas City failed to turn up any clues to the disappearance of Kara Kopetsky.

The Kansas City Star reported:

More than 220 officers with law enforcement agencies started an exhaustive examination of a 400-acre area just east of the former Richards-Gebaur airport, near East 155th Street and U.S. 71., about 9 a.m. today. It was over about 1 p.m.

The area has been searched before, “but never a shoulder-to-shoulder grid search,” said FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton.

Kopetsky was last seen at Belton High School on May 4, 2007 by the school's security cameras as she was heading for an exit. A month later, Kelsey Smith of Overland Park, Kansas was abducted from a Target store and found murdered days later near Grandview, Missouri. Her killer is now serving a life sentence.

It is unclear what sparked authorities' interest in the area that led to the search today.

To read the full Star article, go here.

Damn It! Not Again! The Abduction and Murder of Lily Burk

Burk family photo.

The scenario is all too familiar: A girl in her late teens goes missing. A worried family tries calling her by cell phone. The police are called. A search begins. A body is found. A family is left grieving.

Ever since the abduction and murder of Kelsey Smith of Overland Park, Kansas in June 2007, my concern over the safety of young women had heightened. Time and again, we see repeatedly news stories of the abduction of girls and women over the media.

This concerns me as a father of a 22-year-old daughter who is in her senior year in college. That is why the cases involving Amber Dubois, Kara Kopetsky and others have caught my attention along with the case of Kelsey Smith.

Now we have another abduction and murder of a young girl, age 17. Her name is Lily Burk. Sadder yet, she was an only child.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Police said Burk left her Los Feliz home at about 2 p.m. Friday and later made at least two calls to her parents asking how to get cash from an ATM machine using her credit card. Investigators said that it appears she died from blunt force trauma. Her death is being investigated as a homicide.

As in the Kelsey Smith case, a cell phone is a major player in the investigation. Her parents frantically tried calling her. The pings picked up indicated that her movements were moving in an eastward direction. Los Feliz is near Hollywood and her vehicle with her body was found just east of downtown Los Angeles at the intersection of Alameda Ave. and 5th Street. She was found yesterday.

The intersection Burk was found is in an area I patrol frequently as a field supervisor for Securitas USA.

Again, the victim was one with career aspirations:

“Lily was looking forward to going to college, to being a writer, to what was ahead,” her parents said in the statement. “She had a really bright future and it was cut short. If there is anything that people can take away from this horrible tragedy, it’s that life is fragile and that they should live every minute of it fully.”

From the Los Angeles Times:

"She was my best friend," Deborah Drooz, 54, said of her only child. "She was warm and funny and incredibly gifted verbally. We read books together. We loved each other very much. She was looking forward to her life."

Sgt. Miguel Arana of the Los Angeles Police Department said there were signs of a struggle inside the car. Lily appeared to have head injuries from striking the passenger side of the front windshield, but the car did not show signs of having been in a crash, he said.

Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz said that the cause of death appeared to be blunt force trauma and that there was "strong evidence" that Lily was killed by 5 p.m. Friday. He declined to disclose more details.

Drooz and her husband, Gregory Burk, 59, said their daughter left home about 2:30 p.m. Friday to pick up exams for her mother, an attorney and an adjunct professor at Southwestern University School of Law on Wilshire Boulevard, near downtown.

Lily picked up the papers and, more than an hour later, made separate calls to each of her parents, asking them how to get cash using her credit card at an ATM, police said.

Lily seemed in a rush, her father said, but not frightened. She said she needed money to buy shoes. Her parents said they told her to come home.

When she had not returned by 5 p.m., her parents became worried.

The latest news reports are that police are closing in on a suspect in Burk's murder. I suspect that she was being forced to withdraw money from her credit card but didn't know how to do so and went to several of them. Her abductor may be seen with her in videos taken from ATM cameras. (Again, this is just me speculating, nothing official.)

Hopefully, the police will capture the killer of Lily Burk and get him off the streets. But there are others out there.

The Kelsey Smith Foundation (or Kelsey's Army) has tips for young women and girls on how to be aware of their surroundings. Although they are permanently posted on this blog, I am going to post them here as it bears repeating:

1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.

2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.

3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.

4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed,

5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.

Remember the acronym TIPS:

Take Charge

Inform others of your whereabouts

Prepare for any situation

Survival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen).

For more information on personal safety, contact Kelsey's Army.

UPDATE (7/27/09): The Los Angeles Police Department had made an arrest in the murder of Lily Burk.

According to MyFoxLA:

The Los Angeles Police Department announced today it had made an arrest in the death of 17-year-old Lily Burk, whose body was found in her car near Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles over the weekend.

Charlie Samuel, 50, of Los Angeles was booked for murder and being held without bail, the LAPD reported. He was arrested Sunday night, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Web site.

The teen "is believed to have been the victim of a botched robbery," according to the LAPD statement.

The LAPD has scheduled a press conference on the case for 11:00 this morning. Let's hope they have solid evidence to put this animal away for good or the death penalty. Kudos to the LAPD for the swift arrest!

Kara Kopetsky Still Missing

Tomorrow marks two years since Kara Kopetsky, age 17, became a missing person. She was last seen on May 4, 2007 at her high school in Belton, Missouri. Neither her cell phone or her bank account have been touched since that day.



I first heard of the Kara Kopetsky case when Kelsey Smith of nearby Overland Park, Kansas was abducted from a Target store and found murdered. The massive search effort for Kelsey Smith was hoped to also help locate Kara Kopetsky, but it didn't. Two years later, Kopetsky is still missing without a trace. Police in Belton and Overland Park compared notes but could find no connection between Kopetsky's disappearance and Kelsey Smith's abduction and murder.

As no body has been found, this gives her family a ray of hope that she may still be alive but in hiding somewhere. Recently, it was revealed at CNN that Kopetsky had an argument with a teacher that morning. This may also give some hope that this argument led to Kopetsky's disappearance.

Above, this image from Kara's high school security camera was taken the day she disappeared.



According to CNN:

According to police in Belton, the case is being actively investigated. But with no certain evidence of foul play, police continue to characterize Kara's disappearance as an endangered and missing adult case.

The state of Missouri considers Kara Kopetsky to be an adult because she was 17 when she disappeared.

Belton Police Capt. Don Spears said police are looking at several persons of interest, but haven't narrowed their investigation to focus on a single suspect.

Kara was was featured on Nancy Grace’s Cold Case on April 28 in hopes that someone who knows something will come forward.

A website has been set up to help locate Kara Kopetsky:

findkarakopetsky.com