KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors in Kansas’ Wyandotte County have dropped a murder charge against a woman who had been accused of killing a teenager nearly 30 years ago.

The Kansas City Star reports that prosecutors announced the dismissal of the case involving 48-year-old Carolyn Heckert of Smithville, Missouri, in a statement but didn’t elaborate.

Heckert had been jailed since her arrest last October in connection with the 1989 stabbing death of 18-year-old Sarah DeLeon. DeLeon’s body was found along railroad tracks near Interstate 435 in Kansas City, Kansas.

New DNA collection and testing technology prompted police to reopen the case in July 2014.

A Heckert attorney, John P. O’Connor, said Friday that Heckert was elated that the murder charge has been dropped.

GEARY COUNTY- Officials are working to determine the cause of a major fire at an apartment complex early Saturday.

Just after 1a.m., firefighters and law enforcement from multiple agencies responded to the blaze at 1810 Carolina Avenue in Junction City.

Junction City Fire Chief Terry Johnson confirmed Building B, containing 26 apartment units, is a loss.

“Our first arriving units came in. We had heavy fire on the south side of the building and fire was through the roof, we started operations.  We went through several evolutions of operations at this point. The building is a loss at this time, unfortunately,” according to Johnson.

By five a.m. the fire had been mostly contained, but there were still a lot of hot spots in the building, and ladder fire trucks were being utilized to provide firefighters a better view of the top of the structure.

Johnson confirmed all residents of the apartment building got out safely. He estimated approximately 40 to 50 residents were displaced. “Red Cross is on scene. They’re helping out with providing food for the firefighters and support needs for the residents.” Johnson expressed gratitude for all the communities that came in to provide assistance in dealing with the fire.

Geary County Emergency Management Director Garry Berges said they will help coordinate with the agencies. “We helped provide communication between the surrounding county agencies that came in…the Manhattan Fire, Fort Riley Fire, we made sure everybody could talk so everybody knew what was going on. We’ll be here to support. We made sure the Red Cross was available to help, not only the firefighters, but also the displaced residents.”

This is the second time there has been a major fire at the Bluffs Apartment Complex. In April of 2016 an apartment building at that complex was destroyed by fire.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is taking steps to give parents of critically ill or disabled children more control over medical decisions about whether those children receive care to prolong their lives.

Supporters of a bill signed into law Friday by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback hope it becomes a model for other states. The new law takes effect July 1.

The law will prevent hospitals and physicians from instituting do-not-resuscitate orders or similar directives if one of the child’s parents objects. A parent will be able to go to court to prevent a violation of the law.

Health care providers also will be required if parents ask to disclose their policies on when treatment is considered futile.

The law was prompted by cases in multiple states, including Missouri and North Carolina.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A bald eagle is receiving care at a local raptor center after being discovered injured at Lake Afton.

The Wichita Eagle reports that 911 dispatchers called a team of Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputies and Ken Lockwood of the Eagle Valley Raptor Center to rescue the bird Thursday. County firefighters also arrived at the scene to help.

The roughly 3-year-old eagle was found emaciated and unable to fly.

Lockwood took the eagle to the raptor center in Cheney, where it will be fed and receive veterinary care to determine whether it is ill or suffering from internal injuries.

The bird’s rehabilitation is expected to take about two months. Lockwood says the eagle will then likely be released in the same area at Lake Afton where it was found.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Grocery and convenience stores could start stocking full-strength beer in two years under a bill passed this week by the Legislature.

The Senate passed the bill 27-11 on Friday. The House passed it 80-45 on Thursday.

Under the bill, grocery and convenience stores could sell beer with up to 6 percent alcohol by volume, while liquor stores could sell more non-alcoholic products, like mixers, shot glasses, lottery tickets and tobacco products.

Some lawmakers were concerned that large grocery chains stocking full-strength beer could put small liquor stores out of business.

The bill is a compromise between the two industries and their associations after a years-long effort to get wine, liquor and full-strength beer into grocery and convenience stores.

The bill still needs Gov. Sam Brownback’s signature.

BELTON, Mo. (AP) — Authorities have collected “several pieces of evidence” while searching an area of rural western Missouri where two sets of human bones were found.

The Kansas City Star reports that Cass County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Kevin Tieman offered no specifics Thursday on evidence recovered. He said only that authorities hope it will help with the identification of one of the sets of remains found Monday.

The other set of bones already has been identified as those of Jessica Runions.

 

All official updates on what is now homicide investigation of Jessica Runions are posted here: https://t.co/B61jZ0I5Sp pic.twitter.com/NkSWslxN7H

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) April 6, 2017

The Raymore, Missouri, woman was last seen in September leaving a south Kansas City gathering with Kylr Yust, who later was charged with burning her vehicle. A judge has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Yust also has been questioned in the 2007 disappearance of Kara Kopetsky.

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Kansas City police say a body found by a family searching for a missing Missouri woman was that of a 19-year-old Kansas man.

Police announced Friday the body was that of Dante Jamal Jefferson of Merriam. The Kansas City Star reports that the cause of death is being investigated but the case is considered a homicide.

Jefferson’s relatives told police in January they hadn’t seen him since Dec. 5.

Friends and relatives of Jessica Runions found the body in south Kansas City in late January.

Runions, of Raymore, was last seen Sept. 8 in south Kansas City.

Searchers found two sets of remains near Belton this week. One of the bodies was identified as Runions’. The second set of remains has not been identified.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas appeals court panel has ruled that the state does not have to make public applications for two county commission openings filled by Gov. Sam Brownback.

The Court of Appeals sided Friday with the state in the lawsuit brought by a Salina newspaper and The Associated Press seeking the disclosure of information on more than two dozen applicants for newly created Saline County Commission seats.

A three-judge panel agreed with the governor’s office that those are personnel records exempt from the state’s open records law.

The AP and the newspaper argued that the applicant’s names and other details are public information.

Shawnee County District Judge’s Rebecca Crotty ruled in December 2015 in favor of AP and the newspaper, prompting the state to appeal.

The appellate decision overturns Crotty’s ruling.

By JIM MCLEAN and STEPHEN KORANDA

After sitting on the sidelines since his veto of a tax bill in February, Gov. Sam Brownback this week re-engaged with lawmakers working on a solution to the state’s budget crisis.

He needn’t have bothered.

The Senate on Thursday rejected the “flat” tax bill that he was lobbying for by a decisive 37-3 vote.

“This is bad tax policy,” said Sen. Tom Holland of Baldwin City, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee.

“We need to send a message, stick a stake through the heart of flat tax theory today, because it’s not going to work for Kansas,” Holland said.

Lawmakers are attempting to address a revenue shortfall that could total $1 billion over the next two budget years.

While little progress is being made on revenue-raising measures aimed at closing the projected gaps in the fiscal 2018 and 2019 budgets, lawmakers appeared close Thursday to agreeing on a plan to close a $293 million hole in the current year’s budget, mainly by borrowing from a state investment fund.

Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans voted against the proposed flat tax, which would have replaced the state’s current two-tiered income tax system with a single rate of 4.6 percent. They said it was unfair to low- and moderate-income taxpayers and wouldn’t generate sufficient revenue.

“At the most basic level, shifting to a flat tax would take the failures of the current system and compound them,” said Heidi Holliday, executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Low- and middle-income wage earners in Kansas currently pay 2.7 percent on all or most of their income. Under the flat tax proposal, their rate would have increased by 70 percent while upper-income Kansans would have seen no change.

A coalition of groups including KCEG is pushing for passage of a tax reform measure that would restore a third income tax bracket, increase the state motor fuel tax, repeal a tax exemption given to more than 330,000 business owners in 2012 and reduce the amount of sales tax charged on food purchases.

Several conservative Republicans in the Senate who supported Brownback’s 2012 income tax cuts also voted against the flat tax proposal, which would have eliminated the business tax exemption.

“I’m not going to support a tax increase until we at least look at the expenditures. I think there are places where we can cut,” said Sen. Rob Olson, a Republican from Olathe.

Lawmakers plan to adjourn the regular part of the 2017 session Friday despite not having a plan to deal with the projected deficits.

They will return May 1 to finish their work on the budget and wrap up the session.

Between now and then, officials charged with revising the state’s official revenue estimates will meet to update their projections.

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of  kcur.org, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 

SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating a carjacking.

Just before 11:30p.m. Thursday, a man flagged down police officers in Topeka to report two men brandished firearms and took his car from him while he was getting gas at Dillons near SE 29th and California Avenue, according to a media release.

The victim described the suspects as black men in their 20s armed with pistols. There were no injuries according, according to police.

A short time later, police found the victim’s car abandoned in the 1300 Block of SW Western. Detectives and K-9 units continue to investigate the crime.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Topeka Police.

WICHITA – Two Kansas men were charged Thursday with shooting and killing a golden eagle, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said in a news release Friday.

Michael Dusin, 22, Phillipsburg, and Elijah J. Kuhlman, 22, Sharon Springs, are charged with violating the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. According to court documents, it is alleged the two defendants were driving around in Wallace County when they saw what they later described as a large, black bird. Dusin told Kuhlman to back up so he could take a shot at the bird. Dusin shot the bird and it fell to the ground.

On Dec. 12, a natural resource officer with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism investigating a report of a dead Eagle found the eagle’s remains in a field and two spent shotgun shells in the road. With the help of the Wallace County Sheriff, investigators identified a Ford F-150 pickup belonging to Kuhlman that had been seen in the area. An autopsy performed at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., confirmed the Eagle’s remains contained 41 metal pellets.

If convicted, the defendants face up to a year in federal prison and a fine up to $100,000. The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, he Wallace County Sheriff and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Treaster is prosecuting.

In all cases, defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The indictments merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.