HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A man connected to two Kansas City-area women who disappeared about 10 years apart has been charged with murder in their deaths.
Kylr Yust was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abandoning a corpse in the deaths of 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky of Belton and 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. He is being held on $1 million bond.
Yust had long been a suspect in the two deaths. Runions was seen leaving a gathering with Yust before she disappeared in September 2016.
Runions -courtesy photo
Kopetsky had filed a protection order against Yust in April 2007, a month before she went missing after walking out of Belton High School.
The remains of Kopetsky and Runions were found in April in a rural area near Belton.
HARVEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities offered an explanation on why they stopped a school bus Thursday in Newton.
On Thursday afternoon, police responded to report of a student with a gun on a school bus in Newton, according to a social media report.
Officers “responded rapidly to ensure the safety of children on board” and stopped the bus in the 300 block of East 1st Street.
As they arrived, officers learned the gun was a toy and immediately began “de-escalating the situation.”
The young student who brought the toy onto the bus was given a ride to the nearby district office where the child’s mother could respond to take the child home.
Police reminded that “While this may have been a freighting situation for everyone on board the bus, we take threats to the safety of our community’s children seriously and will respond in a rapid and professional manner.”
Police released no additional details. The school did not release information on the incident.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is allowing more employers to opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women for religious and moral reasons.
The administration has issued a long-expected revision to Obama-era rules. The rules require most companies to provide birth control as preventive care for women, at no additional cost. Under the Affordable Care Act, preventive services are supposed to be free of charge to employees and their dependents.
The Trump administration’s revision issued Friday expands a religious exemption that previously applied to houses of worship, religiously affiliated nonprofit groups, and closely-held private companies.
The share of women employees paying their own money for birth control pills has plunged to under 4 percent, from 21 percent, since contraception became a covered preventive health benefit, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Court records show a slain Kansas psychiatrist was stabbed about 165 times outside his clinic in Wichita last month.
The arrest affidavit for the suspect, 21-year-old Umar Dutt, was released Thursday. He’s charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 13 death of Achutha Reddy at his Holistic Psychiatry Services clinic.
The affidavit says a clinic employee reported hearing Reddy calling for help and then seeing Dutt stabbing the psychiatrist. The employee was able to briefly separate the two.
The affidavit says Reddy also suffered “blunt force trauma” and may have been run over by a vehicle.
Dutt was a patient of Reddy’s. Investigators haven’t released a possible motive.
Dutt is jailed on a $1 million bond. His attorney tells The Wichita Eagle “more evidence will be coming to light.”
Selden is located in Sheridan County in NW Kansas -Google map
SHERIDAN COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on numerous charges after a Thursday night chase and Friday morning arrest.
Just after 10:30p.m. Thursday, an officer with the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office attempted to make a traffic stop on a 1994 Ford Explorer for a stop sign violation in Selden.
After the officer initiated his emergency lights and sirens, the vehicle sped away at a high rate of speed. The chase traveled into southern Decatur County and then back into Sheridan County, according to a social media report.
Once the vehicle made it back into Selden, the suspect drove to residence in Selden where he had living.
The suspect then turned his vehicle into the officer’s patrol vehicle. The officer gave orders for the suspect to get out of the vehicle.
The suspect ignored these orders, backed his vehicle away from the officer and then revved his motor towards the officer.
The officer then fired four (4) rounds at the suspect vehicle. A short pursuit ensued again for a couple of blocks, where the suspect wrecked the vehicle and then fled on foot.
Officers from the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Highway Patrol, Hoxie Police Department,
Thomas County Sheriff’s Office, and Decatur County Sheriff’s Office established a perimeter and searched numerous areas within Selden.
Just after 4a.m. the Sheridan County Communication Center received information that the suspect was at a residence on Main Street in Selden.
After officers with the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office arrived, they established a perimeter, entry was made into the residence. The suspect once again did not comply with orders and an officer deployed his Taser. The suspect was placed under arrest without further incident. Police reported no injuries.
The suspect is being held at the Sheridan County Jail pending formal charges and the investigation is ongoing. Police did not release the name of the suspect.
ATCHISON COUNTY — A motorist driving on four flat tires led police on a two-hour pursuit in parts of Kansas and Missouri before his arrest.
The chase began early Thursday in northeast Kansas’ Atchison County when officers attempted to stop a pickup truck driven by 34-year-old Shane Gage on a warrant with several felony violations.
Police say Gage later drove into neighboring Missouri, through St. Joseph and toward Savannah. St. Joseph police laid a spike strip that blew out all four tires of the suspect’s vehicle.
Police say the pursuit ended in Savannah, Missouri, where the vehicle veered into a ditch. Officers found drugs and three loaded weapons in the vehicle.
Gage was taken to a hospital because officers believe he ingested several grams of methamphetamine prior to the arrest. Police say Gage will be jailed after his hospital evaluation. He has previous convictions for Aggravated Battery and Involuntary Manslaughter, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
WASHINGTON— Former Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole is home from the hospitalized. On September 13, doctors hospitalized the 94-year-old Dole at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, D.C. for low blood pressure
Dole’s wife, former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, tweeted a request for prayers. He then tweeted that he hopes to be home in a few days, “sipping a cosmo.”
Happy to be home. Cheers to all the well wishers, care givers and staff at Walter Reed for taking good care of me. #cosmotimepic.twitter.com/BSpkuP0Hiu
Dole served in Congress for 35 years. He left the Senate in 1996 for his campaign against President Bill Clinton. Congress recently voted to award him a Congressional Gold Medal.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — The man who killed a Kansas City, Kansas, police detective last year was sentenced to more time in prison for crimes he committed in another county the same day.
The Kansas City Star reports 30-year-old Curtis Ayers was sentenced Thursday to 19 years and five months for carjacking and robbery.
Ayers is already serving a life sentence for the shooting death of Detective Brad Lancaster on May 19, 2016, near the Kansas Speedway.
After the shooting, Ayers fled and committed several other crimes, including entering a home in Basehor in Leavenworth County and stealing a man’s car at gunpoint.
He was arrested later that day in Kansas City, Missouri, after a police officer shot Ayers while he was trying another carjacking.
Trump met on Nov. 20. with Kobach at Trump’s New Jersey golf course. photo courtesy Fox
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas official who is vice chairman of President Donald Trump’s commission on election fraud drafted a proposal for Trump to change federal voter registration laws.
A federal court document unsealed Thursday shows the proposal was part of a strategic homeland security plan prepared by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Kobach was photographed taking the document into a meeting with Trump in November when Trump was president-elect. The portion dealing with federal voter registration laws was not fully visible.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson also unsealed a second document prepared by Kobach and shared inside his office. It contained the text of the proposed changes to federal law.
Kobach was forced to turn over the documents as part of a voting-rights lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
TOPEKA — A 17-year-old is expected to be tried in adult court rather than juvenile court in connection to the shooting death of a man at a fast food restaurant.
Police arrested Lamero Dunstan July 4 in connection to the June 26 shooting death of 18-year-old Justice Mitchell. Authorities say Dunstan was trying to buy marijuana from Mitchell.
He currently is charged with felony first-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery in juvenile court.
Shawnee County District Court Judge Joseph Johnson ruled Wednesday that the district attorney’s office has five days to file adult charges.
Johnson says Dustan’s actions show he desires to be treated as an adult. Johnson says he doesn’t believe the juvenile system will be able to help him.
