LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A man who escaped from jail has been apprehended in eastern Kansas and returned to custody.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports 39-year-old George Burgess Jr. escaped the Leavenworth County Jail through a side door in July while on a work detail. Maj. Jim Sherley says Burgess was in jail on a misdemeanor count of battery.
A Lawrence Police Department statement says officers responded to a call reporting a wanted person at large Sunday. Police say Burgess was located riding a bicycle and attempted to flee by bike and then on foot after seeing the approaching officers. Police apprehended Burgess without further incident and returned him to the jail.
Sherley tells The Associated Press that Burgess appeared in district court Monday and would have been charged with escape from custody.
TESCOTT, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says it is investigating the death of a rural Kansas man as a homicide.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office says the body of 34-year-old Matthew Schoshke was found Saturday in a rural home near Tescott.
KBI spokeswoman Melissa Underwood says the agency is looking for Schoshke’s silver 2006 Ford F-150 extended cab pickup, with Kansas tag 892 DZO. The front license plate reads “EATBEEF” and the truck has a chrome push guard on the front and a black plastic tool box in the back.
Authorities have not released any information on the circumstances of Schoshke’s death.
TOPEKA -Paul Davis officially announced his campaign for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District of Kansas Tuesday. The 2nd district seat will be vacated by Republican U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins in 2018.
After visiting all 25 counties in the district, Davis, a Lawrence attorney concluded a four-month listening tour in Topeka Tuesday to formally announce his candidacy.
Additional stops are planned Tuesday in Pittsburg, Leavenworth, and Lawrence, according to a media release.
Paul Davis announces his candidacy for Kansas’ Second Congressional District! pic.twitter.com/CYGnS3Kvcs
Fatal fire Tuesday in Overland Park-photo courtesy Overland Park Fire Dept.
JOHNSON COUNTY – Officials are working to determine the cause of a fatal fire in Johnson County.
Crews responded just before 3a.m. Tuesday to the fire at an apartment complex in the 8800 Block of Broadmoor Court in Overland Park, according to a social media report.
Two children died in the fire. Two others escaped. The children’s mother was transported for treatment and two men were hurt when they jumped out of a second-story window
Heat exhaustion also sent one firefighter to the hospital and another was treated at the scene.
The unit where the children were found dead didn’t have a working smoke detector. The children’s names weren’t immediately released.
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for a series of car burglaries.
On Sunday night, police made a traffic stop on a vehicle in the 400 Block of SW 33rd Street in Topeka, according to Lt. Jennifer Cross.
They arrested Olin D. Ashton II, 29, Topeka, for burglary, theft, criminal damage and an outstanding warrant. They also recovered property related to five identified victims.
A subject with Ashton fled the scene. He has been identified and continues to elude authorities.
Law enforcement authorities on the scene of Sunday’s shooting-photo courtesy WIBW TV
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say they believe a man fatally shot a woman outside a Kansas home before killing their 3-year-old daughter and himself near wetlands roughly 10 miles away.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday the body of the woman, from Missouri, was discovered first about 1:30 p.m. Sunday on the driveway of a residence she had no connection to southwest of Lawrence.
Law enforcers later found the girl and her 41-year-old father dead near the woman’s vehicle at the Baker Wetlands.
Authorities said without elaborating that the man and woman had previously been in a relationship.
Investigators haven’t determined how the man and the girl died, saying autopsies were pending.
Identities of the girl or her parents were not immediately released.
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DOUGLAS COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating the death of three people including a 3-year-old girl.
Just after 1:30p.m. Sunday, deputies responded to report of a shooting in the driveway of a home in the 1000 Block of E900 Road southwest of Lawrence, according to a media release.
Upon arrival, deputies found a 36-year-old woman with several gunshot wounds. She died at the scene. She was not affiliated with the residence, according to the sheriff’s department.
Authorities later found the woman’s vehicle in the parking area at Baker Wetlands south of 31st and Haskell Avenue. A 41-year-old man and 3-year-old girl were found dead in the wetlands not far from the vehicle. Authorities have not determined how they died.
Authorities believe the man shot the woman and the child is their daughter and no other individuals were involved. Names of the victims were not released.
EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) — A man imprisoned for killing three suburban Kansas City women nearly three decades ago has lost his disciplinary appeal.
The Kansas City Star reports that Kansas Department of Corrections officials disciplined Richard Grissom Jr. for passing a sexually explicit note to a female corrections officer. Grissom is imprisoned at the El Dorado Correctional Facility for killing three young women who disappeared in June 1989.The bodies of Joan Butler, Christine Rusch and Theresa Brown have never been found.
The now 56-year-old admitted to writing the note. But he said the officer had asked him to write it — something she denied.
Grissom was sentenced to serve 30 days in segregation and fined $20. On Friday, a three-judge panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals denied Grissom’s appeal of the disciplinary action.
Fire at the motel during Saturday’s gun battle -photo courtesy WIBW -TV
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas, man has been sentenced to prison for lying to investigators after a 2016 standoff involving a fugitive who shot three federal agents before his body was found in a motel room.
A federal judge in Topeka sentenced 37-year-old Quentin Kirk Lawton on Monday to three and a half years in prison. Lawton pleaded guilty in May to one count of making a false statement.
Authorities say Lawton visited Orlando Collins in a motel room in April 2016 and left shortly before a standoff there between Collins and federal agents. Collins shot and wounded two U.S. marshals and an FBI agent before a fire swept through Collins’ room and the motel. Collins’ body was later found in the room.
Lawton told investigators he hadn’t seen Collins that day.
WICHITA -A Kansas man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in federal prison for producing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.
In his plea, Michael Rodenbeek, 54, Salina, admitted using an iPhone camera to record videos of a 10-year-old victim and a 9-year-old victim. The recordings were made without the victims’ knowledge.
The investigation began in August of last year.
He has three previous drug convictions in Saline County.
Beall commended the Wichita Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart for their work on the case.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts is defending the Senate filibuster rule amid some unusual backlash from his Republican House colleagues and constituents at a conference of independent oil and gas producers.
But Roberts concedes Republicans may have to do away with it in order to pass their agenda.
The sometimes testy exchanges Monday came at the convention of the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association.
Rep. Lynn Jenkins won scattered applause when she called for getting rid of the filibuster, saying Congress is “crippled” right now.
