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[Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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a friend [Music] foreign this week we are very happy to be featuring Golden Monkey Belgian style
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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
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no oh [Music] this week on True Crime garage we find ourselves once again looking at
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another horrific and tragic case this one is unique but again aren't they all this week's True Crime Story starts off
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over 14 years ago and spans all of the way into this year 2021. there are three missing persons in this
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story and after each disappearance several suspects emerge some would get the answers they seek but
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feared relatively quickly While others would have to wait suffering for years The Emptiness and
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terrible pain of not knowing exactly what happened to their loved one then years later
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when the answers do come they turn out to be what they had feared all along it all started back on Friday May 4th
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2007. when a 17 year old girl decided to skip a few classes and play a little hooky
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sometimes unfortunately we find that the things we are running and hiding from are actually protecting us
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from what we truly should be running and hiding from many times I have found that the feeling
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we get deep down in our gut that feeling that tells us something here just is not right
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well those feelings are often correct and those are feelings and suspicions that I hope and pray that everyone
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receives those warnings loud and clear because those warnings don't come from your gut
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they come from your soul call it the truest form of instinctual self-preservation
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that tiny little voice just might save you so please remember that sometimes things are truly what
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they seem to be and often evil has a difficult time disguising itself this is true crime garage
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[Music] Friday May 4th 2007 we have 17 year old Cara kopetsky had the entire weekend
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ahead of her and it seems maybe she could not wait to get this Friday over with and move on to better things and
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while she arrived at school Safe and Sound on that Friday she decided to cut out for a while
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Cara is a student at Belton High School appropriately located in Belton Missouri
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friends would later say the car cut out early on that day not just before the day was over but early as in 9 A.M ish
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later that day at 5 17 p.m Cara's friend Amy Clark went to the Belton Police Department she was worried about her
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friend she wanted to file a missing person's report she felt that something bad had happened
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to Carr because she and none of her other friends could reach her so the police contacted Cara's mom and
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stepfather this is Rhonda and Jim Beckford Rhonda said she had seen her daughter that morning but not since and
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they too could not get a hold of Kara via Cara's cell phone and so an official missing person's report was filed that
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night on May 4th around that same time police contacted Carr's boyfriend he said he too was concerned and he had
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last seen her the day before on May 3rd car didn't turn up the next day or the next let's take a quick look at the
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spring of 2007 and see what is going on in Cara kapetsky's World leading up to this mysterious disappearance
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at this point she's been going out with the same guy for about nine to ten months this is 18 year old Kyler yust
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Cara's mother and stepdad were not too excited about Kyler but it also sounds like Cara was not too
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excited about her mom and stepdad she was at an age where for Cara she felt she was old enough to do as she pleased
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and she exercised those feelings whenever she felt like it hence the cutting out of school on May 4th that
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normally backfires when the parents come forward and say hey we know you're dating this Kyler guy but we don't like
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him that normally draws the girl more into wanting to date the boyfriend on April 24
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2007 we have something of potential interest here this is a post from Cara on her Myspace that says quote so life
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hasn't been the greatest for me lately over the last nine months of my life I've dedicated my life to Kyler I made
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no other time for any of my friends nor my family over those nine months I forgot the
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person that I was I'm trying to find that person again end quote then just four days later after that post
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this is on April 28 2007 Carr went to the Belton Police Department and reported that her ex-boyfriend whom she
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had just broken up with had kidnapped her she's referring to Kyler she told them
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she was leaving Popeye's Fried Chicken where she worked this after finishing her shift when her ex Kyler used
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appeared and demanded that she go with him when she refused he grabbed her and forced her into his vehicle and then
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drove around for several hours Kyler finally letting her out of his truck in Grandview Missouri what a douche I don't
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know if this is one of those situations Captain where they're breaking up and Kyler convinced himself if I could just
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get some time with her maybe I could talk some sense into her gets her into his vehicle forcefully
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and then drives her around pretty much against her will for hours I'm guessing we don't know what the conversation was
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but I'm guessing it was him trying to convince her to not break up with him some of these controlling boyfriends
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will they they do the I'm sorry game and when that doesn't work they get angry when that doesn't work and then they act
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like they're depressed and if that doesn't work it's almost like they'll keep trying every angle just to get just
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to win the person back well this bizarre act scared Cara enough to go to the police and she wanted a restraining
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order against him her report alleged that Kyler kidnapped and restrained her and that he choked her and threatened to
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cut her throat while holding a knife her petition alleged that Kyler was stalking her and subjecting her to
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emotional and physical abuse the protection order was granted on April 30th and served to Kyler by the Cass
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County authorities on May 1st a hearing on the matter was scheduled for May 10th
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Cara's mother Rhonda later said that Kara and Kyler's relationship was quote volatile and that he was manipulative
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and abusive on the 4th of May May the fourth be with you this is the day in question
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Carr walked to school that morning and she called her mom nearly as soon as she got there telling her that she
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forgot a textbook at home her mother then drives and drops off the textbook to the school office and Cara retrieves
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it there but then she abruptly leaves the school at 9 19 a.m and we have that exact time
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because surveillance footage from inside the school shows car walking down the hallway at the school and then her
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leaving the building right her house is just a few blocks away but she does not walk home her family
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reported her missing that evening after she never came home and like you said she has a restraining order against her
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ex-boyfriend but what law enforcement come to find out is that she's been texting with her ex-boyfriend all day
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yeah and I think the first major red flag for the family was when she failed to show up to her evening
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shift she was scheduled to work at 4 pm at Popeyes that day and from my understanding Carr didn't
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always come home when she was told to but it was not like her at all to miss work
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and shortly after leaving school that day no one heard from her again so she also failed to pick up her paycheck
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at Popeyes on May 9th so this is just a really weird situation where I don't think that her walking out of the school
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at 9 19 a.m that morning was something that was a major red flag I think as you're pointing out here
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Captain it's all of those things afterward that are the Red Flags here well as a high school student I mean we
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both were high school students I'd say a large percentage of high school students skip at some point
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whether it's a couple classes I mean look she went into class she did a couple things and then said hey
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today's the day I'm not going I'm not going to be in class the whole day Cara's family was concerned and this is
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what's interesting to me they're not just concerned about the whereabouts of their daughter their stepdaughter
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their concern is extremely specific they say we were concerned immediately that Kyler had done something to her
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well yeah because just a few days ago he basically held her against her will and they had to press charges against
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him so that's where they say their suspicions were from the very beginning but police thought that since she you
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know she's 17 years old and there was previous occasions when she chose not to come home and stayed away briefly that
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this likely was a similar situation and that she would turn up when she was ready to
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the other thing here too Captain that's a little bit weird about this story you know we said they're all unique and they
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are but it's all these happenstance things that are odd in a lot of these cases this same day that we have in
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question about her whereabouts law enforcement was stretched very thin because later that day a devastating
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tornado hit nearby Greensburg that same night in fact the U.S tornadoes.com has a
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fantastic piece about these terrifying tornadoes that hit and the title best describes the devastation the online
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article is titled May 4th 2007 the night that made maps of Greensburg Kansas have
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to be redrawn so there was a lot of Devastation as far as this tornado goes it was not in the immediate area but it
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was close enough that we have First Responders really helping and trying to sort things
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out due to the tornado but Carr's parents emphasized that their daughter was not
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the kind to run away so on the sixth Belton PD detectives sat down to talk to Kyler the families actively telling
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Belton PD this you have to talk to her boyfriend this is a guy that we don't like and we
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suspect all these different things about this man so they sit down and they speak with him
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he said he knew about the restraining order that Carr obtained against him Kyler said that he had last seen Cara on
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the third but he did say he got a call from her phone on the fourth now he tells investigators the car called him
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around 11 A.M that he missed the call and tried to call her back but she didn't answer
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that he said was the last contact he would have had with Carr but that was not exactly true police got a warrant
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for Carr's phone and text records and they were examined by the FBI the records showed the Carr was trying
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to skip school on the morning of May 4th and was texting some friends for a ride
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Carr called Kyler at 9 14 a.m from school she's still in school at this time the call lasted 61 seconds
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she left the building the school building at 9 19 that morning and her phone received a call back from Kyler's
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phone at 9 20 am this call lasted a minute her phone sent a text at 9 46 a.m and
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she made a call at 10 25 a.m but after that there was no record of the phone and no social media post from car
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detectives noted the Carr and Kyler were in constant communication until the morning of May 4th but after that they
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never spoke again or at least never used her phone to speak again and then her phone is
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never used again after that call that she made at 10 25 a.m yeah to me it makes somebody look so guilty if you're
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in constant contact with this individual they go missing and you don't even reach
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out to them to see if they're okay seems like she took the threats and him kidnapping are basically serious but I
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hate the fact that she is having any contact with this dirt bag yeah I I don't I want to make sure we're painting
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the right picture here and we're not stating that it doesn't look to me like she's going out of her way to
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communicate with Kyler it looks more like he's trying to get in touch with her and speak with her now Kyler's story
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didn't change no matter how many times the police spoke with him but he did offer up some new information
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he said Carr was running around with a bunch of different guys on the seventh Belton Detective Mike Clark sat down
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with Kyler for an informal interview where Kyler told him that he and Cara had dated for nine months recently broke
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up and he was very upset about this Kyler admitted to the kidnapping episode saying that on April 28th he and Cara
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were arguing because she was dating other guys so he thought he'd drive her around and talk some sense into her but
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that was it in the next police interview Kyler admitted that he and Carr argued on May 3rd he said that they had argued
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on the phone because Carr had a male friend coming into town for the weekend and was planning on hanging out with
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this guy and of course Kyler did not want her to spend the weekend partying with this
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other guy well too bad all right Captain so now we take the questioning on to the
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next guy this is Joel Harmon so Kyler's able to tell police who Carr was planning on hanging out with by
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name right so they take this information and now we're going to speak with this Joel Harmon person see if he knows where
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she could be or when he last saw or spoke with her so Joel confirmed to police that indeed he was supposed to
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visit with Cara that weekend but he repeatedly called her on May 6 and was not able to get her on the phone he
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found out that she was missing when he called her home phone on May 7th and spoke with one of her family members and
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police searched some more they noted the Carr's bank account had not been touched since the last time she
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was seen right so we have no activity on her bank account and we have her not picking up her check at work right these
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are items that you're going to look at from a police standpoint and say you know what okay if there were some
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problems at home and again I want to be clear here it doesn't seem to me like there were really any problems at home
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it's typical teenager stuff she's not getting along with Mom and stepdad and it seems to me a lot of it's stemming
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from her relationship with this guy they're convinced is not good for her doucheburger and I think the episode of
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him forcefully grabbing her and pulling her into his vehicle and driving her around for a few hours right
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well that seems to seems to back up their suspicions about this guy well they're not getting along
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because the parents are actually giving this [ __ ] and they're actually trying to be involved in their life and
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they're actually trying to be parents and say look he you're still a minor you're still
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under our roof you're dating this guy he's no good for you you know he's no good for you like I said they're arguing
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because the parents actually give a [ __ ] and so from a police standpoint you're going to look at a
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couple of these things and say all right well even if there was some stuff that we may
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not be fully aware of inside the home or between mom and daughter or stepdad and
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daughter her not going to work okay well she already skipped out on school but not
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picking up a paycheck and no activity on her phone or bank account does not really point you in the direction of
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well she took off and she's not coming home right this tells us something else may be going on here if I'm law
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enforcement I want to know why she left School in the first place yeah that's that's a good question here now police
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did go and search Kyler's apartment relatively early in this investigation but they came up empty handed in finding
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any evidence of any type of Foul Play there was really nothing there that they gained from that search and as Belton PD
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Lieutenant Brad Swanson said we don't have anyone to say they saw them meaning Kyler and Cara together on or after the
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day that she was last seen so nobody that tells them hey I saw the two of them together later that day after she
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left school or any time after that day and Kyler says that he had an alibi for the day in question saying that he went
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to visit a relative at a nursing home with his grandfather we need to point out here though captain
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that that was not until about 1pm that afternoon so he may say he has an alibi for that time but we know Cara
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left school at 9 19 a.m his Alibi does not start until 1pm that afternoon his morning is largely unaccounted for and
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when's the last time that he talks to Carr on the phone well remember his words were that he called her back that
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he missed a call from her called her back never spoke with her right but what we have is the
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the search warrant on her phone records tell us differently that his phone called her phone at 9 20 am and this
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call lasted for one minute for 60 seconds so we don't even know if she's technically like skipping class right at
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that moment or if she's leaving the school to maybe make this phone call to talk to her ex-boyfriend and maybe he
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says something what that lures her out to at least talk to him you know it could be something as I I miss you I'm
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going crazy if you don't talk with me if you don't visit me uh I'm going to commit suicide or something like that
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possibly I actually don't think that her leaving school had anything to do with him
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because we have friends who stated later that she was trying to get a ride from us yeah yeah and she was texting other
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people about it yeah and after it's after this that she doesn't get a ride that she leaves now again she lives very
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close to the school so she could have just intended on walking home after leaving the school but if this
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doucheburger was aware that she was trying to leave school he could go and drive up and again he could kidnap her
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like he did the other day yeah and we have her statement that she gives when she requests the restraining order that
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he is stalking her so this could be a situation Captain where she he's actively following her around those were
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her words we don't know if it's true or not but he could have actively been following her around and seen
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her leave that day or caught wind somehow that she was attempting to leave that day we know that he has actively
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told police look she was going to go hang out with this other dude this weekend and I wasn't happy about that
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so we got kind of a lot going on leading up to this point of her walking out of school at 9 19 on that Friday
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now several weeks after Carr disappeared Kyler did an interview with the Kansas City Star so he's spoke with police
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multiple times they've interviewed him by this point they've interviewed him multiple times they've searched his
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apartment by this point but this is also several weeks after she disappeared so things are starting to get cold at this
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point leads are starting to dry up this is when he talks to the Kansas City Star he said the Carr was a fun girl who
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wanted to live life to the fullest according to Kyler Cara had talked about running away to Mexico
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saying quote lately I've been kind of depressed about the whole thing I have no idea where she is end quote per
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kshb.com Belton Police said that Kyler passed a lie detector test and had an alibi for the time of cars disappearance
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but the community was not happy with letting Kyler go free in late June 2007 some citizens of
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Belton circulated a petition demanding that the state step in and take the case away from Belton Police Department
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in general it was felt that they had treated her case dismissively assuming that she was a runaway and had not
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investigated as thoroughly as the family wanted the family aided by volunteers and even former law enforcement took it
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upon themselves to search for Cara and one crazy circumstance a secret team comprising of private investigators
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criminal psychologists and others conducted secret investigations tracking down rumors and even conducting a search
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of a private home with a civilian cadaver dog this was a house that had been rumored in online chat
00:26:21
rooms to be quote the murder house where Cara was killed sure enough in the home
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the dog hit on something in the basement and kudos to kshb.com for doing gangbusters work on
00:26:37
the story including an entire podcast on the case one portion spoke about their search of
00:26:44
the quote murder house that says our cameras followed group members inside an abandoned building that looked like the
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set of a horror film the walls are sprayed with satanic messages and references to Cara
00:27:01
quote this here says Cara is gone said a group member who like all members says they fear reprisal from police or
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suspects in the case and do not want to be identified it says I did it one hallway has murder makes me happy
00:27:22
spray painted sideways next to references of death and Satan [Music] foreign [Music]
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excruciating for her family friends and for law enforcement and especially difficult because there seems to be so
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few credible Clues Kara kopetsky was last seen the morning of May 4th 2007 by the security camera
00:28:06
at Belton High School her mom says she was excited about getting her senior picture taken and was looking forward to
00:28:13
her final year of school but something mysterious happened to Cara that may morning she left school
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either on foot or in a car with someone else her last cell phone call was made at 10 30 a.m when she didn't show up for
00:28:26
her after-school job her parents became worried and reported her missing on May 17th Cara was reportedly seen with a
00:28:33
young man that a gas station in Lewisburg but that has never been confirmed despite many searches a reward fund and
00:28:40
even National publicity Cara has never been found well tomorrow is Cara kapetsky's 21st
00:28:48
birthday the reward for information on where she is now stands at eighty thousand dollars please call the tips
00:28:53
hotline at 816-474 tips if you have any information foreign we are back cheers everybody cheers to
00:29:07
you cat everybody have a great week so a couple red flags one controlling boyfriend don't like that
00:29:16
that's douchey we have this situation again it could have just been a heated situation kind
00:29:22
of control maybe it's just a one-time thing but she took it serious enough where she says hey I need to get a
00:29:29
restraining order against this guy he's stalking me but the big red flags for me
00:29:35
when this uh [ __ ] princess Dingle donkey is pointing Every Which Way oh well she was
00:29:43
supposed to go hang out with this other guy oh she was seeing a bunch of other guys so go look at him go out look at
00:29:49
this other guy oh and by the way she also talked about running away so go check that out over there always
00:29:57
constantly pointing the finger in other directions so you don't look at him as a
00:30:03
suspect it's like a suspicion that you find in the JonBenet Ramsey case where you have some of the police department
00:30:10
looking at the family as being responsible and the family is handing them a list of 70 to 80 suspects that
00:30:18
they think right could have kidnapped or killed their daughter and so you're right it's like are they
00:30:25
giving us a Fool's errand here to to run around then in in kind of a weird bit of this story
00:30:32
and you don't see this in most cases is there's like public backlash where the community saying we don't think that our
00:30:40
police department has done enough and the police department in return is saying look
00:30:47
we questioned the boyfriend he admitted to Breaking the Law right I mean he essentially admits that yes
00:30:58
everything that she complained about when she got that restraining order I did that
00:31:05
then according to the police he passes a lie detector test they search his apartment they don't find any evidence
00:31:11
of Foul Play there so I I feel like the police department's kind of saying in return here
00:31:17
I know that you've heard all these rumors Community I know the public has seen all these rumors in online chat
00:31:23
rooms we are conducting an investigation here just our major lead which would be the
00:31:30
boyfriend or ex-boyfriend whatever title you want to give Kyler at that point our major lead seems to be going nowhere
00:31:37
we have concerns that he has an alibi for a large portion of that day we have concerns that he's passed a lie detector
00:31:45
test and so on and so on so he's he's kind of checking off boxes that say that he should not be a suspect well
00:31:53
look this is a suburb of Kansas City right 25 000 people roughly but this is a very tight community
00:32:04
so when you grow up in an area like this you're normally pretty good at one talking to Authority and also talking to
00:32:15
parents and one of the things about Kyler a lot of people say that he was a Charming kid
00:32:23
a believable kid so I think that played against law enforcement but I think the community started
00:32:30
speaking up when they got when that this Alibi wasn't 100 checked out properly what do you mean checked out
00:32:39
properly well there was people at the nursing home that that law enforcement never ended up interviewing and they
00:32:46
couldn't find yeah I mean I mean that might be hearsay but that that's that's what one it says
00:32:54
in the documentary but that's what some of the rumors around town were no I I know that I'm not disagreeing with that
00:33:00
I'm saying that I don't think to me it doesn't matter about The Alibi and I think and that's why I went out of my
00:33:06
way to point out earlier that hey police are saying we have concerns that he does
00:33:12
have an alibi for a large portion of that day but I'm pointing out that let's say that The Alibi is true
00:33:19
even if it is true which it does seem to to carry some weight right but even if it is true it it's right like if there's
00:33:28
a bank that's robbed at 10 o'clock this morning it doesn't matter if I can tell you where I was at 3 P.M today right his
00:33:36
his Alibi starts at 1 p.m that afternoon she the last time we have any evidence that she's alive and well
00:33:45
and is not abducted or anything like that has happened to her is 9 19 that morning so we have hours that have
00:33:52
passed before his Alibi even starts yeah basically a three and a half hour window
00:33:58
right so police of course they are aware that the Public's not super happy with their investigation here as you pointed
00:34:05
out Captain tight-knit Community they're probably I don't think that that their suspicion so much is coming from this
00:34:12
Alibi portion I feel like a lot of it's coming from hey it's 25 000 people we know her family her family's quite
00:34:20
loud about her being missing and I think it's really just people kind of pulling
00:34:24
together here and questioning the authority on on who's supposed to be leading this investigation yeah but good
00:34:31
for them I mean I'm not saying that you're talking bad but just the way it came off was like the family being loud
00:34:37
you need to be loud if the family doesn't show that they care the community is not going to care exactly
00:34:43
and in fact we covered a case last week where I'm convinced that the reason why the body is still unidentified is
00:34:50
because nobody bothered to report the individual missing to begin with so if if the family's not going to speak up
00:34:57
for the victim yeah then then likely nobody is going to now in response the Belton Police this is in response to the
00:35:07
house being searched and spray paint on the walls and whatnot in response to this the Belton Police did search that
00:35:13
same house where the cadaver dog hit on something their official report is that they found nothing at this house
00:35:20
meanwhile the police threatened to arrest members of this secret team when news of its activities came out the
00:35:29
police chief his last name is person police chief person said in a written statement I can say that the Belton
00:35:36
Police Department and FBI have searched many locations and properties some with the assistance of dogs some sites have
00:35:45
required the use of specialized personnel and Equipment including excavation divers canine equestrian and
00:35:53
infamous Nation Technologies either way police and civilian groups were having simply no luck locating car no matter
00:36:01
what side of the fence you were on they're not finding her they're not even finding additional leads to lead them
00:36:07
further along the trail and so her family was left to wait wonder and work to keep her case alive
00:36:15
they lovingly remember and describe Cara as someone who loved animals and butterflies loved to shop and was loyal
00:36:24
to friends she got in over her head with a boy named Kyler and feared she couldn't get out now while the
00:36:31
Greensburg ef-5 tornado that destroyed 95 percent of the Greensburg City and it killed over 10 people
00:36:40
This Tornado this this thing we we should kind of break this situation down a little more as distracting as it
00:36:48
likely was in the moment because the reports I've seen Captain was this was a series of tornadoes that hit over the
00:36:56
course of 56 hours and so this was a lot of Devastation yeah um hitting the state of Missouri hard in
00:37:04
just about 12 hours after Carr was last seen at school this certainly did not help to
00:37:10
kick-start the missing person's investigation there were other factors that stalled the investigation along the
00:37:16
way as well for one while Kyler was their best suspect he was not law enforcement's only suspect in that case
00:37:24
and capped that off with one month later and just about 20 miles away another girl just out of high school and only 18
00:37:34
years old vanished from a Target store parking lot well like you always say when we have a teen girl going missing
00:37:42
from school you kind of have to do the old scumbag pervert Roundup and so not much time passes and we have a very
00:37:52
similar situation and if I'm a law enforcement maybe I'm jumping to some conclusions because Carr didn't have any
00:37:59
there's no sign of her after that day right so I'm kind of expecting the worst and so there's a possibility that
00:38:08
there's a serial killer out there yeah there were some other things that that we don't need to get into because
00:38:14
there's a lot of information in this story here that I want to make sure that we cover all of our bases but
00:38:21
there was a weird bit in Cara's disappearance where she had a a look-alike somebody that looked a lot
00:38:29
like her about the same age that lived in another town nearby so those sightings of this other person which
00:38:36
they were all later confirmed to be of this other person really kind of distracted some of the
00:38:42
investigation as well the incident that you're talking about where we have a situation where we have
00:38:50
a similar we have a similar victimology really is a big distraction to this case as
00:38:57
well so this takes us to June 2nd 2007. this is less than one month after Cara kopetsky went missing
00:39:06
this is a Saturday night remember Carr went missing on a Friday morning here we have Kelsey Smith she's 18 years old and
00:39:15
a recent graduate of Shawnee Mission West High School just before 7 PM she arrives alone at her local Target store
00:39:24
she is going with the intention of purchasing a gift for a close friend so she Parks her car
00:39:31
walks to the store's entrance and goes inside unfortunately she is unaware that there
00:39:38
is a monster on the prowl in the area that night and this sub-human likely chose this
00:39:45
area because it's a Saturday evening and this target is right next to a mall so this will be a busy area with lots of
00:39:54
potential prey so Kelsey enters the target she does her shopping purchases her selected items
00:40:02
and then security cameras show Kelsey leaving the Target store at 707 PM now Kelsey makes a call while still inside
00:40:11
the store sadly she does not come home that night and based off of everything her family her movements her lifestyle
00:40:19
and personality there is zero zero concern that she took off somewhere this is a situation where as soon as the
00:40:28
minutes start to turn into hours and she is not back that night her parents are very aware that something terrible has
00:40:36
happened to their daughter so now we have a situation and her family goes out looking for her about four or so hours
00:40:43
later Kelsey's vehicle is located by her family they find the car abandoned but it's not at the Target parking lot where
00:40:52
they know her to have been earlier that night no they find her her car in a parking lot located just outside of the
00:40:59
mall across the street from the Target now even more troubling all of her belongings are found inside of the
00:41:07
vehicle the family notifies the police and the police determined that Kelsey was most likely abducted
00:41:14
so local PD starts their investigation immediately they take a look at the surveillance
00:41:20
footage from both inside the Target store and the Target parking lot and they can see her being forced into her
00:41:29
car at approximately 7 10 pm they go to the mall and see on the mall camera footage
00:41:36
someone pulls up Parks Kelsey's vehicle leaving it abandoned in the parking lot at 9 17 pm
00:41:46
in a very smart move they decide to see if they can figure out Kelsey's movements by checking cell tower records
00:41:56
as per the reports Kelsey's cell phone last pinged in Grandview Missouri this is the night that she went missing
00:42:05
very sadly just four days after Kelsey went out alone to purchase a gift for a friend local law enforcement along with
00:42:13
Agents from the FBI they were able to locate her remains in the afternoon of June 6
00:42:21
2007. her body was found near Longview Lake in the woods about 20 miles away from the Target store where she was last
00:42:29
seen alive Kelsey after being abducted and her abductor and killer using Kelsey's car
00:42:36
in the commission of committing several felonies was strangled with a belt and left in the woods now we in a very short
00:42:44
order go from looking for this young woman to now looking for her attacker and detectives are armed with some very good
00:42:54
lead information here because God bless it captain this is a story where the security
00:43:00
cameras were rolling they were actually working and the people in charge had the
00:43:05
cameras recording well that's a shock so from the surveillance footage investigators identified an older model
00:43:12
Chevy pickup truck pulling into the Target parking lot right after Kelsey and Smith pulled in then they see the
00:43:21
perpetrator get out of his truck and walk into the target just behind Kelsey this man is described as a white male
00:43:30
mid-20s wearing a white T-shirt and dark possibly black shorts the man at no time speaks to Kelsey but
00:43:38
he seems to have been following her into the store and then kind of following her
00:43:43
around the store yeah stalking her and she's probably not even taking notice he does not purchase anything instead while
00:43:49
Kelsey is making her purchase he goes out to the parking lot where he seemingly is preparing a blitz style
00:43:57
attack because the closed circuit TV cameras got video of this same man now with a gun in hand rushing Kelsey
00:44:07
and then forcing her into her car we were just talking last week Captain about the power of crowdsourcing as we
00:44:15
are still hoping that someone can identify the man with no hands the Kentucky Cold Case covered right here in
00:44:21
the garage last week so detectives again making all of the Right Moves they release Stills and clips showing this
00:44:28
man and give a description of him to the public they give a description of his apparel and the truck that he was
00:44:34
driving well it doesn't take long because the same day that they locate the victim's
00:44:41
body we have people phoning in hey we know this guy he's our neighbor it's the putting two and two together that made
00:44:50
the tipsters so convinced that the perpetrator Seen On TV was their neighbor well it's
00:44:57
one thing to have video footage or a clip of a person or even just a photo like we do in the Delphi murders but if
00:45:06
we could take the Delphi if we could take Bridge guys photo and connect that guy into a vehicle
00:45:13
then we'd have more people coming out of the works going I know a guy that looks
00:45:18
like that and has that vehicle exactly and that's what they were able to do here very interesting though
00:45:24
because when he abducts her he uses her vehicle leaving his vehicle behind to have more and more customers see that
00:45:33
vehicle in that parking lot that night so in this case right here we have a guy that looks like our neighbor this from
00:45:40
the tipster and the vehicle is the same and by the ways the great thing about information
00:45:48
in this case it's not that common of a vehicle right I believe it was a Chevy truck
00:45:54
manufactured sometime in the 70s and this was 2007 on the old True Crime garage timeline right so it sticks out
00:46:03
like a sore thumb that's right this mystery sub-human turned out to be 25 year old Edwin Roy Hall he was taken
00:46:11
into custody and no surprise charged with premeditated first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping of course he
00:46:18
denied it but police had him on camera they found his fingerprints inside Kelsey's vehicle and so on and so on
00:46:26
eventually this douche canoe caves in and cuts a deal to spare his ass spicy and he volunteers for life in prison and
00:46:34
I don't think this guy is ever getting out and certainly hope not because he wasn't terribly old when he went in and
00:46:42
if this dude gets out and he's still physically able this monster will do something like this again
00:46:50
now what was difficult for Cara's case in relationship to this case again it's just one month later
00:46:58
about 20 miles away victimology very similar it was quickly determined that in Kelsey's case the Target store case
00:47:08
that this was a totally random attack Edwin simply drove around looking for a young woman to abduct
00:47:17
so of course everyone now has to Wonder Could Edwin be responsible for Cara's disappearance right could he have just
00:47:25
been driving around on it on an earlier day looking for another victim and yeah and where would you go if you're driving
00:47:31
around looking for a victim right outside the school of course he says no but we will just have to wait and see if
00:47:37
detectives can find any connection between these two cases and like we said this is a very small suburb of Kansas
00:47:46
City we have Kirk going missing in 2007 and another town not so far away we have
00:47:54
Kelsey Smith going missing and her murder but then we have another tragedy happening in 2016. yeah as we said
00:48:04
earlier in this case Captain this is a story and a true crime case that spans a great deal of length of time so we have
00:48:14
our case starts in 2007. they're still movement on these cases up to this year so we don't want to bore anyone with a
00:48:24
lot of minutia here so we'll just fast forward to September of 2016. into the city of Raymore this is a
00:48:32
suburb of Kansas City and not far from the other two locations that we have discussed yeah on Friday September 9th
00:48:39
2016 Jamie runyons calls the Kansas City Police Department reporting her daughter
00:48:45
Jessica as missing now in the kernels recommended fashion that being report your loved one missing
00:48:56
everywhere and as many times as they will allow you to Ms Runyan's very astutely goes to the Kansas City Police
00:49:04
Department in person the following day September 10th and again reports her 21 year old daughter Jessica runyons is
00:49:14
missing so she reports her the night before and then again the following day but this time in person mother Jamie
00:49:21
says her last contact with Jessica was a brief text conversation on Wednesday the
00:49:26
7th this one Jessica texted her sweet dreams and Jamie sent back a selfie with Jessica's little sister to which Jessica
00:49:35
responds sending back a picture of her cat so the concern started when Jessica failed to show up for a doctor's
00:49:43
appointment on the ninth this was a critical doctor's appointment after an appendectomy Jessica needed the doctor's
00:49:50
clearance to go back to work so she would not have missed this appointment her mother Jamie
00:49:58
was meeting her there and waited for her but she never showed and Jessica wasn't
00:50:04
answering her phone Jamie started calling everyone that she could think of trying to locate her
00:50:09
daughter now we will go through this timeline in chronological order but of course some of this stuff was not
00:50:16
figured out until after Jessica was reported missing and police began looking for her
00:50:21
so Jessica was living with her one-time boyfriend but it sounds like they were on again
00:50:28
and off again they shared an apartment but more than one source says that at the time of Jessica's disappearance they
00:50:35
were sleeping in different rooms so we have the text conversation between mother and daughter
00:50:42
on that Wednesday night yeah that night Jessica goes to sleep at her apartment and again she and her ex-boyfriend
00:50:49
Jackson share this apartment then later we learned that Jessica did respond to a
00:50:57
post on Facebook on Thursday around 2PM after that her family received no communication from her
00:51:05
on the last night that Jessica was seen Thursday September 8th she told her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend Jackson
00:51:14
that she was going to a friend's house for drinks and to hang out he says that they spoke and agreed to
00:51:21
try to work on their relationship around 10 pm though Jessica stopped responding
00:51:27
to Jackson's text he says at the time he assumed that her phone had died then Jackson he says he was very
00:51:36
concerned when he woke up the next morning on the 9th and Jessica was not home yet Captain do you want a little
00:51:43
background on Jackson and Jessica's relationship or should we just keep moving forward yeah definitely I want to know
00:51:49
about I mean he's a possible suspect Jessica met her boyfriend slash ex-boyfriend Jackson when they both were
00:51:58
working at the Foxwood retirement home Jackson went to Belton High School and they knew a lot of the same people by
00:52:06
September of 2016 when Jessica goes missing Jackson and Jessica had been together for three years and we're
00:52:14
living together but as said the relationship was Rocky and they were sleeping in separate rooms
00:52:20
I'm not clear exactly what here Captain but it's been reported that Jackson had some health issues as well
00:52:29
then on Friday Jessica misses that doctor's appointment that we discussed her mother speaks with Jackson at this
00:52:39
time mom calls and reports Jessica missing and then the next day Jessica's mother
00:52:45
Jamie and Jessica's ex-boyfriend Jackson they go together to the police department and
00:52:52
file a missing person's report in person now Jackson is going to be a key factor
00:52:58
in this case here because he lives with Jessica so he's going to be able to provide police with some leads right
00:53:05
from Jump Street and this is what he tells the police Jessica went to a friend's house for drinks on that
00:53:12
Thursday when she was not home the next morning when Jackson woke up he called the
00:53:17
person who hosted the party this person tells Jackson that Jessica was at the party and she arrived with Jackson's
00:53:25
friend his name Kyler use scumbag Jessica and Kyler knew each other from high school the party host said the
00:53:34
people there were surprised when Jessica and Kyler arrived together several people later told police that
00:53:42
Kyler was visibly heavily intoxicated that night drinking Gray Goose and wine he's double fisted most of the evening
00:53:50
even more importantly they say that he was acting possessive about Jessica and aggressive toward the
00:53:58
other party-goers several witnesses told police that Jessica and Kyler were arguing loudly
00:54:04
and Jessica wanted to leave but Kyler didn't want her to go back to Jackson the host asked Kyler to leave red flag
00:54:14
Jessica and Kyler left the party at 11 42 p.m in Jessica's car we know almost to the minute when the
00:54:23
two left and you'll see why Jessica's car was a black 2012 Chevy Equinox with Missouri plates
00:54:34
Kyler remember we have everybody saying this dude's hammered he insists on driving but when they go to leave he
00:54:43
clipped someone's car in the driveway so Jessica took the wheel and they drove off now the host of the party took a
00:54:50
picture of this car incident which they later showed to police so the photo was time stamped 11 42 PM that's how we
00:55:00
have almost the exact time of when they left so he hit the car they told people at the party obviously they took a
00:55:07
picture and then they let him drive off correct friends at the party told Jessica to text when she got home safely
00:55:15
but she never did text shouldn't let your friend get in a vehicle with somebody that won you is so intoxicated
00:55:22
that you ask to leave the party and then he hits a vehicle and you still let her
00:55:27
leave with this intoxicated guy no one saw Jessica after that [Music] foreign thank you so much for listening thanks
00:55:54
so much for making us a part of your week so much more to get to tomorrow make sure you subscribe to the podcast
00:56:02
and make sure you go to iTunes and leave a five-star review and join us back here
00:56:07
in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't worry [Applause] thank you
00:56:34
[Music]