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If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2/// 536

November 19, 2021 / 45:25

This episode covers the case of Kyler Yust, the boyfriend of missing person Kara Kopetsky, and his connection to the disappearance of Jessica Runions. Key discussions include the discovery of Jessica's burned vehicle, Kyler's arrest, and the eventual identification of both Jessica and Kara's remains.

Kyler Yust was living with his grandfather in Kansas City after being released from prison when Jessica Runions went missing in September 2016. On September 10, 2016, her vehicle was found on fire, leading to Kyler's arrest for vehicle arson. His half-brother, Jessup Carter, reported that Kyler confessed to strangling Jessica and disposing of her body.

Despite the confession, police struggled to find enough evidence to charge Kyler with murder until human remains were discovered in April 2017. The remains were later identified as belonging to Jessica Runions, while those of Kara Kopetsky were found shortly after. Both families organized searches and vigils during the investigation.

Kyler faced multiple legal battles, including charges for the murders of both women. His half-brother Jessup, who initially provided key information, later died by suicide, complicating the prosecution's case. Kyler's defense team sought to challenge the investigation and raise doubts about witness credibility.

The episode highlights the community's support for the victims' families and the ongoing quest for justice as Kyler's trial approached in 2021.

TLDR

Kyler Yust's connection to the murders of Jessica Runions and Kara Kopetsky unfolds, revealing confessions, arrests, and community efforts for justice.

Episode

45:25
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so [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime i don't want your love
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[Music] when we left off captain we were reintroduced to kyler yust a name we've
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heard before he was the boyfriend of missing person kara kopetsky from nine years ago
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jessica did not tell jackson that she was going out with kyler that thursday night when she did not come home
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now at this time kyler was living in kansas city with his grandfather this after being released
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from prison just over a month earlier and he was hanging out with jessica runions of raymore
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who was as said apparently the girlfriend or ex-girlfriend of kyler's friend jackson mallet meanwhile on
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saturday september 10 2016 at 1 41 am the kansas city fire department found a vehicle on fire at
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95th street and blue river road this is in jackson county missouri the man who reported the car fire
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recognized the license plate of the burning vehicle as that belonging to a girl he'd seen
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online as missing jessica runions indeed the car which was incinerated to a smoking shell
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was jessica's equinox it had been deliberately set ablaze with gasoline spread inside and out of the
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vehicle later that day on the 10th a young man named jessup carter called the belton
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police department he told them that he was with his half-brother kyler yust apparently they share a mother
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when kyler set jessica runyon's vehicle on fire further kyler confessed to jessup that he had strangled jessica
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and that she was gone double douche canoes tyler told jessup he dragged her into the woods and left her there
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kyler had asked jessup to help him destroy the vehicle and to hide evidence and while he was burning the vehicle
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kyler got burned himself yes he managed to burn his hands and face while setting jessica's car on fire
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jessup took kyler to a trailer home in edwards missouri to let him hide out for a while
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and heal from these burns but then he decided to call the police it's too bad jessup didn't decide to put
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kyler out with the shovel authorities obtained a search warrant to search his mobile home they were looking for
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evidence in relation to the vehicle fire and to a missing person's investigation
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and remember he was also the main suspect in the disappearance of cara they collected a blue plaid shirt
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and an alcohol pad and a q-tip with blood on them but more importantly they found kyler yust hiding out just as
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jessup had said photos of kyler taken by police show that he had burns on his face
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he also had burns and blisters on his arms and hands and in my opinion captain if you look
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closely at these pictures you can see he also has scratches on his face and hands that came possibly
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from jessica runions defending herself well it's interesting that you point that out because that's in my notes but
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that's not reported anywhere well since they had no idea where jessica was police did not feel that they had enough
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to arrest kyler for her murder they don't know in fact at this point if she has been killed they
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just know that she's missing at this time so what they did do though was they arrested him on charges of knowingly
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burning a vehicle which of course is not as serious as murder but at least it would ensure that
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he would be locked up for a while right while they're going to try to obtain other evidence against kyler but also
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based on what his half-brother is saying it leads you to the idea that we need to
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find her and chances are you're not going to find you're not going to find jessica live yes
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in these situations you are looking for a live missing person until you have something to suggest otherwise and hear
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with jessup's story that he's telling to police we have something to suggest otherwise very sad
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and disgusting kyler was taken in by detectives from the kansas city police department's fugitive apprehension unit
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on wednesday september 14th this was his 28th birthday he was arrested and held on fifty thousand
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dollars cash only bond and at this time in our timeline captain kyler wasn't talking to anyone anymore
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kansas city police issued a press release conducted searches for jessica interviewed all of her friends and
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acquaintances and followed up on tips and leads they searched the area where jessica's
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car was found for two days reportedly they collected a bag that belonged to jessica found where the
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vehicle was set ablaze they continued searches for jessica over the next few months
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even asking the public for any type of surveillance footage that they may have from their homes or from businesses that
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were near the location that the vehicle was found well this is like deja vu to this small
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town 25 000 people this just happened nine years ago where we were looking for car
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and now we're looking for jessica this whole community is going to rally around these families
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cara's family is going to rally around jessica's family and i wish more communities were like this
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and it's just great to see in this case so the authorities searched kyler's grandfather's apartment remember he's
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living there briefly with his grandfather once he got out of prison this was in the 8700 block of crescent
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avenue kyler's grandfather his name alfred yust aged 85 at the time told the police he
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didn't know what was going on with kyler as he hadn't been around for a few days
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alfred later told the star that kyler was a good boy when he was living with him and his late wife he said he never
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saw this side of kyler that police say they were seeing meanwhile jamie runions this is jessica's mother was going crazy
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with worry about her missing daughter right where could she be well you would think that law
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enforcement would have relayed they basically have a confession from kyler to jessup about him strangling jessica and
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leaving her out in the woods her family spent the time captain conducting organized searches actively looking for
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jessica and handing out flyers they told the media that these activities keep us from sitting at home
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waiting for a phone call adding that we can't just sit this was mike runyan's jessica's grandfather told
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the kansas city star jamie found some solace in the only person who could understand what she was
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going through believe it or not it's rhonda beckford we've heard that name before that's
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because that's kara kopetsky's mother rhonda and her husband carr's stepfather they've been actively keeping carr's
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case in the public eye for all these years now organizing rallies and walks and keeping the belton police
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accountable even as the investigation dragged on with seemingly nothing rhonda told the kansas city star
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that when she first learned on the news that jessica runions was missing and that she had last been seen with a
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man named kyler yust her heart sank she reached out to jaime rhonda said her primary focus now was
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supporting jamie and helping her stay positive she told the star quote when you're
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going through something like this you have to hold on to hope if you don't you end up in a very dark place that's
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good advice she hoped that with kyler's arrest some light would be shed on what happened to her daughter cara as well as
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jessica over the next months with no sign of jessica her family held vigils sold t-shirts passed out flyers
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and tried to keep the pressure on the police to find their missing girl they also searched everywhere they could
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dedicating as many as three days a week every week to look for jessica and this is kind of shocking here captain
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not once but twice in fact two weeks in a row groups out looking for jessica discovered other human remains
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they found bodies in brushy wooded areas bodies that were not jessica or cara at least the family thought that they
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were providing some type of closure for some other families if not their own well and also remember
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if you go back nine years prior this restraining order against kyler was that he was choking cara
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so now here we have another situation where somebody's claiming that he strangled jessica yeah and like you
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pointed out the belton authorities it looks like they were fairly certain that kyler was the one responsible for
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cara's disappearance way back in 2007 and they just couldn't prove it belton pd lieutenant brad swanson often visited
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kyler in prison and made sure that kyler saw him when he was set free so he tells
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the kansas city star that i make sure that he never forgets that i'm around and this is interesting because it looks
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like since 2009 the kansas city municipal court records show that police gave kyler at least
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eight traffic citations for everything from failure to obey traffic signs parking in an improper
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manner and running a red light i mean these are all things that they should issue citations for anyway
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but it almost gives the appearance that the police always seem to be around or on the lookout for kyler
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they're kind of letting them know we're watching you now that kansas city police had kyler
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incarcerated for that car fire and again he finds himself being the suspect number one in a disappearance of
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yet another young woman belton police began working with the kansas city police department to gather
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evidence against kyler that could help them both put murder cases together against him well in 2010 he was accused
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of trying to choke his 18 year old girlfriend to death and he was also accused of trying to
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kill her three cats so what we have here captain is sadly cara's case goes cold and then all these
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years later jessica goes missing we have months that go by and it looks like we're in danger of the same thing
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happening here in this case well it's hard to get a conviction if you don't have
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the body well the break that law enforcement needed it comes in the spring of 2017.
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this when a mushroom hunter keith todd was exploring the woods near a quarry for
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fungi on april third 3rd 2017 he was in the area of 233rd street and y highway this is in
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cass county a heavily wooded area south of belton todd came upon what he immediately
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recognized as a human skull he called police and reported what he found police roped off the area and
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looked for any evidence that they could find and sure enough they found more human bones
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they were scattered many had been gnawed on and some were never found police called the parents of both
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jessica and cara to let them know that remains had been found this was standard operating procedure of
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course they had no idea whether the remains belonged to either of the girls at that
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time right remember search teams had found bodies twice before on january 21st and january 28th that were not
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the girls that they were looking for but rhonda and jamie did not sleep much that
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night this is what they let her later said to the media well if you're law enforcement
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i i wonder if they're more hopeful for one remains or the other because with the car case
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you have some evidence that points towards kyler but with the jessica case especially
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with this supposed confession to jessup his half brother that if you find her remains
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you're going to be able to build a stronger case against him because you have that confession in the in your back
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pocket so while they're waiting on pins and needles then the next day a second set of
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human remains believed to have been there much longer were found now at the time jamie and ronda were
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sitting down for a joint tv interview the call came in from lieutenant brad swanson who told them i'm not going to
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say 100 percent but just my gut is telling me we may have some resolution police then summoned the families of
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both jessica and carr to a meeting at the police station jamie and ronda faced the media afterwards holding hands they
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had to wait for confirmation of their worst fears but they said if the remains were the girls
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they were glad they were together and indeed the kansas city medical examiner's office and state crime lab
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identified the first set of remains as jessica runions after jessica was id'd ronda carr's mom acknowledged that it
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could take months to determine whether the older bones found near jessica belong to her daughter she said quote in
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my heart of hearts i believe it's kara here we are still waiting yet again end quote the second set of remains was
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finally identified through dna as cara on august 16 2017 this with the help of the fbi crime lab
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in quantico jamie said that while she had searched for months and months for her daughter
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she never went as far as the 233rd street location where the remains were eventually found
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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right we're back you filthy animals cheers to you
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cheers to everyone out there all right captain how about a little background information on kyler here
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what we could find says he was born in 1988 reportedly he never knew his mother joanine until his
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teen years and his father kenny as we have seen or heard was reportedly a meth addict
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kyler was raised by his grandparents this is alfred and doris yust and he was troubled from a very early
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age court documents filed by his attorney cite kyler being sexually abused as a child and suffering from
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ptsd as a result and maintained that he also was diagnosed with bipolar disorder whatever
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the cause of his delinquency court documents reflect that kyler has said he started abusing alcohol at a very young
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age at the age of 11 smoking pot at age 12 and using cocaine at age 14 saying he even dabbled in heroin by age
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16. people who knew him said that he was very charismatic as you pointed out earlier but people also said he could
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turn angry within seconds and as a teen he started getting into legal trouble one early arrest was from
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2010 thus for stealing from a tattoo parlor where he worked for which he served 10 days in jail and
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soon after he nearly killed a woman this is going to kind of flesh out that story
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that you were talking about a little bit earlier here the one from 2010 yeah this
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was a girlfriend of kylers and she should be described in my opinion as very very lucky because she
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was able to eventually get away from kyler still alive this was candace martin st claire
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kyler assaulted her sometime in 2010 and at that time candace was 18 and six months pregnant with twins fathered by
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kyler the two were living together for about six months but his behavior became increasingly aggressive and violent so
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she was trying to leave him kyler came home drunk one night when she was packing her bags to leave and he
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grabbed her around the throat with both hands pinning her to the bed she said that he looked deranged as he was
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choking her until she would almost lose consciousness and then he punched her to make sure
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that she would stay awake and aware she says that she finally passed out but when she woke up he was lying behind her
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spooning her and whispering i love you and telling her that if she was good that would not happen again this guy's a
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raging psychopath but this was not the entire story for one thing candace told police that at two different times kyler
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killed some kittens right in front of her the couple had three kittens together and
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for my own sake and everybody else's without going into any detail he killed them all
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kyler was beating up candace in fact he bragged to her that he had killed a girlfriend in the
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past and would do the same to her if she left him well the killing of the cats is
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that's luca magnata [ __ ] you know puka not hotter nevertheless candace said that she felt sorry for kyler
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as he threatened to kill himself often if she left and he also was the father of these unborn twins so
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she kind of felt forced to stay with him at that time she didn't report the attack at the time
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but after a while with the kittens and some other stuff his behavior became so frightening
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that she left and didn't look back yeah good for her and after she left she noticed him
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following her and him leaving threatening messages for her to find part of the problem is that these guys
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are so manipulative and they can twist words and they can make you think that you're crazy but you have to have your
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radar out for these creep bags and family members and friends have to have their radars out for these creep bags
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and i wish people would just raise better men so women wouldn't have to put up with
00:22:46
this [ __ ] she too attempted to obtain an order of protection against kyler eventually she
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had it dropped this once they got back together they were on and off for quite some time
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it looks like before it was finally over candace said that she did not realize that kyler was a suspect in a girl's
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disappearance until she googled him and found that there was a connection between him and kara kopetsky well and
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she would have found that cara's claims against kyler are the same claims that she was making
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because he he does this to every girl he dates then a judge ordered the arrest of kyler for failing to
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appear in court for each of the tattoo parlor incident and the kitten killing situations he was arrested
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and charged with animal cruelty so kyler pled guilty and got two years probation for
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several charges right he eventually violated his probation by failing to attend a single
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this is crazy he's ordered to attend 26 court mandated batterers intervention classes
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he fails to attend a single one like not even gonna fake it for a little while right because he's a giant bag of
00:24:09
[ __ ] so at that time captain his probation was then revoked and he's sentenced to
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180 days in jail he eventually serves 120 of that but look if you know for a fact
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that kyler if you're law enforcement you know for a fact that this horrible human
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well he's at this point he's not even acting in any way shape or form like a human
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he kills several cats that you got to give him more than two years probation even with all this violence
00:24:44
and stuff going on he's also busy committing other types of crimes and several of these are serious
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crimes at some point he got in big time legal trouble when he got caught receiving a shipment
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from china of quote-unquote designer drugs this was an intercepted by customs agents in san francisco
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this was a something i'm very i'm really not familiar with here thankfully this was a drug with the street name
00:25:14
meow meow wait so he's killing cats and he's taking drugs called meow meow well probably looking to sell them if
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he's not oh he's taking them he's consuming them and looking to sell them because
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eventually he's going to be charged with a felony of drug trafficking based off of this situation so he's sentenced to
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45 months in federal prison and he only ends up serving about 27 months of this and he was permitted to live in a
00:25:45
halfway house for two months after that and then starting in april of 2016 he was ordered to home confinement in
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his grandfather's apartment this in kansas city so this kind of brings us up to the point of jessica
00:26:01
going missing in september of 2016. but like you said when jessica goes missing we we know she was last
00:26:09
seen with kyler then we know through his half brother jessup that we burned her vehicle jessup is also
00:26:17
telling you hey kyler confessed to me saying that he strangled her and threw her out in the woods yeah but i also
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find it weird we talk about this all the time i don't care if he's your half brother
00:26:28
or what he is if a scumbag tells you hey choke this girl and i threw her out in the woods
00:26:34
and i i need to help me burn her car he he better have something damn good on you
00:26:40
or you shouldn't be helping in the first place and i find it very strange that he
00:26:45
showed jessup shows up to help kyler jessup shows up with his girlfriend and she's
00:26:52
i and and i'd like to know a little bit more information on this i couldn't find
00:26:56
it but she had a pistol with her well we have to keep in mind that often people don't realize they're an accessory
00:27:04
to a crime until their accessory to a crime right you usually don't lead in with hey i murdered someone can you help
00:27:12
me a lot of times it's uh hey i need you to pick me up from here or i need you to
00:27:16
meet me here and then next thing you know your hands are dirty as well well see that's also why i
00:27:22
wondered and wasn't that clear is it possible that kyler says hey come pick me up here
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jessup shows up and the car is already on fire and he had nothing to do with the car actually being on fire other
00:27:34
than he was there because kyler obviously got some pretty bad burn marks from the
00:27:40
fire jessup did it yeah so that is really all the information that's leading us up to
00:27:47
when jessica runions vanishes in 2016 which was on september 8th i do want to point out too that by the
00:27:55
time that kyler is arrested in 2016 for the burning vehicle he had three children at that point now kyler's first
00:28:04
court appearance after this arrest was eagerly attended by rhonda beckford carr's family had made sure to send
00:28:12
someone to every court appearance of kyler's throughout the years so remember how we pointed out that the police kind
00:28:19
of reminded kyler over the years hey we're watching you we don't like you we think you're a scumbag he received a lot
00:28:26
of traffic citations anytime he was charged with something that was big enough to hit the papers
00:28:34
over the years carr's parents would show up and sit in court yeah that's awesome
00:28:38
and kind of rally behind the idea of well we don't have any answers in our case in our daughter's case but at least
00:28:45
the guy that we're convinced did this is going to be locked up even if it's just for months
00:28:51
he's going to be locked up well a lot of these missing person cases where it takes them a long time to find
00:28:57
any remains especially when there's some kind of accomplice normally it takes a very long time for
00:29:05
the accomplice to come forward but jessup's calling law enforcement the night that this happens
00:29:12
yeah and that's where the storytelling portion of this case gets a little difficult to follow along in the
00:29:20
timeline because what we're going to see here captain is kyler will be arrested and charged for
00:29:25
burning jessica's vehicle but keep in mind when he's arrested and charged with that
00:29:32
there is no bodies at this time we've not located jessica we've not located cara
00:29:39
and it makes the story kind of not follow along a natural order to things so currently on our timeline we have
00:29:51
kyler arrested for burning jessica's vehicle now remember that jessup carter kyler's half brother
00:30:02
called the police and reported kyler for burning her car but also for killing jessica
00:30:10
this was in september 2016. in april of 2017 an article in the star reported that police had been seeking jessup
00:30:19
carter on an outstanding felony charges for a traffic stop that went down on the day jessica's car was burned
00:30:29
this was on the 10th of september deputies from the henry county sheriff's office pulled over jessop's 1998 dodge
00:30:38
durango for crossing the center line and drifting onto the grass on northeast missouri highway number two as well for
00:30:47
failing to have a working plate illumination light in the vehicle at the time were kyler used
00:30:57
and a woman named crystal taylor this is jessup's long time girlfriend the cops first the occupants of the
00:31:06
vehicle and found a knife on jessup and a gun on crystal jessup was charged in april of 2017 this
00:31:15
six months later with resisting a traffic stop as well as multiple misdemeanors such as driving without a
00:31:22
license being uninsured and failing to display plates but he was also wanted on a charge of failure to appear in a
00:31:29
domestic assault case this whole bloodline is full of [ __ ] jessup eventually turned himself into
00:31:36
authorities on april 28th it's not clear why the charges were were just now filed
00:31:44
in 2017 when the incident took place in 2016 it seems likely that the police wanted
00:31:50
to keep pressure on jessup to give them more information about kyler and what the three of them were doing
00:31:59
that day after jessica's car was found on fire so on may 4th 2017 this is at the 10th annual walk for
00:32:09
cara we have over 100 people here walking in observance of the 10th anniversary of
00:32:15
her disappearance you know they're holding signs honoring the young woman demonstrating support for the family
00:32:22
she had still not been identified at this time remember it wasn't until august 16th
00:32:28
that she was officially confirmed via dna but my hat goes off and you have to applaud this community how much they
00:32:36
rallied around both of these girls cara and jessica yes and at this at this annual walk for cara we have her
00:32:46
mother rhonda who tells the newspaper i am finally relieved to have confirmation
00:32:52
we've known for a long time that cara was gone and we felt when they found the other remains
00:32:59
that the other set was kara it's been a long 10 years and this is the start of hopefully moving forward
00:33:06
toward a prosecution kyler's trial for the vehicle arson was scheduled to commence on october 23 2017
00:33:15
but on the fifth of that month there was big news kyler was officially charged with murder
00:33:22
for the killings of jessica and cara the initial charges included two counts of abandonment of a corpse
00:33:29
but these charges were later dismissed the probable cause affidavit stated that at least four people told
00:33:38
investigators that kyler had confessed to choking cara to death he told some that he put her body in the
00:33:45
woods and others that she would never be found in october 6 2017 article said it's not
00:33:53
clear why yust was not charged in kopetsky's death earlier and a follow-up article says
00:34:00
might jessica be alive today had he been arrested in connection with kara's death based on those multiple
00:34:07
recountings to acquaintances about the killing these articles are pointing out that police had
00:34:14
witness statements months after carr went missing that kyler killed her right and so now everybody's really concerned
00:34:24
that hey we may have saved a life if we could have locked this guy up all those years earlier yeah and the
00:34:32
community is law enforcement can't make this mistake again right and so what we have here now
00:34:37
captain we have kyler's going to face charges in multiple counties but you have the counties that are kind of going
00:34:43
to band together and they're like you know what we can afford to drop the arson charges we can cancel that trial
00:34:51
let's all band together and focus instead on the much more serious murder case so kyler he's allowed to plead not
00:35:00
guilty to these charges this in october of 2017. now how now a brown cow how now brown
00:35:10
cow we need to go back just a minute here because after jessup the half brother was released for
00:35:15
turning himself in in april 2017. well he went on a bit of a bender his girlfriend and then wife crystal
00:35:23
taylor remember she was the one in the vehicle with kyler and jessup on that night said that after the episode where
00:35:30
jessup called the police on his brother that he relapsed into drugs and then very quickly went downhill he was
00:35:38
arrested for domestic violence and she took the kids and stayed in a shelter for a while
00:35:44
when jessup was arrested again in april of 2017 for failure to appear on those domestic violence charges and for
00:35:52
various charges from the incident where he was pulled over with kyler and crystal
00:35:58
he's asked by reporters you know will you comment on kyler use case at this point and he says that he could not
00:36:05
but that his family did not approve of what kyler had done and they empathized with the girls families
00:36:13
in july of the same year crystal turned on the news and saw jessup's uncle paul's house
00:36:20
okay so this is where jessup was staying she sees paul's house on the news because it's on fire
00:36:30
and jessup was arrested for arson this guy has some issues and for trying to stop firefighters from putting out the
00:36:36
fire so he's booked into county jail on september 24th jessop was found dead in his cell at 4 30 a.m of an apparent
00:36:47
suicide he hung himself police said apparently there was an fbi investigation into his death but there
00:36:55
was nothing to show that it was not a suicide however this is a weird little nugget here
00:37:03
jessup left behind a note that has been regularly referred to as encrypted and believe it or not that note has
00:37:11
magically disappeared well maybe i'm just a freak you know maybe i'm just freaked nasty with it but uh when i hear
00:37:20
suicide cryptid note i want to get my hands on that i want to know what he was trying to communicate and
00:37:30
and then it makes you wonder why did it go missing jessup was in the back pocket of law enforcement so
00:37:37
now with the suicide you got to toss that away it's going to make convicting kyler a lot more difficult
00:37:44
you're exactly right and that was the fear the shared fear at that time we have both jessica and carr's families
00:37:51
they're now very concerned that jessup is dead he was expected or at least they expected him to be the star witness in
00:37:59
the state's murder case against kyler jessup even once proclaimed that he wanted the families to feel better at
00:38:06
night that kyler was finally put away i mean those are his words so you would expect him to be the star witness
00:38:14
but clearly he must have been conflicted about testifying against kyler or you know he was spiraling out of control
00:38:22
it's really tough to say when we examine this situation here well he had that heavy drug addiction that he was back at
00:38:29
but another little interesting nugget here captain is that at this time yeah it was not public information
00:38:38
that jessup had ratted out kyler you did it right so i don't know if he was dreading
00:38:44
testifying against him or what have you but he commits suicide the prosecutors have
00:38:49
to forge ahead and they go on record saying jessup was a problematic witness anyway right
00:38:56
because he was in jail for arson and had two protective orders taken out against him so while he may have had
00:39:04
good information to offer up on the stand they weren't super in love with this guy because he was no saint himself
00:39:10
well again he calls right away after this after they set fire to jessica's vehicle
00:39:18
and then now he commits suicide it's almost like he was so remorseful or so so much hated that he was involved at
00:39:28
all that that's why he took his own life seems that way to me anyways it very well could be it also could be
00:39:36
i think it's probably a mountain of things or maybe he is more involved than he's even telling people
00:39:43
and he just couldn't live with himself it looks to me regardless of his involvement he was
00:39:49
going to go away to prison himself right and that might have not been something that he was willing to live
00:39:55
with yeah i agree with you kyler's attorneys they were doing their best at this time
00:40:02
to delay the trial and to dig up evidence exonerating kyler in december of 2019 they sought the
00:40:10
right to independently test the remains found by the mushroom hunter as well as hair recovered from an suv
00:40:19
searched by the fbi in 2013. this was the vehicle of someone who had been looked at as a potential other
00:40:26
suspect in cara's case the defense is trying to raise concerns about this alternative suspect well
00:40:35
they're trying to do the same thing that kyler was doing point in every direction
00:40:38
other than himself correct and that and that's not where the twists and turns stop with this case
00:40:45
he's going to start throwing more people under the bus once this hits trial well and the thing too is
00:40:53
this is kind of leaving the door open right once jessup kills himself now if you're the defender of kyler
00:41:01
you're looking at this through a different lens you're going okay well maybe regardless of what the police say
00:41:09
he very likely could have been their star witness now that guy's gone so the door is open to a potential
00:41:15
defense here and the first thing that they start attacking is look there was another suspect at one point in at least
00:41:21
cara's murder and in car's disappearance and what they're saying at this point is
00:41:28
we don't think that this guy was thoroughly investigated well it's too bad jessup took his own life because we
00:41:35
could have got him on the stand like and a few good men and said colonel jessup i want the truth
00:41:43
give me the truth the defense for kyler also filed motions challenging some of the witness statements in the case
00:41:50
because they allege that a kansas city police officer who was working the case was told to step back from it as this
00:42:00
officer was involved in a sexual relationship with one of the witnesses but then continued to investigate the
00:42:07
case even after being told not to so the defense questioned the integrity of the evidence and the integrity of the
00:42:15
investigation itself at one point the defense made a motion to have the judge removed
00:42:21
because they argued that he was biased against their client this motion was denied by another judge
00:42:28
and they allege that their confidential phone email and text conversations with kyler from jail were improperly recorded
00:42:38
and reviewed by the cass county sheriff's office yeah they're just trying every freaking trick in the book
00:42:43
and they're you know just pulling [ __ ] out of their ass throwing this [ __ ] on the wall and
00:42:48
seeing what sticks on august 23 2019 kyler's attorneys filed a motion to have him declared incompetent to stand trial
00:42:57
and seeking a psych evaluation a mental evaluation found that he was in fact competent to stand trial however
00:43:06
there was some back and forth as the defense attorneys objected to this finding and insisted on a second opinion
00:43:13
they then backed out of the second opinion but required kyler to be medicated for anxiety and depression
00:43:22
which who knows how much of it was smoke and mirrors by the defense team the trial eventually
00:43:29
commenced in april of 2021 but not before kyler's defense attorneys moved for a change of venue claiming
00:43:37
that he could not receive a fair trial in cass county eventually both sides agreed that the
00:43:43
trial would stay in cass county but jurors would be imported from saint charles county closer to st louis
00:43:51
meanwhile the poor families of our victims had to endure more waiting and a statement from john runyon said we want
00:43:59
justice for jessica and cara which in turn would be justice for our families and
00:44:05
our community [Music] join us back here for part three there's so much more to get to if you have
00:44:31
thoughts and opinions check out our blog at truecrimegarage.com and also check out our music that i
00:44:39
create every week for the show it's on spotify or apple music and until next episode be good be kind and don't litter
00:44:56
[Applause] [Music] you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most controversial
  • 75
    Most heartbreaking
  • 75
    Biggest twist

Episode Highlights

  • Kyler's Confession
    Kyler Yust confesses to his half-brother about Jessica's murder, leading to his arrest.
    “He confessed to strangling Jessica and that she was gone.”
    @ 04m 30s
    November 19, 2021
  • Community Support
    The community rallies around the families of missing girls, showing solidarity and support.
    “This whole community is going to rally around these families.”
    @ 08m 31s
    November 19, 2021
  • Discovery of Remains
    Human remains are found in Cass County, leading to the identification of Jessica Runions.
    “In my heart of hearts, I believe it's Kara.”
    @ 17m 17s
    November 19, 2021
  • Kyler's Violent History
    Kyler's probation is revoked after he commits multiple violent acts, including killing cats.
    “You got to give him more than two years probation.”
    @ 24m 40s
    November 19, 2021
  • Confession to Murder
    Kyler's half-brother Jessup reveals that Kyler confessed to strangling Jessica and disposing of her body.
    “He confessed to me saying that he strangled her and threw her out in the woods.”
    @ 26m 19s
    November 19, 2021
  • Community Support for Victims
    Over 100 people participate in a walk for Cara, honoring her memory and supporting her family.
    “My hat goes off to the community for rallying around both of these girls.”
    @ 32m 36s
    November 19, 2021
  • Kyler Charged with Murder
    Kyler is officially charged with the murders of Jessica and Cara, following multiple confessions.
    “Kyler was officially charged with murder for the killings of Jessica and Cara.”
    @ 33m 20s
    November 19, 2021

Episode Quotes

  • It's too bad Jessup didn't decide to put Kyler out with the shovel.
    If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2/// 536
  • When you're going through something like this, you have to hold on to hope.
    If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2/// 536
  • He's not even acting like a human.
    If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2/// 536
  • I need to help me burn her car.
    If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2/// 536
  • This is the start of hopefully moving forward.
    If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2/// 536
  • We want justice for Jessica and Cara.
    If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2/// 536

Key Moments

  • Kyler's Arrest07:28
  • Remains Found14:31
  • Probation Revoked24:12
  • Animal Cruelty24:36
  • Vehicle Arson29:25
  • Community Vigil32:10
  • Murder Charges33:20
  • Trial Delays43:32

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown