MO MO - Kara Kopetsky, 17, Belton, 4 May 2007 - #2

[luvbeaches]

Thanks doc!!

Welcome, Littledeer!

 

[luvbeaches]

HOmecoming is over and my daughter made it home before curfew. Thought I could have a few worry free minutes but then I got on the computer.

I am so sad and relieved that this is not Kara. I am with you all on the mixed feelings. Glad, sad, worried, confused. Oh, my.

Welcome littledeer!

I know this is a long shot but there is another belton teen that has been missing for 11 months and you hardly hear anything about him. Jesse Ross went missing in Chicago while on a trip for school. My husband was on the same trip with a different school. He disappeared from the hotel in the wee hours of the morning. I know there is little to no chance there is a link with Kara, but I find it ironic that they are both from Belton and we are hearing so little about both of them. At least Kara has a thread here at WS but I haven't found one on Jesse.

Good nite all, going to bed with a heavy heart and praying for a family of another UIB.

Hope you daughter had a wonderful time at Homecoming. Those days are over for me, and I miss them. All that's left is the bags of formal dresses and pictures. She did do a lot of things in her sorority, but it's not the same, at least for me.

Like you, I am glad the body wasn't Kara's. But there's some family out there that's going to find out it's their loved one.

I remember hearing a lot about Jesse Ross when he went missing. How sad for his family to not know what happened to him. I think wherever he is, it's not good. He didn't look like the type of kid that would just take off for the heck of it.

 

[luvbeaches]

So you put this on the bottom of your list because of where it happened and what you feel about the community? I have news for you. People should NOT go missing from anywhere that we should let them go.

Mike just answered a question (I think it was Indy asking what's going on in MO). Facts are facts. It doesn't mean we don't care about what's going on, but KCMO is a screwed up city (goverment and crime). Jumping all over Mike for posting what's going on in KCMO doesn't make sense to me.

You're so right about people shouldn't go missing from anywhere...but that doesn't have anything to do with what we were talking about.

And from meeting and talking with Mike, you couldn't meet a more compassionate caring person if you tried.

 

[luvbeaches]

At this point I am not expecting a body yet. She may well be alive somewhere.

I don't know why, but I still think Kara fled for some reason. I have nothing to back this feeling up with other than it's just a feeling. I sure hope she's alive, but it also wouldn't surprise me one day her body is found and it's proven that she died shortly after the last sighting of her (at school).

I just think it's so odd that her parents haven't been all over the media with this. I'd not even heard about Kara until Kelsey went missing.

 

[luvbeaches]

Back in, and I'm not sure of the year, but I think it was 2002 there was a murder at an upscale apartment complex just south of 135th Street (135th in State Line Rd) in Leawood, KS. I'm not sure it was ever solved but at that time I would have laid my money on that someone jumped off the train, killed this person, and then jumped back on the train....trains often sit still on those tracks, waiting for what I don't know but they do. This murder was not the young lifeguard that was murdered, that case was solved, but it was near to where that happened. This was a strange case of a man, kind of a drifter type guy who was starting to get back on his feet, being brought out to this complex from a bar in downtown KCMO, brutally murdered and found the next morning under some bushes at the complex.

I remember this case because we'd had this guy as a waiter several times at the restaurant where he worked (the Green Mill on 87th just off 69 alt). We had just been to the restaurant and about a week later, we saw his picture on the news. It seems to me that they thought his body was dumped in Leawood, and they felt the crime happened somewhere else (but I could be wrong). I don't recall his name, nor do I remember if the case was solved.


Welcome, deskside!

 

[deskside]

I remember this case because we'd had this guy as a waiter several times at the restaurant where he worked (the Green Mill on 87th just off 69 alt). We had just been to the restaurant and about a week later, we saw his picture on the news. It seems to me that they thought his body was dumped in Leawood, and they felt the crime happened somewhere else (but I could be wrong). I don't recall his name, nor do I remember if the case was solved.


Welcome, deskside!

I think they always thought he was killed there. One of my daughters friends had just been moving in there that day so everyone was over helping him move in and it evolved into a party. My daughter had left early but most of those kids were interviewed about the murder. There were several parties going on in the complex that night and if I'm not mistaken people had seen him alive at the complex. Stress does funny things to the memory though so I'd have to pull up old KC Star articles on it. Oh jeez, yes the memory does do wierd things to the brain. I just remembered our friend and neighbor was a detective on the case he brought over the photo of the dead guy and interviewed my daughter in our home. Good Lord how could I have forgotten that one? I wasn't allowed to see the photo but it was horrendous I think my daughter almost got sick seeing it....that I will never forget her face looking at it. But I still don't remember if he was killed at the apartments or not. Wait a couple seconds and maybe my brain will kick in again. In an area that doesn't see many murders I think the train track connection bares looking in to and certainly since there are so many missing from one area.

 

[luvbeaches]

I think they always thought he was killed there.

That could very well be...I don't know why I thought he wasn't, but I could easily be thinking about another murder. I sure don't remember a lot about this other than he waited on on several times.

I just remembered our friend and neighbor was a detective on the case he brought over the photo of the dead guy and interviewed my daughter in our home. Good Lord how could I have forgotten that one? I wasn't allowed to see the photo but it was horrendous I think my daughter almost got sick seeing it....that I will never forget her face looking at it.

I'll bet that was an awful experience for your daughter.

But I still don't remember if he was killed at the apartments or not. Wait a couple seconds and maybe my brain will kick in again.

We could be waiting an eternity for my brain to kick in...

 

[Busylady]

I am little behind, but I have talked with KSMike alot on another case, he is one of the most kind compasionate people I have met on here. I don't think it anyway KS was trying to minimize the disappearance of Kara or to say she wasnt important enough to be found or anything like that. What he states about KCMO is absouletly correct. It is a scary place to live or raise your children in. You simply cross the stateline and its an entirely different world. The crime use to be mostly in the downtown KCMO area but as time as gone on it has spread further and further south. The schools are horrible, kids can't play in their own front yards or at the parks for fear of being shot just becasue you are there or because you happen to walk in on a drug deal gone bad. If you sit and listen to the police scanner for that area it is shocking drive by shootings, brothers shooting each other, domestic violence and the list goes on and on.

 

[Busylady]

I hate to even bring this up but a skull was found today to decomposed to determine sex or race - said to be of a child or small adult.
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/307864.html

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Oh, no! Here we go again. I hope the dive team comes up with the rest of the person. It sounds like a case of someone underwater for a considerable amount of time to detach the skull (as in LP's case).

Have they identified the girl they found yet? I haven't seen anything on it, but thought the locals might have heard something.

 

[Busylady]

They havent said anything about the identity of the girl found in Belton I was sure they would announce something Sunday but no such luck.

Oh, no! Here we go again. I hope the dive team comes up with the rest of the person. It sounds like a case of someone underwater for a considerable amount of time to detach the skull (as in LP's case).

Have they identified the girl they found yet? I haven't seen anything on it, but thought the locals might have heard something.

 

[Armandv101]

I hate to even bring this up but a skull was found today to decomposed to determine sex or race - said to be of a child or small adult.
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/307864.html

How far is this place from Belton?

 

[Busylady]

Trying to figure out how close, the Little Blue runs a great distance. I saw the Lee's Summit water team is working on it which is close to Belton which is what grabbed my attention. If I look up Missouri 78 and Missouri 7 it looks closer to Independence which is about 15-20 minutes from Belton. Longview Lake runs into the Little Blue River.

 

[Armandv101]

Trying to figure out how close, the Little Blue runs a great distance. I saw the Lee's Summit water team is working on it which is close to Belton which is what grabbed my attention. If I look up Missouri 78 and Missouri 7 it looks closer to Independence which is about 15-20 minutes from Belton. Longview Lake runs into the Little Blue River.

Domo arigato gozaimasu, BL.I tried Mapquest and could not find 78. Are there any known, but unfound, drowning victims at that river? Maybe someone could check into that. If this is Kara, seems the perp has a thing for rivers and creeks (sound familiar?) as dumping locations.

 

[KSMike]

Thank you for your kind words, LB and Busylady!

As the crow flies, the skull site is exactly 19.2 miles from Kelsey's site, and exactly 24 miles from Belton High School.

On the roads (most direct route), I calculate 34.7 miles and 39 minutes drive time from the high school to the skull site (assuming it was found where the body was left and it wasn't carried downstream).

MO 7 & MO 78 is actually in Blue Springs, MO, not far from the Lake City Ammunition Plant. Off the southern edge of the plant property there's a Missouri Park & Rec firing range, where I've shot a few times. The Little Blue runs north-south in that area, a little over a mile west of that intersection. 78 crosses the river there.

 

[Armandv101]

Thank you for your kind words, LB and Busylady!

As the crow flies, the skull site is exactly 19.2 miles from Kelsey's site, and exactly 24 miles from Belton High School.

On the roads (most direct route), I calculate 34.7 miles and 39 minutes drive time from the high school to the skull site (assuming it was found where the body was left and it wasn't carried downstream).

MO 7 & MO 78 is actually in Blue Springs, MO, not far from the Lake City Ammunition Plant. Off the southern edge of the plant property there's a Missouri Park & Rec firing range, where I've shot a few times. The Little Blue runs north-south in that area, a little over a mile west of that intersection. 78 crosses the river there.

I think it is safe to assume that the body was dumped up-river, the only question is where would the likely place(s) be and how far up. It is getting to seem that all you have to do is lift a rock somewhere in Missouri and a body will be found underneath. Is this a big river or is it similar to the one where Kelsey was found?

 

[KSMike]

It's the same river, just north of Longview Lake instead of south where Kelsey was found.

You can get a satellite view here: http://tinyurl.com/3xakkc.

That's 78 crossing the river. You can follow the river to the south-southwest to Longview Lake. The Little Blue varies from almost dry to a raging torrent depending on the area and especially depending on recent rainfall.

 

[Armandv101]

It's the same river, just north of Longview Lake instead of south where Kelsey was found.

You can get a satellite view here: http://tinyurl.com/3xakkc.

That's 78 crossing the river. You can follow the river to the south-southwest to Longview Lake. The Little Blue varies from almost dry to a raging torrent depending on the area and especially depending on recent rainfall.

Same river? Oh, oh. My "spider-sense" is tingling. Here's another article on finding the skull: http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/14291072/detail.html#

 

[KSMike]

Yeah, possibly. Although, I'd like to have a dollar for every body I've heard of being found in the Little Blue.

KC has many rivers including a couple of major ones running through it. They seem to be crime magnets. Just before we were married, my wife's car was stolen (for the stereo), taken down to the banks of the Kansas River, and burned beyond recognition.

 

[Armandv101]

^Reminds me of some of the canyons in L.A. Those are known dumping grounds for bodies. I used to patrol up on Mulholland Drive in the hills and I always expected to come across a body there, but never did. I did a quick check and found nothing in regard to any drownings (unrecovered) in Little Blue River within the recent months.