If I Can’t Have You /// Part 1 /// 535 | Forensic Files

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

If I Can’t Have You /// Part 1 /// 535

Part 1 of 3 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week’s True Crime story involves several disappearances and murders. It’s a case that has spanned years. 17 Year old Kara Kopetsky of Belton, Missouri went missing in May of 2007. Less than one month later, recent High School graduate Kelsey Smith goes missing after what was to be a quick trip to her local Target store. In 2016, Jessica Runions is reported missing to Kansas City PD after attending a party with friends. Join us in the Garage for an adult beverage or three as Nic & Captain go through all of the details surrounding these cases.

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Brief Summary

Cara Kopetsky went missing in 2007, with suspicions surrounding her abusive ex-boyfriend Kyler Yust and ongoing investigation challenges.

Key points

The Disappearance of Cara Kopetsky. A 17-year-old girl goes missing after skipping school, leading to a complex investigation.
Kyler's Controlling Behavior. Cara's ex-boyfriend, Kyler, had a history of abusive behavior, raising suspicions after her disappearance.
Tornado Disruption. A devastating tornado complicates the investigation into Cara's disappearance.
Community Outrage. Citizens demand a deeper investigation into Cara's disappearance, feeling the police are dismissive.
The Murder House. A cadaver dog hits on something in a house rumored to be where Cara was killed.
Kyler's Alibi. Kyler claims he has an alibi for the time of Cara's disappearance, but doubts linger.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Those warnings don't come from your gut; they come from your soul.

Emphasizing the importance of intuition in self-preservation.

4:49WatchNov 2, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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