If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2 /// 536 | Forensic Files

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[Music] [Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you doing thanks for
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a guy that everyone knows about from the Queen of England to the
hounds of Hell ladies and gentlemen the captain Off With Their Heads it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks
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crime I don't want your love oh I [Music] don't when we left off Captain we were
reintroduced to Kyler yust a name we've heard before he was the boyfriend of missing person Cara kety from 9 years
ago Jess iica did not tell Jackson that she was going out with Kyler that Thursday night when she did not come
home now at this time Kyler was living in Kansas City with his grandfather this after being released from prison just
over a month earlier and he was hanging out with Jessica runions of Raymore who was as said apparently the
girlfriend or ex-girlfriend of Kyler's friend Jackson Mallet meanwhile on Saturday September 10th
2016 at 1:41 a.m. the Kansas City Fire Department found a vehicle on fire at 95th Street in Blue River Road this is
in Jackson County Missouri the man who reported the car fire recognized the license plate of the burning vehicle as
that belonging to a girl he'd seen online as missing Jessica runion indeed the car
which was incinerated to a smoking shell was Jessica's Equinox it had been deliberately set a
blaze with gasoline spread inside and out of the vehicle later that day on the 10th a young man named Jessup Carter
called the belon police department he told them that he was with his half brother Kyler
UST apparently they share a mother when Kyler set Jessica Ran's vehicle on fire further Kyler confessed to Jessup that
he had strangled Jessica and that she was gone double douche Cano Kyler told Jessup he dragged her into the woods and
left her there Kyler had asked Jessup to help him destroy the vehicle and to hide
evidence and while he was burning the vehicle Kyler got burned himself yes he managed to burn his hands and face while
setting Jessica's car on fire Jessup took Kyler to to a trailer home in Edwards Missouri to let him hide out for
a while and heal from these Burns but then he decided to call the police it's too bad Jessup didn't decide
to put Kyler out with the shovel authorities obtained a search warrant to search his mobile home they were looking
for evidence in relation to the vehicle fire and to a missing person's investigation well and remember he was
also the main suspect in the disappearance of Cara they collected a blue plaid shirt and an alcohol pad and
a Q-tip with blood on them but more importantly they found Kyler eust hiding out just as Jessup had said a photos of
Kyler taken by police show that he had burns on his face he also had Burns and blisters on his arms and hands and in my
opinion Captain if you look closely at these pictures you can see he also has scratches on his face and hands that
came possibly from Jessica runions defending herself well it's interesting that you point that out cuz that's in my
notes but that's not reported anywhere well since they had no idea where Jessica was police did not feel that
they had enough to arrest Kyler for her murder they don't know in fact at this point if she has been killed they just
know that she's missing at this time so what they did do though was they arrested him on charges of knowingly
burning a vehicle which of course is not as serious as murder but at least it would
ensure that he would be locked up for a while right while they're going to try to obtain other evidence against Kyler
but also based on what his half brother is saying it leads you to the idea that we need to find her and chances are
you're not going to find you're not going to find Jessica alive yes in these situations you are looking for
a live missing person until you have something to suggest otherwise and here with jessup's story that he's telling to
police we have something to suggest otherwise very sad and disgusting Kyler was taken in by detectives from the
Kansas City Police Department's fugitive apprehension unit on Wednesday September
14th this was his 28th birthday he was arrested and held on $50,000 cash only Bond and at this time in our timeline
Captain Kyler wasn't talking to anyone anymore Kansas City Police issued a press release conducted searches for
Jessica interviewed all of her friends and acquaintances and followed up on tips and leads they searched the area
where Jessica's car was found for 2 days reportedly they collected a bag that belonged to Jessica found where the
vehicle was set a blade they continued searches for Jessica over the next few months even asking the
public for any type of surveillence footage that they may have from their homes or from businesses that were near
the location that the vehicle was found well this is like deja vu to this small town 25,000 people this just happened 9
years ago where we were looking for Karen now we're looking for Jessica this whole Community is going to Rally around
these families Cara's family is going to Rally around Jessica's Family and I wish
more communities were like this and it's just great to see in this case so the authorities searched Kyler's
grandfather's apartment remember he's living there briefly with his grandfather once he got out of prison
this was in the 8700 block of Crescent Avenue Kyler's grandfather his name Alfred eust aged 85 at the time told the
police he didn't know what was going on with Kyler as he hadn't been around for a few days 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 saw the side of Kyler that
police say they were seeing meanwhile Jamie runions this is Jessica's mother was going crazy with worry about her
missing daughter right where could she be well you would think that law enforcement would a relay they basically
have a confession from Kyler to Jessup about him strangling Jessica and leaving her out in the woods her family spent
the time Captain conducting organized searches actively looking for Jessica and handing out flyers they told the
media that these activities keep us from sitting at home waiting for a phone call
adding that we can't just sit this was Mike runions Jessica's grandfather told the Kansas City star jimie found some
solace in the only person who could understand what she was going through believe it or not it's Ronda Beckford
we've heard that name before that's because that's car capet's mother Ronda and her husband Carr's
stepfather they've been actively keeping Carr's case in the public eye for all these years now organizing rallies and
walks and keeping the belon police accountable even as the investigation dragged on with seemingly
nothing Rhonda told the Kansas City Star that when she first learned on the news
that Jessica runions was missing and that she had last been seen with a man named Kyler UST her heart sank she
reached out to Jamie Rhonda said her primary focus now was supporting jimie and helping her stay positive she told
the star quote when you're 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 good advice she hoped that with Kyler's arrest some
light would be shed on what happened to her daughter Cara as well as Jessica over the next months with no sign of
Jessica her family held vigils sold t-shirts passed out flyers and tried to keep the pressure on the police to find
their girl they also searched everywhere they could dedicating as many as 3 days
a week every week to look for Jessica and this is kind of shocking here Captain not once but twice in fact two
weeks in a row groups out looking for Jessica discovered other human remains they found bodies in Brushy wooded areas
bodies that were not Jessica or Cara mhm at least the family thought that they were providing some type of closure for
some other families if not their own well and also remember if you go back 9 years prior this restraining order
against Kyler was that he was choking Cara so now here we have another situation where somebody's claiming that
he strangled Jessica yeah and like you pointed out the belon authorities it looks like they were fairly certain that
Kyler was the one responsible for Cara's disappearance way back in 2007 and they
just couldn't prove it Belton PD Lieutenant Brad Swanson often visited Kyler in prison and made sure that Kyler
saw him when he was set free so he tells the Kansas City Star that I make sure that he never forgets that I'm around
and this is interesting because it looks like since 2009 the Kansas City municipal court
records show that police gave Kyler at least eight traffic citations s for everything from failure to obey traffic
signs parking in an improper Manner and running a red light I mean these are all
things that they should issue citations for anyway but it almost gives the appearance that the police always seem
to be around or on the lookout for Kyler they're kind of letting him know we're watching you now that Kansas City
Police had Kyler incarcerated for that car fire and again he finds himself being the suspect number one in a
disappearance of yet another young woman Belton Police began working with the Kansas City Police Department to gather
evidence against Kyler that could help them both put murder cases together against him well in 2010 he was accused
of trying to choke his 18-year-old girlfriend to death and he was also accused of trying to kill her three cats
so what we have here Captain is sadly car's case goes cold and then all these years later Jessica goes missing we have
months that go by and it looks like we're in danger of the same thing happening here in this case well it's
hard to get a conviction if you don't have the body well the break that law enforcement needed it comes in the
spring of 2017 this when a mushroom hunter Keith Todd was exploring the woods near a
quarry for fungi on April 3rd 2017 he was in the area of 233rd Street and Y Highway this is in Cass County a
heavily wooded area south of belon Todd Came Upon what he immediately recognized
as a human skull he called police and reported what he found police roped off the area and looked for any evidence
that they could find and sure enough they found more human bones they were scattered many had been gwed on and some
were never found police called the parents of both Jessica and Cara to let them know that remains had been found
this was standard operating procedure of course they had no idea whether the remains belong to either of the girls at
that time right remember search teams had found bodies twice before on January 21st and January 28th that were not the
girls that they were looking for but Rhonda and Jamie did not sleep much that night this is what they L later said to
the media well and if you're law enforcement I I wonder if they're more hopeful for one remains or the other
because with the car case you have some evidence that points towards Kyler but with the Jessica case especially with
this supposed confession to Jessup his half brother that if if you find her remains you're going to be able to build
a stronger case against him because you have that confession in the in your back
pocket so while they're waiting on pins and needles then the next day a second set of human remains believed to have
been there much longer were found now at the time Jamie and Ronda were sitting down for a joint TV interview the call
came in from Lieutenant Brad Swanson who told them I'm not going to say 100% but just my gut is telling me we
may have some resolution police then summoned the families of both Jessica and car to a
meeting at the police station jimie and Ronda faced the media afterwards holding
hands they had to wait for confirmation of their worst fears but they said if the remains were the girls they were
glad they were together and indeed the Kansas City medical examiner office and State Crime Lab identified the first set
of remains as Jessica runions after Jessica was ided Ronda Car's mom acknowledged that it could take months
to determine whether the older bones found near Jessica belong to her daughter she said quote in my heart of
hearts I believe it's Cara here we are still waiting yet again end quote the second set of remains was finally
identified through DNA as Cara on August 16th 20 2017 this with the help of the FBI crime lab in Quantico Jamie said
that while she had searched for months and months for her daughter she never went as far as the 233rd Street location
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[Music] 2023 all right we're back you filthy animals cheers to you cheers to everyone
out there all right Captain how about a little background information on Kyler here mhm
what we could find says he was born in 1988 reportedly he never knew his mother jonine until his teen years and his
father Kenny as we have seen or heard was reportedly a meth attic Kyler was raised by his
grandparents this is Alfred and Doris eust and he was troubled from a very early age court documents filed by his
attorney site kler being sexually abused as a child and suffering from PTSD as a
result and maintain that he also was diagnosed with bipolar disorder whatever the cause of his delinquency court
documents reflect that Kyler has said he started abusing alcohol at a very young
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 16 mhm people who knew knew him said that he was very charismatic as you pointed out
earlier but people also said he could turn angry within seconds and as a teen he started getting into legal trouble
one early arrest was from 2010 this for stealing from a tattoo paror where he worked for which he served 10 days in
jail and soon after he nearly killed a woman this is going to kind of flesh out that story that you were talking about a
little bit earlier here C the one from 2010 yeah yeah this was a girlfriend of Kyler's and she
should be described in my opinion as very very lucky because she was able to eventually get away from Kyler still
alive this was Candice Martin stclair Kyler assaulted her sometime in 2010 and at that time Candace was 18 and
6 months pregnant with twins fathered by Kyler the two were living together for about 6 months but his behavior became
increasingly aggressive and violent so she was trying to leave him Kyler came home drunk one night when she was
packing her bags to leave and he grabbed her around the throat with both hands pinning her to the bed she said that he
looked deranged as he was choking her until she would almost lose Consciousness and then he punched her to
make sure that she would stay awake and aware she says that she finally passed out but when she woke up he was lying
behind her spooning her and Whispering I love you and telling her that if she was
good that would not happen again this guy's a raging psychopath but this was not the entire story for one thing
Candace told police that at two different times Kyler killed some kittens right in front of her the couple
had three kittens together and for my own sake and everybody else's without going into any detail he killed them all
Kyler was beating up Candice in fact he bragged to her that he had killed a girlfriend in the past and would do the
same to her if she left him well the killing of the cats is that's Luca magnata [ __ ] you know puka not hadada
nevertheless Candace said that she felt sorry for Kyler as he threatened to kill
himself often if she left and he also was the father of these unborn twins so she kind of felt forced to stay with him
at that time she didn't report the attack at the time but after a while with the kittens and some other stuff
his behavior became so frightening that she left and didn't look back yeah good for her and after she left she noticed
him following her and him leaving threatening messages for her to find part of the problem is that these guys
are so manipulative and they can twist words and they can make you think that you're crazy but you have to have your
radar out for these creep bags and family members and friends have to have their Radars out for these creep bags
and I wish people would just raise better men so women wouldn't have to put up with this [ __ ] she
too attempted to obtain an order of protection against Kyler eventually she had it dropped this once they got back
together they were on and off for quite some time it looks like um before it was
finally over Candace said that she did not realize that Kyler was a suspect in a girl's disappearance until she Googled
him and found that there was a connection between him and Cara kety well and she would have found that
Cara's claims against Kyler are the same claims that she was making because he does this to every girl he dates then a
judge ordered the arrest of Kyler for failing to appear in court for each of the tattoo parlor incident and the
kitten killing situations he was arrested and charged with animal cruelty so Kyler pled guilty and got two years
probation for several charges right he eventually violated his probation by failing to attend a
single this is crazy he's ordered to attend 20 six Court mandated batterers intervention
classes he fails to attend a single one like not even going to fake it for a little while right well because he's a
giant bag of [ __ ] so at that time Captain his probation was then revoked and he sentenced to 180 days in jail he
eventually serves 120 of that but look if you know for a fact that Kyler if you're law enforcement you know for a
fact that this horrible human well he's at this point he's not even acting in any way shape or
form like a human he kills several cats that you got to give him more than two years probation even with all this
violence and stuff going on he's also busy committing other types of crimes and several of these are serious crimes
at some point he got in Big Time legal trouble when he got caught receiving receiving a shipment from China of quote
unquote designer drugs this was intercepted by Customs agents in San Francisco this was a this is something
I'm very I'm really not familiar with here thankfully uh this was a drug with the street name meow meow wait so he's
killing cats and he's taking drugs called meow meow well probably looking to sell them if he's not oh he's taking
them he's consuming them and looking to sell them because eventually he's going to be charged with a felony of drug
trafficking based off of this situation so he's sentenced to 45 months in federal prison and he only ends up
serving about 27 months of this and he was permitted to live in a halfway house for two months after that and then
starting in April of 2016 He was ordered to home confinement in his grandfather's apartment this en
camp Kansas City so this kind of brings us up to the point of Jessica going missing in September of
2016 but like you said when Jessica goes missing we we know she was last seen with Kyler then we know through his half
brother Jessup that we burned her vehicle Jessup is also telling you hey Kyler confessed to me saying that he
strangled her and threw her out in the woods yeah but I also find it weird we we talk about this all the time I don't
care if he's your half brother or what he is if a scumbag tells you hey choke this girl and I threw her out in the
woods and I I need to help me burn her car he he better have something damn good on you or you shouldn't be helping
in the first place and I find it very strange that he showed Jessup shows up to help Kyler Jessup shows up with his
girlfriend and she's and and I'd like to know a little bit more information on this I couldn't
find 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 to a crime until they're accessory to a crime right you usually don't lead in with hey I murdered
someone can you help me a lot of times it's uh hey I need you to pick me up from here or I need you to meet me here
and then next thing you know your hands are dirty as well well see that's also why I wondered and it wasn't that clear
is it possible that Kyler says hey come pick me up here Jessup shows up and the car is already
on fire and he had nothing to do with the car actually being on fire other than he was there cuz Kyler obviously
got some pretty bad burn marks from the fire Jess uped in it yeah so that is really all the information that's
leading us up to when Jessica runions vanishes in 2016 which was on September 8th I do
want to point out too that by the time that Kyler is arrested in in 2016 for the burning vehicle he had three
children at that point now Kyler's first court appearance after this arrest was eagerly attended by Ronda Beckford car's
family had made sure to send someone to every court appearance of Kyler's throughout the years so remember how we
pointed out that the police kind 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 of traffic citations anytime he was charged with
something that was big enough to hit the papers over the years car's parents would show up and sit in court yeah
that's awesome 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 the guy that we're convinced did this is going to be locked up even if it's just for months he's
going to be locked up well a lot of these missing person cases where it takes him a long time to find find any
remains especially when there's some kind of accomplice normally it takes a very long
time for the accomplice to come forward but Jess's calling law enforcement the night that this happens yeah and that's
where the storytelling portion of this case gets a little difficult to follow along in the timeline because what we're
going to see here Captain is Kyler will be arrested in charge for burning Jessica vehicle but keep in mind when
he's arrested and charge with that there is no bodies at this time we've not located Jessica we've not located
Cara and it makes the story kind of not follow along a natural order to Things So currently on our timeline we have
Kyler arrested for burning Jessica's vehicle MH now now remember that Jessup Carter Kyler's half brother called the
police and reported Kyler for burning her car but also for killing Jessica this was in September of 2016 in
April of 2017 an article in the star reported that police had been seeking Jessup
Carter on an outstanding felony charges for a traffic stop that went down on the
day Jessica's car was burned this was on the 10th of September deputies from the
Henry County Sheriff's Office pulled over jessup's 1998 Dodge Durango for crossing the center line and drifting
onto the grass on Northeast Missouri Highway number two as well for failing to have a working plate illumination
light in the vehicle at the time were Kyler e and a woman named Crystal Taylor this is jessup's longtime girlfriend the
cops fris the occupants of the vehicle and found a knife on Jessup and a gun on crystal Jessup was charged in April of
2017 this 6 months later with resisting a traffic stop as well as multiple misdemeanors such as driving without a
license being uninsured and failing to display plates but he was also wanted on a charge of failure to appear in a
domestic assault case this whole bloodline is full of [ __ ] Jessup eventually turned himself into
authorities on April 28th it's not clear why the charges were were just now filed
in 2017 when the incident took place in 2016 it seems likely that the police wanted to keep pressure on Jessup to
give them more information about KY and what the three of them were doing that day after Jessica's car was found
on fire so on May 4th 2017 this is at the 10th Annual walk for Cara we have over a 100 people here
walking in observance of the 10th anniversary of her disappearance you know they're holding signs honoring the
young woman demonstrating support for the family she had still not been identified at this time remember it
wasn't until August 16th that she was officially confirmed via DNA but my hat goes off and you have to applaud this
community how much they rallied around both of these girls Cara and Jessica yes and at this at this annual walk for Cara
we have her mother Rhonda who tells the newspaper I am finally relieved to have confirmation we've known for a long time
that Cara was gone and we felt when they found the other remains that the other set was Cara it's been a long 10 years
and this is the start of hopefully moving forward toward a prosecution Kyler's trial for the vehicle arson was
scheduled to commence on October 23rd 2017 but on the 5th of that month there was big news Kyler was officially
charged with murder for the killings of Jessica and Cara the initial charges include two counts of Abandonment of a
corpse but these charges were later dismissed the probable cause affidavit stated that at least four people told
investigators that Kyler had confessed to choking Cara to death he told some that he put her body in the woods and
others that she would never be found and October 6 2017 article said it's not clear why UST was not charged in
kopetsky death earlier and a follow-up article says might Jessica be alive today had he been arrested in connection
with Cara's death based on those multiple recountings to acquaintances about the killing these articles are
pointing out that police had witness statements months after car went missing that Kyler killed her right and
so now everybody's really concerned that hey we may have saved a life if we could
have locked this guy up all those years earlier yeah and the community as law enforcement can't make this mistake
again right and so what we have here now Captain we have Kyler's going to face charges in multiple counties but you
have the counties that are kind of going to band together and they're like you know what we can afford to drop the
arson charges we can cancel that trial let's all band together and focus instead on the much more serious murder
case case so Kyler he's allowed to plead not guilty to these charges this in October of
2017 now how now brown cow how now brown cow we need to go back just a minute here because after Jessup the half
brother was released for turning himself in in April 2017 well he went on a bit of a bender
his girlfriend and then wife Crystal Taylor remember she was the one in the vehicle with Kyler Jessup on that night
said that after the episode where Jessup called the police on his brother that he
relapsed into drugs and then very quickly went downhill he was arrested for domestic violence and she took the
kids and stayed in a shelter for a while when Jessup was arrested again in April
of 2017 for failure to appear on those domestic violence charges and for various charges from the incident where
he was pulled over with Kyler and Crystal mhm he's asked by reporters you know will you comment on Kyler youed
case at this point and he says that he could not but that his family did not approve of what Kyler had done and they
empathized with the girls fames in July of the same year Crystal turned on the news and saw jessup's
Uncle Paul's house okay so this is where Jessup was staying she sees Paul's house on the
news because it's on fire and Jessup was arrested for arson this guy has some issues and for trying to stop
firefighters from putting out the fire so he's booked into County Jail on September 24th Jessup was found dead in
his cell at 4:30 a.m. of an apparent suicide he hung himself police said apparently there was an FBI
investigation into his death but there was nothing to show that it was not a suicide
however this is a weird little nugget here Jessup left behind a note that has been regularly referred to as encrypted
and believe it or not that note has magically disappear well maybe I'm just a freak you know maybe I'm just freak
nasty with it but uh when I hear suicide crypted note I want to get my hands on that I want to know
what he was trying to communicate and and then it makes you wonder why did it go missing Jessup was in the back pocket
of law enforcement so now with the suicide you got to toss that away it's going to make convicting Kyler a lot
more difficult you're exactly right and that was the fear the shared fear at that time we have both Jessica and car's
families they're now very concerned that Jessup is dead he was expected or at least at least they expected him to be
the star witness in the state's murder case against Kyler mhm Jessup even once proclaimed that he wanted the families
to feel better at night that Kyler was finally put away I mean those are his words so you would expect him to be the
star witness but clearly he must have been conflicted about testifying against Kyler or you know he was spiraling out
of control it's really tough to say when we examine this situation here well and
he had that heavy drug addiction that he was back at but another little interesting nugget here Captain is that
at this time yeah it was not public information that Jessup had ratted out Kyler you Dey
rat so I don't know if he was dreading testifying against him or what have you but he commits suicide the prosecutors
have to forge ahead and they go on record saying Jessup was a problematic witness anyway
right because he was in jail for arson and had two protective orders taken out against him so while he may have had
good information to offer up on the stand they weren't super in love with this guy cuz he was no saint himself
well again he he calls right away after this after they set fire to Jessica's vehicle and then now he commits suicide
it's almost like he was so remorseful or so so much hated that he was involved at
all that that's why he took his own life seems that way to me anyways if very well could be it also could be I think
it's probably a mountain of things or maybe he was more involved than he's even telling people and he just couldn't
live with himself it looks to me regardless of his involvement he was going to go away to prison himself right
and that might have not been something that he was willing to live with yeah I agree with you Kyler's
attorneys they were doing their best at this time to delay the trial and to dig up evidence exonerating Kyler in
December of 2019 they sought the right to independently test the remains found by the mushroom hunter as well as hair
recovered from an SUV searched by the FBI in 2013 this was the vehicle of someone who
had been looked at as a potential other suspect in car's case mhm the defense is
trying to raise concerns about this alternative suspect well they're trying to do the same thing
that Kyler was doing point in every direction other than himself correct and that and that's not where the twist and
turns stop with this case he's going to start throwing more people under the bus
once this hits trial well and the thing too is this is kind of leaving the door open right once Jessup kills himself now
if you're the defender of Kyler you're looking at this through a different lens you're going okay well maybe regardless
of what the police say he very likely could have been their star witness now that guy's gone so the door is open to a
potential defense here and the first thing that they start attacking is look there was another suspect at one point
in at least car's murder and in car's disappearance and what they're saying at this point is we don't think that this
guy was thoroughly investigated well it's too bad Jessup took his own life because we could have got him on the
stand like and A Few Good Men and said Colonel Jessup I want the truth give me the
truth the defense for Kyler also filed motions challenging some of the witness statements in the case because they
alleged that a Kansas City police officer who was working the case case was told to step back from it as this
officer was involved in a sexual relationship with one of the witnesses but then continued to investigate the
case even after being told not to so the defense questioned the Integrity of the
evidence and the Integrity of the investigation itself at one point the defense made a motion to have the judge
removed because they argued that he was biased against their client this motion was denied by another judge and they
alleged that their confidential phone email and text conversations with Kyler from jail were improperly recorded and
reviewed by the Cass County Sheriff's Office yeah they're just trying to every freaking trick in the book and they're
you know just pulling [ __ ] out of their ass throwing the [ __ ] on the wall and
seeing what sticks on August 23rd 2019 Kyler's attorneys filed a motion to have him declared incompetent to stand trial
and seeking a psych evaluation a mental evaluation found that he was in fact competent to stand
trial however there was some back and forth as the defense attorneys objected to this finding and insisted on a second
opinion they then backed out of the second opinion but required Kyler to be medicated for anxiety and depression
which who knows how much of it was smok and MIRS by the defense team the trial eventually
commenced in April of 2021 but not before Kyler's defense attorneys moved for a change of venue
claiming that he could not receive a fair trial in Cass County eventually both sides agreed that the trial would
stay in Cass County but jurors would be imported from St Charles County closer to St Louis meanwhile the poor families
of our victims had to endure more more waiting and a statement from John runan said we want Justice for Jessica and
Cara which in turn would be Justice for our families and our [Music] community join us back here for part
three there's so much more to get to if you have thoughts and opinions check out
our blog at truecrime garage.com and also check out our music that I 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
[Music] you can St start your day off right when you find a professional on Angie to get
your plumbing right first connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well
visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

If I Can’t Have You /// Part 2 /// 536

Part 2 of 3

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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

Kyler Eust is implicated in the murders of Jessica Runions and Cara Kopetsky, with confessions and evidence leading to his arrest and trial.

Key points

Kyler's Confession. Kyler confessed to his half-brother about strangling Jessica and hiding her body.
Discovery of Remains. Human remains were found in Cass County, leading to a breakthrough in the case.
Identifying the Victims. The remains found were identified as Jessica and Cara, bringing closure to their families.
Kyler's Violent Past. Kyler's history of violence escalates as he threatens Candice and kills animals.
Community Support for Victims. The community rallies around the families of Jessica and Cara, showing solidarity and support.
Murder Charges Filed. Kyler is officially charged with the murders of Jessica and Cara, marking a turning point in the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

When you're going through something like this, you have to hold on to hope.

Ronda Beckford's advice to Jessica's mother during the search for her daughter.

12:06WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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