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Missing Girl: Kara Kopetsky - MO - 05/04/2007


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#1 Denise

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Posted 06 June 2007 - 07:17 PM

Kara Kopetsky

 

kopetsky_kara.jpgkopetsky_kara2.jpgkopetsky_kara6.jpg

http://www.thekansas...870/detail.html
PHOTO AT LINK

Both photos shown are of Kara. She was last seen on May 4, 2007. Kara's ears are pierced twice. Her navel is pierced. Kara has a scar on her forehead. When she was last seen she was wearing a white tank top and jeans.

DOB:  Feb 17, 1990
Missing:  May 4, 2007
Age at time of disappearance:  17
Sex:  Female
Race:  White
Hair:  Brown
Eyes:  Hazel
Height:  5'5" (165 cm)
Weight:  110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing From:
BELTON
MO
United States

Belton Police Department (Missouri) 1-816-331-1500

Print a poster: http://www.projectja...raKoptesky.pdf

Website: findkarakopetsky




Parents Of Missing Belton Teen Ask For Help
Kara Kopetsky Disappeared On May 4

POSTED: 10:17 pm CDT May 14, 2007
UPDATED: 10:40 pm CDT May 14, 2007

BELTON, Mo. -- The parents of a missing teenager are asking for help finding their daughter.

Kara Kopetsky, 17, disappeared on May 4. Her mother, Rhonda Beckford, said nothing seemed to be wrong the day she vanished.

"Everything was fine. I mean, she told me she loved me before she left, gave me a hug and kiss. Said, 'See you after school,'" Beckford told KMBC's Marcus Moore.


When Kopetsky didn't return home later that day, calls to her cell phone went unanswered.

"It was like, 'Kara where are you at?' You know? And it's not like her to not call back, and she didn't call back," Beckford said.

The teen also didn't show up for work at the Popeye's restaurant in Belton. There has been no sign of her since she vanished.

Her family said it's a nightmare.

"I just get up every morning and I ask God to help me make it through another day," Beckford said. "Sometimes I find myself sitting at the couch looking at the door and thinking, 'She's going to walk through it.'"

Meanwhile, relatives have been busy posting fliers around Belton and asking for anyone with information to come forward.

"We've been going door to door," Beckford said.

"The main thing to emphasize is one, she's not in my trouble and two, she's loved very much," said James Beckford, the teen's stepfather.

Police said they have talked with Kara's friend and her boyfriend, and no one knows where she is.

The teen's parents said her bank account has seen no activity since she disappeared.

Anyone with information in the case can call the TIPS Hot Line at 816-474-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.




#2 Denise

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Posted 06 June 2007 - 07:18 PM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18631816/

Missing teen had restraining order against ex-boyfriend

May 12

BELTON, Mo. - Court documents reveal accusations of kidnapping and a restraining order against the ex-boyfriend of a missing Belton teen. "The cops have already done a lie-detector test and, if you want, ask them about that record," says 18-year-old Kylr Yust, the missing girl's ex-boyfriend.

Police confirm he did pass a lie-detector test in connection with Kara Kopetsky's disappearance and say he has an alibi. He was not in Belton when the 17-year-old disappeared.

Police say he has cooperated throughout the investigation.

"I have been because I don't know anything about where she is or about what happened," Yust says. "I wish I did."

The young man goes on to explain.

"They said I was a suspect because of prior happenings not because of anything that would point to me having anything to do with her disappearing now," he says.

Kara posted multiple pictures of herself on her MySpace page, which police say has not been accessed since she disappeared last Friday.

She has not used her cell phone or her ATM card since she disappeared in the middle of the school day at Belton High school either.

On MySpace, she wrote that most of the past year she had dedicated her life to Kylr.

Belton Police say just six days before Kara's disappearance they arrested Yust for assaulting the missing teen.

A restraining order against him levels accusations that he kidnapped her and restrained her on April 28, seven days prior to her disappearance. It also alleges on a separate occasion he choked her and threatened to slit her throat.

Yust says the kidnapping allegation was from a night where for a few minutes he would not let her out of his pickup truck, but that he never, ever, had any intention to harm Kara Kopetsky.

Police say, even after the incident, Kara continued to call Yust and spend time with him, even after the restraining order was put in place.

"You want something for your story, check this out," Yust said Friday as he rolled up his sleeve and showed a large, healing scar across his forearm.

"I tried to kill myself twice. There you go. That's the night I did it 'cause I wanted her to leave the room so I could do that," Yust said as he ended the interview and walked into a no-alcohol bar where his band was performing Friday night.

Police say there was no evidence to support kidnapping charges in connection to the night Yust would not let Kara out of his truck. He does, however, face misdemeanor disorderly conduct and assault charges.

The disappearance of Kara Kopetsky has not been classified as a kidnapping. It remains a missing person case.

#3 Denise

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Posted 06 June 2007 - 07:19 PM

http://www.kccommuni...issing.girl.txt

Police search for missing girl

By: Brian McCauley, bmccauley@miconews.com
Tuesday, May 22, 2007 4:43 PM CDT

A missing 17-year-old Belton, Mo., girl recently was spotted in Louisburg, and police officials are asking for the public's help in tracking her down.

Kara Kopetski has been missing since May 4, but at least four people positively identified her as being at a convenience store and a nearby fast food restaurant in Louisburg on May 17, said Sgt. Brad Swanson of the Belton Police Department.

Kopetski was accompanied by a white male in his late teens, according to witnesses.

Swanson said Kopetski has a boyfriend in Belton, but they have been having their ups and downs, and he did not rule out the possibility that she is staying with another friend in Louisburg.

Family members of Kopetski who live in Louisburg have hung posters up across town, which is how the witnesses were able to recognize her, Swanson said.

Belton and Louisburg police officers interviewed the witnesses and conducted a search of the area but have not been able to locate the girl.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Belton Police Department at 816-331-1500.

#4 Denise

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Posted 06 June 2007 - 07:20 PM

My Space:

http://www.myspace.com/karakopetsky

#5 Denise

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Posted 06 June 2007 - 07:21 PM

Website:

http://www.findkarakopetsky.com/

#6 Denise

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Posted 06 June 2007 - 07:21 PM

http://www.thekansas...510/detail.html

Police: Missing Belton Girl Not Related To Smith Case

POSTED: 9:33 pm CDT June 6, 2007
UPDATED: 9:46 pm CDT June 6, 2007

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- In the midst of the Kelsey Smith abduction and homicide investigation, police mentioned another missing teen on Wednesday.

Kara Kopetsky, 17, of Belton, Mo., disappeared on May 4.

Police said they have no reason to believe Kopetsky's disappearance is related to Smith's case.

Officers notified the Kopetsky family that the body found on Wednesday was not their daughter before they made a public statement.

Anyone with information in the case can call the TIPS Hot Line at 816-474-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.

#7 Denise

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Posted 07 June 2007 - 05:04 PM

http://www.associate...rl_believe.html

Parents of Missing Belton Girl Believe Link to Kelsey Smith Case

By Jennifer Thompson
Published Jun 07, 2007

Just over a month ago, another Kansas City metropolitan area girl went missing; her name is Kara Kopetsky. She lived in Belton, Mo., with her mother, Rhonda Beckford, and her stepfather, James Beckford.She is 17, according to NBC Action News.

Some believe there is a link between Kopetsky's case and the case of Kelsey Smith, the 18-year-old Overland Park girl who was abducted from a Target store last Saturday. Smith's body was just found on Wednesday and on Thursday, a man was arrested in the case. His name is Edwin R. Hall, and he is to be arraigned.

The girls have some things in common. Both are quite young and have brown hair and brown eyes. Smith's body was found near Belton, in Grandview, Mo. Kopetsky went missing from Belton High School and has been missing since May 4.

There are flyers across the city alerting the public to Kopetsky's disappearance. Her parents were keeping abreast of Kelsey Smith's case, hoping it would lead to clues about Kara's case. "It's almost one month to the day that Kara came up missing that Kelsey came up missing," her stepfather pointed out. "They said it was abnormal for that to happen. They said she has no reason to leave or runaway. Kara had no reason to leave or runaway," Rhonda Beckford said top NBC Action News.

The Bradfords are frustrated that a bogus rumor came about that Kara Kopetsky was sighted in Louisburg, Kan., some time ago. It is misleading and has some thinking that Kara is safe. The Bradfords want the public to know that the rumor is untrue and that Kara is still missing. James Bradford said, "That sighting was not confirmed or verified there was no surveillance tape video tape to back it up." Rhonda Bradford added, "People out there if you have fliers up please leave them up cause she's still missing."

In an interview with NBC Action News on Monday, Kara's parents sympathized with the then missing Smith. "Our thoughts and prayers are with them and we know what they're going through," they said.

The police have not drawn any conclusions between the two cases and have not necessarily confirmed that they suspect it, but the parents of Kara Kopetsky believe that there is too much in common between the two for it to be a mere coincidence. They want the police to take the possibility seriously.

#8 Denise

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Posted 07 June 2007 - 05:21 PM

http://www.foxnews.c...,279088,00.html

Missouri Family Holding Out Hope Their Missing Daughter Is Still Alive

Thursday, June 07, 2007

As one family mourns the loss of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith, whose body was found Wednesday after she disappeared four days earlier, another family is still wondering where their daughter is.

Kara Kopetsky, 17, disappeared more than a month ago from her Belton, Mo., home, which is about six miles from where Smith's body was found. Smith was abducted from Overland Park, Ill. Edwin R. Hall, 26, was arrested and charged Thursday with her kidnapping and murder.

"We're convinced someone knows something. [Hall] was from Olathe, which is as close as Overland Park. You know, it's 20 minute [away]," Kara's mother, Rhonda Beckford, told FOX News on Thursday, leaving open the possibility Hall could be involved in her daughter's disappearance.

Kara was last seen on the morning of May 2 at her high school, Beckford said. Kara had called her mother that morning to ask her to bring her history textbook to school and to wash her work uniform. But she never arrived at work that afternoon.

Kara was reported spotted at an an area gas station in Lewisburg, Mo., on May 4, the same day her cell phone and debit card were last used.

"The Lewisburg sighting gave us hope because, in this situation, that's what you hope. You don't want to think about the bad things that could happen," Kara's stepfather, Jim Beckford, told FOX News.

Belton police said they were not ruling out a connection between the Kara's disappearance and Smith's murder.

"I’m not going to discount the possibility these cases are connected … but I can’t draw that conclusion at this point," Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass told reporters Wednesday.

Police notified the Beckfords on Wednesday that the body they found was not their daughter.

The Beckfords told FOX News they were partially relieved at the news, since that means their daughter may still be alive. But they are wracked with fear that their daughter may have suffered a similar fate.

"Part of our life is missing," Rhonda Beckford told FOX News.

"We got to the part where we don't eat, don't hardly sleep, just cat naps," added Jim Beckford. "Nothing else really seems important."

Rhonda Beckford said Kara had an ex-boyfriend whom police had interviewed several times and he has been cooperating fully.

Kara is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighs 115 pounds and has red hair and hazel eyes.

#9 Denise

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Posted 08 June 2007 - 03:46 PM

http://blogs.kansasc...eb_site_fo.html

Friday, June 08, 2007

Where is Kara Kopetsky?

UPDATED: If you want to help Kara Kopetsky's family and friends publicize her case, they'll be handing out fliers from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday and from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Grandview Assembly of God, 12400 Grandview Road.

Volunteers are also talking about going door-to-door on Wednesday. There will be an informational meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Belton Price Chopper to set times and groups. Jackie Mason, a family friend, says they're trying to print up T-shirts with Kara's face and the number for police on them.

Megan Rolland has a good story about the case in today's Star. I talked a little with Jim Beckford, Kara's stepdad, this morning. After she initially disappeared on May 4, family and friends quickly plastered her flier around Belton, he said. Searchers went to local hangouts, looking for her. "You turn every stone you can."

Until now, though, Kara's case hasn't gotten as much attention. Maybe because she disappeared around the time of the Greensburg tornado, which dominated the local news, he said. Unlike the recent Kelsey Smith abduction, there was no video of Kara being taken.

One thing that Beckford wanted to emphasize: He doesn't think Kara's a runaway. There have been some reports that she has a history of running off, but that's not true, he said. She has skipped school, he noted, but she's never been gone this long with absolutley no contact. (It's frustrating, Mason said, because people have ripped down the missing-persons flier.)

Kara is 5 feet 6, 115 pounds with hazel eyes and light brown hair. She has small hands, her stepdad says, and a bad habit of biting her fingernails.
...

There's a new Web site helping to publicize the case of Kara Kopetsky, a missing teenager from Belton. She's been gone for over a month now, and there have been no new developments. The site includes photos of Kopetsky, as well as ways to contact police if someone has seen her. (To wit: 816-474-TIPS for the TIPS Hotline, 816-331-1500 for Belton PD.)

#10 Denise

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Posted 08 June 2007 - 03:47 PM

http://www.kansas.co...tory/91466.html

Police consider possible links between missing Belton teen and slain teen

By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER
Associated Press Writer
http://www.findkarakopetsky.com

BELTON, Mo. - Authorities investigating the murder of Kelsey Smith, the 18-year-old woman who was abducted from a Target store parking lot and found dead three days later, have also been looking into the disappearance of a Belton teenager who was last seen more than a month ago.

No link has been established between the disappearance of Smith and that of Kara Kopetsky, 17, who was last seen at Belton High School, blocks from her home, on the morning of May 4.

But Belton police Capt. Don Spears said two Belton detectives are assigned to work with investigators on the Smith case.

He said Belton police were examining evidence at the home of Edwin R. Hall, 26, who was charged Thursday with kidnap and murder in Smith's death and is being held on $5 million bond. Belton police were also considering an additional search of the wooded area where Smith's body was found, which is about six miles north of Kopetsky's home.

Smith and Kopetsky did not know each other and did not have any friends in common, Spears said.

He said his office has received about 25 new tips on Kopetsky's disappearance since Monday, two days after Smith was abducted from the Target parking lot. None of those tips have been helpful, however.

John Douglass, chief of police in Overland Park, where Smith's abduction took place, said this week he "would not discount the possibility" that the Smith and Kopetsky cases were connected.

"We are working with the Belton police and certain representatives from the Missouri side," Douglass said. The departments would look at the evidence in both cases "from every single possible fashion," but so far there was no connection.

Authorities working the Smith case received more than 500 leads between Saturday, when Smith was abducted, and Wednesday, when her body was found. Spears attributed much of that attention to the video images caught on Target's surveillance cameras, which showed Smith entering and leaving Target, as well as images of what appeared to be a struggle at her car before the car left the parking lot.

More than 50 detectives were assigned to the Smith case. Spears said that when a lead comes in about the Kopetsky case, he assigns "six or seven" detectives to investigate.

"We didn't have evidence that she was abducted, and we didn't have surveillance video like in the Smith case," Spears said. "We're concerned. There's nothing to indicate she's a runaway. And there's nothing to establish she was abducted. But it's possible she was abducted."

When investigators in the Smith case announced Wednesday that a body had been found in Longview Lake Park, Kopetsky's parents, Jim and Rhonda Beckford, waited nervously until Spears told them the body was that of Smith, and not Kara's.

"Sitting here, a month later, and then you see somebody that has the same physical characteristics and not less than 30 minutes apart in distance wise and you start associating things," said Jim Beckford, Kara's stepfather. "We didn't have the resources and the video tape, and we didn't have proof that Kara was abducted."

Beckford also noted that his stepdaughter disappeared the same day a tornado struck Greensburg, Kan. The story dominated media coverage in the area.

Spears said most media didn't give Kopetsky's disappearance the attention he thought it warranted.

Kopetsky is about 5 feet 5 inches tall and 125 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. Smith was 5 feet 6 inches tall and 120 pounds with long brown hair and brown eyes.

The Beckfords said Kara had called the morning she disappeared asking her mother to wash her work clothes because she had to be at work at 4 p.m.

She also left behind her debit card. Her checking account has not been touched. No calls had been placed on her cell phone since the morning she disappeared, so her phone records were no help, unlike the Smith case, where police were able to track signals from her phone to the general area where her body was found.

"I'm trying to clear up confusion that she was a runaway," Mrs. Beckford said. "We had not argued. She had no reason not to come home. ... We had normal teenager parent conflicts, but we were always able to talk it out."

There was a report that Kopetsky may have been seen at a fast food restaurant in Louisburg, Kan., on May 17. A composite photo of a man who was possibly with her was released soon afterward. The Beckfords didn't recognize the man.

"That morning was a really bad day, and I was feeling down," Mrs. Beckford said. "It brought my hope back. But I would have felt a lot better if there was surveillance (cameras) and we could have seen whether it was her or not, because now we have no idea."

----

http://www.findkarakopetsky.com

#11 Denise

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Posted 09 June 2007 - 07:15 PM

http://www.myfoxkc.c...TY&pageId=1.1.1

Kopetsky Family Continues to Search for Missing Daughter, Kara

Last Edited: Saturday, 09 Jun 2007, 4:22 PM CDT
Created: Saturday, 09 Jun 2007, 4:22 PM CDT

BELTON, Mo. -- Seventeen-year-old Kara Kopetsky of Belton, Missouri has been missing since May 4. Now, after the kidnapping and murder of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith, police are trying to figure out if there's a link between the two teenage girls.

Meanwhile, family and friends of Kara continue to hope and pray for her safe return. About 25 family members and friends gathered in a Belton church gymnasium Saturday morning to help find Kara. It's a far cry from the hundreds who rallied in the search for Kelsey Smith last week, but they wore the same T-shirts of hope and carried the same cries for help.

"She has not been found. We have no idea where she' at. She' vanished," said her mother, Rhonda Beckford.

Vanished without a trace from Belton High School a month ago. And the family said her disappearance has put their lives on hold.

"Everybody sets goals in their lives, what they want to do, a week from now, a month from now. None of that seems to matter," Kara's father, Mike Kopetsky, said. "It's all day by day now."

Rhonda Beckford said her daughter left behind all her clothing as well as her phone charger and iPod. Beckford also said Kara's bank account has shown no activity since her disappearance.

Someone had reported seeing Kara at a convenience store in Louisburg, Kansas with a young man, but the family said they don't believe it.

"I think it was more of a false hope, even though I wish it was real hope," said Mike Kopetsky.

And so the search continues with a plan to canvass as many neighborhoods for Kara as possible.

The family admits they try to keep upbeat in their search, a search they say for now will not include tromping through forests or fields.

"We're scared that that's, at least for myself, admitting the worst at this point right now, and we're surviving on hope," said Mike Kopetsky.

Hope that has been alive for more than a month now - and counting. Still, the family delivers their ongoing message.

"That she's still gone. She's not found yet and we'd like to bring her home - safely," said Courtney Barker, Kara's step-sister.

So far police have made no connection between the disappearance of Kara Kopetsky and Kelsey Smith.

Police did say they have received 25 new tips on Kara's disappearance, two days after Kelsey Smith turned up missing.

#12 Denise

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Posted 11 June 2007 - 04:14 PM

http://www.kansascit...ory/145635.html

Tuesday rally set for missing Belton teen

By KEVIN HOFFMANN
The Kansas City Star

Friends and supporters of missing Belton teenager Kara Kopetsky will hold a support rally for the family today Tuesday at the Price Chopper near U.S. 71 and Missouri 58.

Organizers will pass out fliers with details on Kopetsky’s disappearance and sell hot dogs, hamburgers and t-shirts to raise money for the Kara Kopetsky Fund. The event will begin at 5 p.m.

Family and friends have been searching for Kopetsky, who has been missing since May 4, when she was last seen at Belton High School. A school surveillance video showed her walking down a hallway and she also talked with her mother that day. She has not had communication with family members since.

Information about her case was broadcast over the weekend nationally on programs that included America’s Most Wanted and Fox News’ Geraldo At Large.

Belton police are continuing an investigation, but said they had no new clues Monday. Anyone with information about the disappearance is asked to call the Tips Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS (474-8477).

#13 Denise

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Posted 11 June 2007 - 04:22 PM

Posted Image 

http://www.amw.com/m...se.cfm?id=45643
AMW MISSING DATA FILE FOR
Kara E. Kopetsky 

Mo. 17-Year-Old Vanishes

Kara's cell phone has not been touched in more than a month.
On May 4, 2007, Kara Kopetsky disappeared from Belton High School, in Belton, Mo.  At first glance, it wasn't that alarming: cops say Kara had runaway in the past. Usually, she'd leave and come back within a few days. This time was different. She never returned.

All the usually trappings of a teenage girl took the investigation nowhere.  She hadn't used her cell phone or her bank card. She hadn't accessed her MySpace page.  After a few days, the family and cops realized this was most likely not a typical runaway.
It is important to note that cops are not convinced that the girl spotted in Louisburg is actually Kara, but would like to know for sure.

A Sighting?

For a few weeks the case was cold. But on May 17th, the investigation received a jumpstart when someone recognized Kara in Louisburg, Kansas. She was there in the afternoon and she wasn't alone.

Witnesses spotted her with a man. They'd eventually develop a composite sketch of the man.  It is important to note that cops are not convinced that the girl spotted in Louisburg is actually Kara, but would like to know for sure.

Connection To High Profile Abduction?

The Kara Kopetsky case took another turn on June 2, 2007. That's when 17-year-old Kelsey Smith went missing from a Target in Overland Park, Kansas.  Four days later, Kelsey was found murdered.  The cases seemed to have a number of similarities.
Both girls were pretty, brown-haired girls.  Both disappeared from the suburbs of Kansas City.  And in the Kelsey Smith case, cops found some videotape of a man they want to identify.  While cops on the Smith case are reluctant to call that man a suspect in Kelsey's disappearance, that man looks similar to the composite sketch drawn in Louisburg. Again, cops have theories and ideas, but they are looking for proof.

Sex Female

Race White

Age at Disappearance 17

Height 5'6"

Weight 115 lbs.

Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair) Red

Eyes (Color and Correction) Hazel

Possible sighting in Louisburg, Kansas. That sighting has not been verified.

Last Seen Belton, MO
Belton High School

Other Possible Locations Kansas
St Louis, MO
Missouri

#14 Denise

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Posted 11 June 2007 - 04:31 PM

http://www.wibw.com/...es/7946872.html

Kelsey/Kopetsky Connection?

Posted: 6:18 PM Jun 11, 2007
Last Updated: 6:38 PM Jun 11, 2007
Reporter: Brian Quick

As the family of murdered kansas teen Kelsey Smith prepares to say their final goodbyes -- another family wonders if their missing teen has a Kelsey connection.

17-year-old Kara Kopetsky of Belton, Missouri has been missing since May 4.

Although they haven't found anything yet that leads them to believe the cases are related -- investigators have not ruled it out.

26-year-old Edwin Hall is charged with Smith's murder.

Police are working to see if he could have had anything to do with the Kopetsky disappearance.

Missing Missouri teen Kara Kopetsky and murder victim Kelsey Smith did not know each other.

But their similar appearance -- and the fact that Smith's body was found only six miles from Kopetsky's home -- have led some to speculate whether they met the same fate.

When it was announced a body had been found last week-- the Kopetskys feared the worst...but it was Smith's body that was found.

Now, Belton and Overland Park police are working together to look for connections.

The funeral for Kelsey Smith is set for Tuesday afternoon in Leawood, Kansas.

#15 Denise

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Posted 11 June 2007 - 08:17 PM

http://www.kansascit...ory/146341.html

Event to support family of missing Belton teenager

By KEVIN HOFFMANN
The Kansas City Star

Kopetsky Friends and supporters of missing Belton teenager Kara Kopetsky will hold a support rally for the family today at the Price Chopper near U.S. 71 and Missouri 58.

Organizers will pass out fliers with details of Kopetsky's disappearance and sell hot dogs, hamburgers and T-shirts to raise money for the Kara Kopetsky Fund. The event will begin at 5 p.m.

Kopetsky, 17, has been missing since May 4, when she was last seen at Belton High School. A school surveillance video showed her walking down a hallway, and she also talked with her mother that day. She has not communicated with relatives since.

Information about her case was broadcast nationally over the weekend on programs that included "America's Most Wanted" and "Geraldo at Large."

Belton police are continuing an investigation but said they had no new clues Monday. Anyone with information about the disappearance is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (816-474-8477).

#16 Denise

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Posted 12 June 2007 - 08:18 PM

http://www.kansascit...ory/147679.html

Posted on Tue, Jun. 12, 2007

Hundreds turn out at rally for missing Belton teen

By MEGAN ROLLAND
The Kansas City Star

A 5 p.m. rally for missing Cass County teen Kara Kopetsky had already raised $2,000 for the search effort 30 minutes after it began.

Friends and family organized the event in Belton with the help of area businesses. They sold T-shirts and handed out fliers to raise awareness of Kopetsky’s case in the parking lot of a Price Chopper.

“This is just really amazing that people you don’t really know would rally around someone they don’t even know,” said the teen’s mother, Rhonda Beckford, while around her the crowd cheered at an announcement that the Belton Fire Department was in attendance.

Beckford estimated that close to 500 people showed up for the event, including several members of her family from out of town.

National media attention to the case has increased the number of tips and leads called into the Belton Police Department but there were no new developments.

Kara Kopetsky, 17, was reported missing May 4 after she didn’t return home from school. She doesn’t have a car and her parents were expecting her to walk home.

Beckford said last week that her daughter had called home from school the morning of May 4 because she had forgotten a textbook. Beckford took it to the school and Kara picked it up later that day, but did not attend her afternoon classes.

She has not been seen since. Police say there had been no activity with her bank account or cell phone since she was last seen at Belton High School at 10:30 a.m.

Anyone with information about her disappearance is asked to call 816-474-TIPS (8477).

To reach Megan Rolland, call 816-234-7814 or send e-mail to mrolland@kcstar.com.

#17 Denise

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Posted 14 June 2007 - 06:05 AM

http://www.kansascit...ory/149937.html

School video shows Belton’s Kara Kopetsky leaving building

By MEGAN ROLLAND
The Kansas City Star

Belton police have released a surveillance video showing 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky leaving Belton High School on May 4, the morning she disappeared.

Capt. Don Spears said that there was no camera outside the door she exited, and that police had interviewed students seen in the surveillance with her.

Timmy McMahan, 18, said he appeared in another surveillance video, talking to Kopetsky by a drinking fountain just before 10:30 a.m., when footage shows Kopetsky leaving the school.

“She asked what we were doing that night and said she would call and hang out with us,” McMahan said. She never did.

The video also shows another person talking to Kopetsky as she walked out the door.

Kopetsky’s parents were expecting her to walk home from school that day. Nothing is missing from her room and there has been no activity in her bank account since.

Spears said there were no new developments in the case. Anyone with information are asked to call TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

#18 Denise

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Posted 14 June 2007 - 06:21 PM

http://www.49abcnews..._disappearance/
Edwin Hall possibly linked to another disappearance

Story by Fally Afani Ruzik (Contact)

5:26 p.m. Thursday, June 14, 2007

Authorities are looking into whether there was a connection between Kelsey Smith's murder and a Missouri teen's disappearance.

Kara Kopetsky, 17, has been missing for more than a month, but those who know her hope new leads can be generated.

A new surveillance video of Kopetsky last seen May 4 leaving Belton High School has been released. The video shows her walking down the hall that day and then stopping to talk to another girl. She then walks off camera and was never seen again.

"There's been no money taken out of the bank, she has over a hundred dollars in the bank, she hasn't pulled any out. We were able to retrieve her ATM card, it happened to be in her locker, but as far as I know she still has her cell phone, and there's been no activity. It's either dead or been turned off," Kopetsky's mother said.

So far investigators have not linked the two cases.

Anyone with information that could help locate Kara Kopetsky is asked to call the Tips hotline at 816-474-TIPS.

#19 Kelly

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Posted 15 June 2007 - 09:36 AM

http://www.thekansas...000/detail.html

Rally Calls Attention To Missing Persons In KC
POSTED: 10:04 am CDT June 15, 2007

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A national tour came to Kansas City Thursday to call attention to missing people from the area.

The families of several missing people in the area joined the rally on the Country Club Plaza, including Kara Kopetsky, Summer Shipp, Sam and Lindsey Porter, Shirley McKeown and Jody Ledkins.

"There are seven cases of missing people in Kansas City and all over. Each balloon has a flier of all the pictures and information of all the missing people. We're going to release them in hopes that wherever they end up, one person has seen the person," said Mary Van Dyke whose father is missing.
[align=center][/align]

The national tour is called On the Road to Remember. It is sponsored by a missing persons center in North Carolina.

Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org

Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html

If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.


#20 Dan

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Posted 16 June 2007 - 02:52 PM

Posted Image

[img width=320 height=400]http://www.missingki...MC1072327x1.jpg[/img]


Endangered Missing

KARA KOPETSKY

DOB:  Feb 17, 1990
Missing:  May 4, 2007
Age Now:  17
Sex:  Female
Race:  White
Hair:  Brown
Eyes:  Hazel
Height:  5'5" (165 cm)
Weight:  110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing From:
BELTON
MO
United States

Both photos shown are of Kara. She was last seen on May 4, 2007. Kara's ears are pierced twice. Her navel is pierced. Kara has a scar on her forehead. When she was last seen she was wearing a white tank top and jeans.

Belton Police Department (Missouri) 1-816-331-1500

Print a poster: http://www.projectja...araKoptesky.pdf


Print the poster

Imprima el cartel
Dan Cohen
Volunteer
Project Jason
http://www.projectjason.org
Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja.../awareness.html

If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in

#21 Kelly

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Posted 23 June 2007 - 07:32 AM

http://www.kansascit...ory/159887.html

Posted on Thu, Jun. 21, 2007

Web petition calls for state probe of Kopetsky case

By KEVIN HOFFMANN
The Kansas City Star

Hundreds of names have been added to a Internet petition calling for state officials to take over the case of missing Belton teenager Kara Kopetsky.

The petition suggests that Gov. Matt Blunt put Attorney General Jay Nixon in charge of the case to investigate alleged mishandling of the case, but does not specifically say why those involved think the case was mishandled.

Belton police continued to follow leads in the case Thursday, said Sgt. Brad Swanson, a spokesman for the department. Police officials couldn’t comment about the motives of the group that initiated the petition, Swanson said.

“We fully understand the growing frustration of Kara’s family and friends, as well as the community as a whole,” he said, adding that investigators too are frustrated with the lack of information that has come in.

“We still believe there are individuals in the community that have information regarding Kara and would request they contact the department,” Swanson said.

Kopetsky, 17, disappeared May 4 after her morning classes at Belton High School and has not been heard from since.

The Web site with the petition states that it has created over 13,000 petitions, many of them about environmental or animal rights issues.

Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org

Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html

If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.


#22 Denise

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Posted 23 June 2007 - 01:40 PM

Kara Kopetsky Petition Pushes For New Investigation

Last Edited: Wednesday, 20 Jun 2007, 10:06 PM CDT

BELTON, MO -- It's been almost seven weeks since a Belton teenager vanished without a trace. Police are still following leads in Kara Kopetsky's disappearance, but there's a growing frustration surrounding the case.

A pretty strongly worded petition asks the state to take over the investigation into Kopetsky's disappearance and investigate whether Belton police mishandled the case.

As of Wednesday evening, there were already almost 700 signatures on the petition. A New Jersey man is helping create a missing persons video for Kara's family said he wrote the petition as a way to call attention to how police handled Kara's case.

"The ultimate goal is to go beyond Belton and go to the state house and say look public officials this was badly mismanaged there's a family in pain a girl who could be in trouble, do something," Gene King said.

When Kara disappeared May 4, she left all her clothes and her new iPod behind and she hasn't used her cell phone or bank account since. King said those facts do not suggest Kara was a runaway, yet that's how the case was treated.

"It's time to ask hard questions," King said. "Why were things done the way they were done in the beginning?"

Kara's family said it's been frustrating, but they can't change the past. The signatures remind them Kara's not forgotten.

"There's a lot of people who care about Kara and they don't want something like this to happen in the future to another child," Rhonda Beckford, Kara's mom, said.

They said Belton police keep them updated on leads. The last couple of days, investigators were searching Longview Lake looking for evidence in the Kelsey Smith murder case, but they're also keeping an eye out for possible clues in Kara's case.

"These things just take time," Beckford said. "You get one lead and hope it leads to another lead and hope it leads to Kara, bringing Kara home."

The petition organizer said he knows some people said this petition won't make a difference, but he said it's a success if it gets people talking about the case.

Web Petition:

http://www.thepetiti...ition/747950459

#23 Denise

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Posted 13 July 2007 - 05:50 PM

http://www.kansascit...ory/184390.html

Blue Springs pool benefit raises $2,000 for Kara Kopetsky search fund

By KEVIN HOFFMANN The Kansas City Star

Kara Kopetsky A weekend benefit pool tournament in Blue Springs raised about $2,000 for the family of missing Belton teenager Kara Kopetsky.

Bill Fickle, co-owner of Sidepockets, said 32 players donated $20 to play in the eight-ball tournament held Sunday at the restaurant and pool hall near U.S. 40 and Missouri 7.

“It turned out great,” he said. “The neat thing is that we had a lot of walk-in donations.”

The event was organized by Kara’s family and supporters, aimed at keeping attention on the case of the teen who has been missing for more than two months.

Radio personalities Mary McKenna and Dale Carter of KFKF 94.1 FM were on hand, along with ultimate fighter Franchesca Alcanter.

Several raffles were conducted throughout the afternoon and a portion of all soft drink sales went to the cause.

Fickle said he hoped the effort would keep the word out about Kara and that someone who sees her or knows about her disappearance will come forward.

Rhonda Beckford, Kara’s mother, said the family was using proceeds from benefits to purchase items like T-shirts, fliers and buttons. The rest goes into a reward fund, she said. A Web site with information about the case lists a reward of up to $20,000 for information that leads to Kara’s return home.

Kara, 17, was last seen May 4 at Belton High School. A call was made from her cell phone about 10 a.m. that day and the phone hasn’t been used since.

Leads have provided no clues to her whereabouts.

“It wasn’t a real happy Fourth of July,” Beckford said. “We went through Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and now the Fourth and she’s still missing.”

Later this month, on July 21, Blue Springs Harley Davidson is sponsoring the Kara Kopetsky Open Bike Ride. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and the ride starts an hour later.

#24 Kelly

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Posted 21 July 2007 - 09:36 PM

http://www.kansascit...ory/198270.html

Posted on Fri, Jul. 20, 2007

Missing teen Kara Kopetsky's family wants answers

By LISA GUTIERREZ
The Kansas City Star

Seventeen-year-old Kara Kopetsky of Belton hasn't been seen since May 4. All her family and friends have left of her are pictures like this, propped up against a vigil candle that her stepfather and mother, Jim and Rhonda Beckford, keep burning in their living room. "You kind of go back and forth. If she is trying to come back home, are we putting so much attention on this that she's scared to?"

MIKE KOPETSKY, KARA'S FATHER

The first door on the left leads into Kara's bedroom. She always kept it closed.

She wanted Thomas, her 8-year-old half brother, to stay out.

She didn't want her parents to hear her climbing in through the window when she forgot her house keys again.

She didn't want her stepdad to hear her talking with friends on her cell phone late at night. One month she talked so much and sent so many text messages that her cell phone bill was 40 pages long.

Behind that door is everything Rhonda Beckford has left of her 17-year-old daughter, Kara Kopetsky. Everything and nothing.

On the first Friday of May, a sunny spring day that tempted grown-ups to leave work early and kids to skip school, Kara didn't come home from classes at Belton High School. She hasn't been seen or heard from since. No one knows what happened to her. Not her parents, not the police, not friends who have posted messages on Kara's MySpace page:

Hey Hunny! I freakin miss u! The family is doin everything imaginable to bring u home safe. They are goin crazy for u girl.

It's been more than two months now since Kara went missing. Rhonda, 41, wears the stress on her face, where shadows sit under dark, glassy eyes.

Kara's father, Mike Kopetsky, remarried and living in Blue Springs, sometimes forgets to eat. He has lost 20 pounds and has thrown himself into his job remanufacturing transmissions.

"To keep my mind from wandering and my eyes from watering," he says.

Kara's grandmother has started smoking again. Thomas asks for hugs from strangers.

When he hears his mom say she doesn't like to go past the door into Kara's bedroom anymore, Thomas pipes up. He'd like to go in there, he says.

"Really?" says Jim Beckford, Thomas' dad and Kara's stepfather. "You never told us you wanted to."

When Kara didn't come home on May 4, Rhonda and Thomas taped a note on the wall just inside her bedroom door.

I know how hard it has been for you. Mom and Thomas

Jim says this isn't exactly a "Leave It to Beaver" home. It sounds like an apology.

He met Rhonda at UPS, where they work. At the time, Rhonda was a divorced single mom raising Kara; they were just two girls living alone. When Kara was 9, Jim and Rhonda got married.

When Kara's dad, Mike, found out she was missing, he first thought Kara was out having fun on a prom weekend.

"I kinda thought, OK, she's out being a rebel, partying, playing," says Kopetsky, 38.

Friends described Kara as a "firecracker," but she hadn't always avoided the straight and narrow. She wasn't always the girl who cut classes, smoked cigarettes and frowned in photos.

Pinned to her cluttered bulletin board are ribbons she won for track back when she still liked school, back when she played the flute.

"By the time she got into ninth grade," Rhonda says, "she was done with band."

A family photo shows Kara and Thomas sitting on a tractor, both grinning like Cheshire cats. Kara smiled like that before she became self-conscious about her looks and her full, Angelina Jolie lips.

In adolescence, she became something of a boy magnet, and her parents warned her about the company she kept. In a house too small for secrets, Thomas heard the drama. In Kara's bedroom he picks up a trinket from her vanity table.

"She got that from her other boyfriend, remember?" he tells his mom. "The one that was good?"


Officially, Kara is a "missing person endangered."

"It means that there's some concern about her being missing, that we're concerned about her well-being," says Capt. Don Spears of the Belton Police Department. "Specifically, because we've not heard from her, nor have any of her friends or family heard from her."

The concern grew from what police saw in Kara's room, things a runaway might have taken with her. Makeup. Clothes. A carton of Marlboro Lights full except for one pack.

She left behind the iPod she got for Christmas and the hair straightener she used every morning.

She planned to interview at QuikTrip the day after she disappeared and had made plans with friends for the next two weekends. Money in her bank account is untouched. She left her debit card in her school locker.

But Kara's cell phone, a Motorola Razr she got for her birthday, is missing. It hasn't been used since the morning of May 4.

"With a kid that age," Spears said, "that's a concern that the phone's not been on."

Kara disappeared the same day a tornado destroyed the town of Greensburg, Kan. Family members said when they contacted local media they were told reporters were busy in Greensburg. Some media were reluctant to publicize a possible runaway.

But then, on June 2, Kelsey Smith was kidnapped in Overland Park, and Kara suddenly became the other teenage brunette missing in Kansas City.

Before law-enforcement officials determined the cases were unrelated, the national media came calling. Jim and Rhonda gave interviews to Geraldo Rivera, Nancy Grace and Greta Van Susteren. They keep their names and numbers in a little notebook in the kitchen.

People have reported seeing Kara from California to Florida. Someone thought they saw her on a plane. Someone else thought they saw her on a tram at Disney World. Another person thought they saw Kara with a young man at a gas station in Louisburg, Kan. Outside Chicago, the FBI searched a house and found nothing. A psychic envisioned Kara in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Leads like these come in daily. Her family doesn't know what to believe, afraid to ignore the one tip that might lead to Kara.

"The family has gotten to where we don't take a lot of hope," says Mike Kopetsky. "There in the beginning we'd get a lot of false hope, and it'd end up being heart-crushing when they were false leads."

One day before the end of the school year, a rumor swept through town that a body had been found under a bridge in Louisburg. Even the kids at Thomas' school heard it.

They found your sister's body, kids told Thomas. Your sister's dead.


Though people second-guess them "you should have done this, you should have tried that" Jim and Rhonda feel they've done everything they can.

After calling the police, they organized an army of Kara's cousins, aunts, uncles and friends of the family to knock on doors around Belton, make fliers and T-shirts and call her friends.

One of those friends, Kylr Yust, 18, was Kara's on-again-off-again boyfriend for much of the school year.

Anyone who's read Kara's MySpace page knows about the tempestuous Kara-Kylr hookup.

Police say that a few days before she disappeared, Kylr and Kara had a dustup that resulted in an order of protection requiring Kylr to stay away from her.

On April 24, Kara wrote: "So life hasn't been the greatest for me lately, over the last 9 months of my life iv dedicated my life to kylr I made no other time for any of my friends nor my family. over those 9 months i forgot the person that I was. im trying to find that person again."

Kylr said Kara was a "flying by the seat of your pants" girl.

"She just wanted to have fun and do everything and experience everything in life," he said. "She didn't think too forward. She was always in the moment. She didn't think about - what am I gong to do when I grow up.'"

He keeps pictures of her on his cell phone. He said she talked of running away to Mexico the next time she was punished at home.

"Lately I've been kind of depressed about the whole thing," he says. "I have no idea where she is."


Friends doubt that Kara ran away, but police have not ruled out the possibility. Spears says there are no suspects in Kara's disappearance; there's no evidence a crime has been committed.

Because she's 17, legal age in Missouri, the police couldn't make her come home even if they found her, Spears says.

If Kara wanted to vanish without a trace, he says, she could have found a Web site to tell her how. She could have bought a pay-as-you-go cell phone that can't be tracked. She could have left behind her clothes and that fresh carton of cigarettes on purpose.

"It complicates the matter and adds to the frustration," Spears says. "Hopefully we can keep her face out in front of the public."

And yet, her dad worries about the attention.

"You kind of go back and forth," Mike Kopetsky says. "If she is trying to come back home, are we putting so much attention on this that she's scared to?

"All these different possibilities go through your head, and you don't know the right answer. We're all just frustrated €¦ that nobody has said anything yet. Somebody at some point has to say something.

"What could she be so angry about in her life to where she would have no contact with any family or friends?"

After touring Kara's bedroom, Thomas sits on the sofa in the living room and remembers his big sister.

When he would beat Kara at racing games on the Xbox. When she would make him do her chores. When she would walk him home from school and call him "butthead."

"I remember that time when she got a water bottle and just splashed it on my shirt. And then I put ice on her," Thomas says. "I don't have anyone to put water on."


MISSING
Kara (it's pronounced "CAR-uh") Kopetsky

Last seen: May 4 at Belton High School

Appearance: White female; 5 feet, 5 inches tall; 125 pounds; light brown hair; hazel eyes; scar on forehead

What she was wearing: Blue jeans, black studded belt, gray T-shirt with white skulls on it, black and gray Vans sneakers with bleach splotches and black leather hobo bag

If you have information: Call the TIPS Hotline, 816-474-TIPS (816-474-8477)

Fundraiser: Kara Kopetsky Poker Run, 10 a.m. to noon July 28, sponsored by Blue Springs Harley-Davidson. The ride begins at Guicho's, 110 Cunningham Parkway, next to Blockbuster in Belton. All-day activities include a bake sale, car wash and raffles. For info, call the Harley dealership, 816-224-5005.

Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org

Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html

If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.


#25 Denise

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Posted 29 July 2007 - 08:58 AM

http://www.kansascit...ory/208822.html

Posted on Fri, Jul. 27, 2007

Activities benefit Kara Kopetsky's family
Activities to benefit family of missing teen


Some Belton residents have set up a motorcycle "poker run" run and other activities today to benefit the family of missing teenager Kara Kopetsky.

Events will begin with a 10 a.m. registration for the bike ride at Guichos Mexican Cantina on Missouri 58 west of U.S. 71. Participants will leave at noon for a 90-mile ride and make designated stops, where they will pick up playing cards. Cash prizes will be given to the riders who have the best poker hands at the end of the ride.

At Guichos, other community events are planned, including a car wash, raffles and cake walk. Public safety officials will be on hand to offer fingerprint identification for children.

There is a $10 entry fee for the poker run. Guichos will offer a Mexican food buffet for $10, with 10 percent of the proceeds going to the Kara Kopetsky fund. Family members have said they are using money from the fund to help with awareness and search efforts.

Kopetsky, 17, has been missing since May 4. She was last seen at Belton High School.




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