98 replies to this topic

[Jenn]

http://www.kansascit...tsky-comes.html

Search for missing teen Kara Kopetsky comes up empty

By DONALD BRADLEY and JAMES HART The Kansas City Star  Wed, Apr. 07, 2010 10:52 PM

The parents of Kara Kopetsky learned some time ago not to let the hope in their hearts or the fear in their minds escape from their short tethers.

Wednesday was another day of keeping their emotions subdued, held in tight control.

A morning search of a wooded area in southern Kansas City stirred up memories, but nothing more, of a missing teen.

“It’s been three years,” Rhonda Beckford, Kara’s mother, said of her family’s efforts at patience.

“I just wait to get a phone call. I try not to jump to conclusions.”

Belton police had called last week, telling the Beckfords that authorities had scheduled a careful search of a 400-acre area just east of the former Richards-Gebaur airport, near East 155th Street and U.S. 71.

More than 220 officers from the Belton and Kansas City police departments, FBI, Missouri Highway Patrol, Cass County Sheriff’s Department, Blue River Police Academy and U.S. Marine Corps walked side by side across the tract of dense brush and woods.

The media expectantly gathered on the fringes of the land. The family did not. This was emotional ground they had covered before.

The search began about 9 a.m. It was over about 1:30 p.m.

More of the same nothing; no questions answered, closure denied.

“As a mother, it’s painful,” Beckford said of the empty hours, days and months since her 17-year-old Kara left for school on what seemed a normal morning.

“We have no idea what happened to Kara after May 4, 2007.” That was the day Belton High School security cameras caught the student heading for an exit.

Continuing to get calls and tips, Belton police keep the Beckfords up to date. This particular tract comes up consistently in the investigation, said FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton. It’s been searched before, “but never a shoulder-to-shoulder grid search.”

Beckford’s husband, Jim, said they did not know what led police to that area, or why they’re doing it now. He said it’s possible it was just to finally rule it out.

Now the family waits for next call.

Honoring Kara
An annual walk in Kara Kopetsky’s honor will be held at 2 p.m. May 2 at the Cedar Tree Square shopping center in Belton.

[Jenn]

http://www.foxnews.c...g-nearly-years/

Updated April 07, 2010

New Search Launched for Missouri Girl Missing for Nearly 3 Years



Kara Kopetsky, 17, vanished early in May 2007 from her hometown of Belton, Mo.  Her last confirmed sighting was at her high school, there were also reports that she was spotted two days later at an area gas station in Lewisburg, Mo., on the same day her cell phone and debit card were last used.

Kara Kopetsky, 17, disappeared from Belton, Missouri on May 4, 2007. She was last seen leaving Belton High School where she recently completed her junior year. (findkarakopetsky.com)

Over 200 law enforcement officials in Missouri embarked Wednesday on an intensive new search for a teen girl last seen nearly three years ago -- but by the end of the day, authorities still were left without a break in the case.

Kara Kopetsky, 17, vanished early in May 2007 from her hometown of Belton, Mo. The FBI downplayed speculation that there were new leads in the case, as authorities said they wanted to take advantage of ground conditions to go over an area that had been searched before, Fox4KC.com reports.

Missouri Police from Kansas City, Belton and Cass County, as well as the FBI and a number of United States Marines, participated in the search of a 400-acre wooded area near the former Richards-Gebaur airport.

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the area had been searched before, but "never a shoulder-to-shoulder grid search," KansasCity.com reports.

"We had this information, but based upon the weather right now, the foliage is dead, there's no snow on the ground, the actually weather, the environment, leads to a more thorough search at this point," Patton told Fox4KC.com.

Kopetsky's last confirmed sighting was at her high school, but there were also reports that she was spotted two days later at an area gas station in Lewisburg, Mo., on the same day her cell phone and debit card were last used.

The teen's mother, Rhonda Beckford, said her daughter had called that morning to ask her to bring her history textbook to school and wash her work uniform, but she never arrived at work that afternoon.

In June 2007, Missouri police released a surveillance video in hopes it would offer clues about the teenage girl's disappearance. The video showed Kopetsky at her high school the morning of May 2, 2007, the last time she was seen.

Kopetsky disappeared about six miles from where 18-year-old Kelsey Smith's body was found. Smith was abducted from Overland Park, Ill. Edwin R. Hall, 26, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for her kidnapping, rape and murder.

[Jenn]

http://www.fox4kc.co...0,6357173.story

Hundreds take part in new search for missing western Mo. teen but find nothing

By Associated Press 4:02 AM CDT, April 8, 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — More than 220 law enforcement officers have searched a 400-acre rural area of south Kansas City for a Belton teenager missing for nearly three years.

But authorities say Wednesday's search failed to find any sign of 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky, who was last seen leaving Belton High School on May 4, 2007.

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton told The Kansas City Star the area had been searched before, but never as intensely.

Patton says the swath of land filled with dense brush and woods comes up frequently in the investigation.

Officers from the FBI and Missouri State Highway Patrol were joined in the search by police, sheriffs' officers, police trainees and members of the U.S. Marine Corps.

[Jenn]

http://www.kctv5.com...931/detail.html

Police Deny Access To Kopetsky Missing Person File
Hundreds Fan Out To Look For Missing Belton Teen

POSTED: 7:06 pm CDT April 7, 2010 UPDATED: 7:43 pm CDT April 7, 2010

BELTON, Mo. -- The third anniversary of Belton teen Kara Kopetsky’s disappearance is coming up soon and about two weeks ago the KCTV5 Investigative Team started asking questions about the Police Department's handling of the case.

KCTV5's Dana Wright said the Belton Police Department has never termed Kopetsky's disappearance as a crime. Even after three years, she is still considered a missing person.

Under Missouri law, missing persons files are open records. On March 18, KCTV5 asked the Belton Police Department for the entire case file, so the investigative team could pursue a story about the handling of the case.

Police denied the request the same day and officials are still fighting to keep the file from the public.

On the front page of the Belton Police Department Web site, the department asks, "Have you seen this missing person?"

The department then asks on the Web site that anyone with any information on the whereabouts of Kara to call them, "So that her welfare and safety can be confirmed."

On March 26, KCTV5 attorney Bernie Rhodes wrote to the Belton city attorney stating, "One need go no further than the homepage of the Belton Police Department's Web site to see that Ms. Kopetsky's case is not a criminal case, but a missing persons case ... there is no such crime in Missouri as being a missing person."

Rhodes asked the city attorney to hand over the Kopetsky file. Three days later, the city rejected the request again. Officials characterized Kopetsky's disappearance as a crime -- a move that legally blocks public access to the files.

City Attorney Kimberly Gale wrote: "the department suspects that a crime has been committed resulting in her disappearance. Evidence demonstrates that Ms. Kopetsky's disappearance was not voluntary and not typical of a teenage runaway."

The last sentence from Gale reads: "the department is precluded from disclosing its investigative file as this is an active investigation of criminal activity."

On Wednesday, more than 200 officers and Marines gathered to scour a field 10 miles from Kopetsky's high school -- the last place where she was seen nearly 35 months ago.

KCTV5 has asked Belton Police Chief James Person for a one-on-one interview regarding the case, but so far there has not been a response.

[Jenn]

http://blogs.kansasc...etsky-case.html

Monday, April 19, 2010

CNN looks at Kopetsky case

At CNN's website, there's a summary of the Kara Kopetsky missing-person case. (It's tagged as one of Nancy Grace's Cold Case stories, but I'm not sure if that means it'll be mentioned on-air.) The CNN story covers information that most people here are already know, though I didn't realize this:

    Kopetsky was 17 when she walked out of her high school for the last time May 4, 2007. It was something she often did, her mother says. Kopetsky would leave around 10:30 a.m., return between 1 and 2 p.m. and stay until school let out at 3:30 p.m.

    "She didn't get along well with two teachers who taught her mid-day classes, and so she would leave after her morning classes, take a break and then come back for her afternoon classes," Rhonda Beckford said.

A walk in her honor is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 2 at the Cedar Tree shopping center in Belton.

If you know anything about her disappearance, remember there's a $30,000 reward available -- just call 816-474-TIPS.

[Jenn]

http://www.wibw.com/...s/91557074.html

Posted: 6:43 PM Apr 19, 2010

Cold case: Field recently searched for missing teen

New York (CNN) -- Some cold cases see periodic bursts of activity and then go cold again.

The disappearance of Kara Kopetsky, a high school junior who vanished three years ago in Belton, Missouri, appears to be one of those cases.

This month, police conducted a grid search on a field five miles from Belton High School, where Kopetsky was last seen.

The search area was within the Kansas City limits, said Rhonda Beckford, Kopetsky's mother.

"Its near an old military air base. It's basically a wide open field," Beckford said.

She says police had searched the area before, and she doesn't know what prompted investigators to search again.

"When we searched the area before, it was not in the same way," explained Capt. Don Spears of the Belton Police Department. "This time we did a shoulder-to-shoulder grid search of the 400- acre area."

The April 7 search turned up no clues, and police say they're no closer to finding Kopetsky.

"She is a very beautiful girl, and so we often warned her to be careful, but like any teen, she had an attitude that she was invincible," said her stepfather, Jim Beckford.

Kopetsky was 17 when she walked out of her high school for the last time May 4, 2007. It was something she often did, her mother says. Kopetsky would leave around 10:30 a.m., return between 1 and 2 p.m. and stay until school let out at 3:30 p.m.

"She didn't get along well with two teachers who taught her mid-day classes, and so she would leave after her morning classes, take a break and then come back for her afternoon classes," Rhonda Beckford said.

That day, Kopetsky had forgotten one of her textbooks. She called home and asked her mom to drop it off at the school office. She also asked her mother to wash her uniform so she could work the 4 p.m. shift at Popeye's Chicken.

A school surveillance video shows Kopetsky walking down a corridor and out the door of the high school. But no one can say which way she went or whether she got into a car. It was the last time anyone saw or heard from her.

When Kopetsky didn't come home from school as usual, her mother and stepfather grew worried. They called police and reported her missing.

The worried parents say police told them that they believed Kopetsky was a runaway and that she'd come back on her own in a few days.

But Beckford is certain her daughter didn't run away. "I believe someone picked her up. She got into someone's car, someone she knew," she said.

Police say Kopetsky's cell phone records show that the last phone calls she made before leaving the school grounds include one to her mother and that she exchanged text and voicemail messages with her boyfriend for about 20 minutes.

But, police say, there was no activity on Kopetsky's cell phone after she walked out of school, indicating that the battery went dead or was removed from the phone.

In the days after Kopetsky was reported missing, investigators followed pings from the phone and conducted some searches in Belton but found no clues. Beyond that, they aren't commenting on the investigation.

Kopetsky's stepfather says the cell phone's long silence makes him suspicious.

"This doesn't make any sense," Jim Beckford said. "Kara was on her cell phone sending texts constantly. Her cell phone bill was typically 80 to 100 pages long."

Kopetsky's mother said her daughter's boyfriend was questioned, and his home and truck were searched. But police found nothing out of the ordinary.

Kopetsky left behind most of her belongings: money, clothes, an iPod and a new carton of cigarettes. Her bank debit card was left in her school locker and her bank account, with $150 from a recent paycheck, remains untouched.

According to Belton police, the case is being actively investigated. But with no certain evidence of foul play, police continue to characterize Kara's disappearance as an endangered and missing adult case.

The state of Missouri considers Kopetsky to be an adult because she was 17 when she disappeared.

Belton Police Capt. Don Spears said police are looking at several persons of interest but haven't narrowed their investigation to focus on a single suspect.

Kopetsky's family believes she was abducted by someone she knew, but police have not ruled out the possibility of abduction by a stranger or drifter.

"The school doesn't sit too far from a major highway, so it's not outside the realm of possibility," Spears said.

About a month after she disappeared, Kopetsky's case was eclipsed by the abduction and slaying of Kelsey Smith, who was snatched from a store parking lot in nearby Overland Park, Kansas. Smith's body was found in the Missouri woods, six miles from Kopetsky's home in Belton. A man was charged and pleaded guilty, and is serving a life sentence.

Police in Belton and Overland Park compared notes but found no connection.

Kopetsky is described as 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 125 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes.

A $30,000 reward is offered for information leading to her whereabouts or the arrest of anyone responsible for her disappearance.

Anyone with more information is asked to call the Belton Police Department's tip-line at 816-474-TIPS.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.fox4kc.co...,0,387641.story

Authorities Search Rugged Country After Tip in Kara Kopetsky Case
Bob Stepanich, edited by Jason Vaughn
5:37 PM CDT, August 28, 2010

BELTON, MO - Authorities in Johnson County, Kansas, are searching are an area in the eastern part of the county after receiving a grim tip in the search for missing Belton High School student Kara Kopetsky.

Johnson County Sheriff's deputies on Saturday searched an area very close to where the missing teen vanished nearly three-and-a-half years ago. Sheriff Tom Erikson says it's been more than a decade since Johnson County has performed such an exhaustive search on such a grand scale.

Erikson says sheriff's deputies along with three separate fire companies have been searching through the dense weed and brush for a week.

"Anytime you hear on the news that they're searching for a body, that they got a tip that there's a body, of course it goes through your mind especially since it's so close," said Rhonda Beckford, Kopetsky's mother. "It could possibly be Kara."

Authorities have searched an abandoned building, and have drained two ponds in the area without any results as of yet.

Kara Kopetsky mysteriously vanished just over three years ago. Surveillance video shows Kopetsky walking out of school.

"We need resolution," said Beckford. She says that three-and-a-half years of searching have taken their toll, and this latest search still may not provide any answers.

"You get up in the morning and it's the same question every day," said Beckford. "Where is Kara?"

[Lori Davis]

http://www.kansascit...kc-student.html

Event highlights UMKC student who disappeared in Chicago four years ago.
By JIM SULLINGER
The Kansas City Star
Posted on Fri, Nov. 19, 2010 10:37 PM

It will be four years on Sunday that Jesse Ross, nicknamed Opie, went to a Model United Nations Conference in Chicago and disappeared.

The 19-year-old University of Missouri-Kansas City sophomore left a downtown Chicago hotel Nov. 21 and hasn’t been seen since.

That hasn’t stopped family and friends, however, from hoping for his return.

“You can never give up hope,” said Donald Ross, his father.

And there was plenty of that on hand Friday night as Donald Ross and his wife, Donna Ross, of Belton held the fifth OpieFest, a celebration of hope that Jesse will be found and a fundraiser to help defray expenses incurred by the family when they travel to Chicago to look for Jesse.

His father will make another trip soon to talk with a Chicago detective assigned to the case and to put together another OpieFest there.

“We want to establish awareness of Jesse’s case and raise funds for our Chicago trip,” he said.

All through the evening, people arrived at the event at St. Regis Catholic Church, 8941 James A. Reed Road. The Burnt Ends, a six-member country band, played for the crowd. Many wore buttons that read “Missing: Jesse Ross.”

In the middle of the button was a picture of a smiling young man with glasses and close-cropped red hair.

But his picture wasn’t the only one on display. A plea to find a missing person was at almost every table.

There was Kara E. Kopetsky, who disappeared after leaving Belton High School on May 4, 2007. And Jerry Tang, Emillie Hoyt, Elsha Marie Rivera, Suzanne Gloria Lyall and Jason Jolkowski.

“It’s like an epidemic,” said Rhonda Beckford of Belton, Kara’s mother.

Like many who came, she was there for support.

“When something like this happens, you feel like you’re alone,” she said. “When you meet other people, you know you’re not alone. We have to support each other.”

Members of the band Dead Giveaway were there. Jesse managed the band for two years and became close friends with its young members.

“He loved us and we loved him,” said Brandon Woodall, the drummer.

Stephen Lee graduated from O’Hara High School with Jesse in 2005.

“He was a firecracker,” Lee said. “He was very outgoing and never afraid to speak his mind.”

Lee said he was going to college in the Chicago area when Jesse arrived for his first Model United Nations Conference in 2005. Lee showed Jesse the town.

He was supposed to meet Jesse again in 2006 but never made the connection.

Lee heard Jesse was missing when he returned to Kansas City for Thanksgiving that year. Friday night, he attended OpieFest, one of many hoping Jesse and all the others will be found.

[Jenn]

http://www.firstcoas...=177774&catid=6

Cold Case: Missing Teen had Accused Ex of Stalking

November 23, 2010

BELTON, Mo. -- A surveillance video shows 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky walking out of her high school on May 4, 2007, before classes let out.

She was having a bad day. She'd forgotten one of her textbooks, and that morning she called home and asked her mother to drop it off at the school office. She also asked her mother to wash her uniform so she could work the 4 p.m. shift at Popeye's Chicken.

A bad day got worse when Kara had an argument with one of her teachers in class, according to police and her family. Frustrated, she left campus about 10:30 a.m., ditching school for the rest of the day.

When Kara didn't come home from school as usual, her family -- mother Rhonda, stepfather Jim and stepbrother Thomas -- grew worried. They filed a missing persons report later that afternoon. Police told them they believed Kara was a runaway, and that she'd come back on her own in a few days.

More than three years later, no one can say what happened to the high school junior from Belton, Missouri.

The case remains cold, but her parents are now going public with new details about what was going on in Kara's life before she disappeared.

They say she was being stalked by a former boyfriend and had obtained a restraining order against him two weeks earlier. Police confirm that there was a pending domestic violence case and protective order naming the boyfriend, when Kara vanished. The charged were later dropped.

Investigators say the ex-boyfriend is a person of interest in the case, because he may have information as to her whereabouts and the relationship between the two was tumultuous before she vanished.

The boyfriend, whom we're not naming because he's not been charged, did not return CNN's calls seeking comment. A person who answered the phone at his lawyer's office said there would be no comment.

According to family and police and Kara's MySpace profile, the boyfriend lived in her neighborhood, was 18, and attended the same high school but dropped out earlier the spring Kara disappeared. She described their relationship as on and off.

Police say there has been no activity on Kara's cell phone since shortly after she walked out of school. They followed some pings from the phone, conducted some searches, but found nothing significant. Beyond that, they aren't commenting.

Her stepfather says the cell phone's long silence makes him suspicious.

"This doesn't make any sense," said Jim Beckford. "Kara was on her cell phone sending texts constantly. Her cell phone bill was typically 80-100 pages long."

She left behind most of her belongings -- money, clothes, iPod and a new carton of cigarettes. Her bank debit card was left in her school locker and her bank account, with $150 from her recent paycheck, remains untouched.

Initially, the Beckfords said, police told them to keep quiet about the alleged stalking case. But, because three years have gone by without any solid leads, they are speaking about a startling incident they say one week before Kara vanished.

Kara's parents say the ex-boyfriend showed up at Popeye's on April 28, 2007 and was kicked out of the restaurant by a supervisor. But he came back as Kara got off work at 10:30 p.m., parking his truck around the corner and waiting, according to the Beckfords and court documents.

When Kara left work, they say, he grabbed her and dragged her into his truck. A friend called Kara's cell phone and she answered, saying her former boyfriend had abducted her. Soon afterwards, he pulled off the interstate into a parking lot and Kara jumped out of the moving vehicle to safety. He drove off, leaving her behind.

Kara went to the police station the next day and filed charges and her mother filed for a protective order. In the petition, Kara states why: "Because I am unsure of what he will do next, because the abuse has gotten worse over time."

"We were asked by police to not talk about this" Rhonda Beckford said. "We were also asked by the Belton police to drop the abduction charges against Kara's boyfriend, just a few weeks after she vanished, as a strategy. In case her boyfriend did know where Kara was, he might be more willing to cooperate and help in the investigation if he weren't facing criminal charges."

According to police in Belton, the case is being actively investigated. But with no certain evidence of foul play, police continue to characterize Kara's disappearance as an endangered and missing adult case.

The state of Missouri considers Kara Kopetsky to be an adult because she was 17 when she disappeared.

Belton Police Capt. Don Spears said police are looking at several persons of interest, but haven't narrowed their investigation to focus on a single suspect. And, he said, police still cannot rule out the possibility that Kara simply ran away.

Her family says Kara has no history of running away.

"She is a very beautiful girl and so we often warned her to be careful, but like any teen, she had an attitude that she was invincible," her stepfather said.

An $85,000 reward is offered for tips leading to the whereabouts of Kara Kopetsky or the arrest of anyone responsible for her disappearance.

Police and family urge people to call the Belton Police Department's tip-line at 816-474-TIPS. Kara is described as 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 125 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes.

[Kelly]

http://www.kmbc.com/...159/detail.html

Police End South KC Search In Kopetsky Case
Kara Kopetsky Disappeared In May 2007

POSTED: 9:56 am CST February 16, 2011
UPDATED: 5:39 pm CST February 16, 2011

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Authorities searched an area in south Kansas City Wednesday morning in connection with the Kara Kopetsky case.

Kopetsky's mother, Rhonda Beckford, told KMBC's Peggy Breit that she was notified of the search Tuesday night by the Belton Police Department.

"Basically, they said they were searching and 'We wish we could tell you more, but it's an open investigation and we can't say any more,'" she said.

Kopetsky's case is still classified as a missing person's case. But Belton Police Sgt. Brad Swanson said that police received a tip to search the area in the 8900 block of Elm Avenue for a body. He said the search area is a low-lying flood plain that's separated from some homes by about 50 to 60 yards of trees.

"In the last couple of weeks, we've developed information to that investigation that led us to believe there might be something to find here," he said.

Shortly after noon, investigators concluded the search and left the area.

"We conducted that search, and at this point, we're ready to leave," Swanson said. "We didn't find anything. It doesn't mean there's nothing there, but at this point, it seems there's no point in us to continue to search today. We may come back when more of the snow is gone and hit some of the areas that were still snow-covered."

Kopetsky disappeared in May 2007. The 17-year-old was last seen leaving Belton High School. She was seen on a surveillance video leaving the school. The video suggested that Kopetsky was leaving on her own and was not being forced. Her parents and a friend reported her as a missing person shortly after her disappearance.

Swanson said police think they know what happened to her after leaving school, but he declined to say what that was.

"We've got a fairly good idea of what transpired from the time she left the school for at least the following few hours," he said.

Kansas City police, along with the FBI, were involved in the search.

Swanson said police waited a couple of days for better weather conditions before beginning the search. He said there was some concern that animals might disturb the area, so investigators didn't want to wait too long.

"We wish it was 80 degrees with no snow on the ground, but we do what we've got to do when we've got to do it," Swanson said.

He said that the case has frustrated officers, but he was more upset that he hasn't been able to provide any answers to Kopetsky's family.

"Them not knowing bothers me more than me not knowing," he said.

Kara's Mother Reacts

Beckford said she has been holding on to hope, but she grows more disappointed by each passing day.

Kopetsky's Mom Reacts To Latest Search

"If, after almost four years, we were able to get Kara back alive, it would be a miracle," she said. "I mean, it would definitely be a miracle to me."

She said that searches like the one on Wednesday always stirs mixed emotions.

"Your emotions become tempered. You don't jump to conclusions because it's an emotional roller coaster ride and you'd drive yourself crazy if you let yourself jump at everything. You can't do that."

She said that while police have never classified the case as an abduction, she and her family still believe that someone took her daughter away. She said she has a message for that person.

"I'm not going away. You're not getting away with this. You need to step forward and say what you've done," she said.

[Kelly]

http://www.kctv5.com...593/detail.html


Kopetsky’s Family Keeps Looking For Missing Teen

POSTED: 5:37 pm CDT May 4, 2011
UPDATED: 7:06 pm CDT May 4, 2011

BELTON, Mo. -- The family of Kara Kopetsky said they still hold out hope that someone knows something about the missing teen.

May 4 marks the fourth anniversary of the day she went missing. With each passing year, the signs and purple ribbons continue to go up to mark the anniversary.

"It is a little harder to keep coming up with new ideas to keep it in the public eye," said Kara's mother, Rhonda Beckford.

The tips continue to flow into the Belton Police Department, although recent searches have turned up nothing. The FBI is also involved in the investigation.

"They don't really want to tell us, because the what ifs can really tear you up," said Jim Beckford, Kara's stepfather.

The Beckfords said they will do what they can to make sure no one forgets. They said people have asked them to give up and move on, but they lean on something more to keep them going.

"If it wasn’t for God, I don't know where Jim and I would be," Rhonda Beckford said. "It's brought us closer together."

The Beckfords are hoping the $80,000 in reward money will motivate someone to call police if they know anything.

[Lori Davis]

http://news.blogs.cn...ple-in-50-days/

50 people in 50 days: Teen never shows up for work after school

February 25th, 2011
09:12 PM ET

Editor's note: Nancy Grace's new show on HLN, "Nancy Grace: America's Missing," is dedicated to finding 50 people in 50 days. As part of the effort, which relies heavily on audience participation, CNN.com's news blog This Just In will feature the stories of the missing.

This is the 30th case, and it will be shown Friday at 9 p.m. on HLN.

The morning of May 4, 2007, Kara Kopetsky decided to walk to school in Belton, Missouri, instead of having her mom drive her. Later that morning, she called her mom and asked her to bring a book for one of her classes that she had forgotten at home. She also asked her mom to wash her work clothes because she had to work after school. Her mother dropped off the book, and Kara retrieved it. But what happened next remains a mystery.

Kara did not come home from school and did not show up for work. The last call on her cell phone was about 10:30 a.m. Since then, police say, the cell phone has been shut off or the battery has run down. There has been no activity on her bank account, and nothing is missing from her house.

Someone reported seeing Kara on May 17 at a gas station in Louisburg, Kansas, with an unidentified man, but the sighting could not be confirmed because the video surveillance system was not working. Since then, the trail has run cold. An $80,000 reward has been offered for information leading to her whereabouts.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.mylifetim...ay/episode-tips

Kara's case was included in Vanished: Episode 6: "Kopetsky/Ross"

Premiered June 20 at 10/9c: Set in Belton, MO and Chicago. Beth talks to the family of a teen who left for school one day, never to return home. The mystery deepens when investigators learn a missing persons report was filed days before her actual disappearance. The series also follows the story of a young man who vanished without a trace while on a school trip to Chicago.

[Lori Davis]

Kara Kopetsky's ex-boyfriend, Kylr Yust, arrested in company of attack victim from restraining order

Posted: 12/16/2011
By: Russ Ptacek


Kylr Yust is accused of stealing a tattoo gun from a tattoo parlor.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Despite a restraining order forbidding it, Kylr Yust, the 23-year-old ex-boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky, was arrested Thursday in the company of a woman he attacked in July.

North Kansas City Police discovered his warrant during a traffic stop for speeding near the Bond Bridge on I-35.

Prior to when she vanished in 2007, Kopetsky had filed her own restraining order against Yust alleging he choked her and threatened to kill her.  Police have said Yust passed a lie detector test and has an alibi in the Kopetsky case.

Read more: http://www.nbcaction...r#ixzz1gkQbG2Ws

[Shannon]

http://www.kshb.com/...tsky-feb2012swp

Secret group uncovers new clues in their search for a missing Belton teenager

Posted: 02/13/2012

By: Russ Ptacek

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A civilian cadaver dog working as part of a secret Kara Kopetsky sleuth group has made a “hit” on an occupied home and members of that group say Belton police are threatening them with a grand jury aimed at exposing their identities and their efforts to find the missing teenager.

“I think there's a possibility that yeah, she could possibly be there,” Kara’s mom, Rhonda Beckford told the 41 Action News Investigators shortly after our cameras documented the cadaver dog signaling its trainer.

Beckford fears police threats against members of the secret group could halt progress in the search for clues that could explain what happened to the teenager the day she disappeared in May 2007.

“From what I've been told from the individuals, yeah I do believe that they've been trying to intimidate them and scare them off so they'll quite helping us,” Beckford said Jim Beckford, Kara’s stepfather said.

Belton police have declined requests from 41 Action News for interviews, but the police chief says officers are in talks with Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley about a possible grand jury investigation.

Hensley's office said police have not submitted any information supporting a grand jury investigation request.

"She hasn’t threatened anyone and she hasn’t given the police permission," Hensley's spokeswoman Georgia Sanders told the 41 Action News Investigators shortly before the story was broadcast.  "There’s been nothing submitted to us at all."

Sanders said Hensley would meet with the Beckfords to discuss the case.

The department, which has been criticized for treating the case like a runaway instead of abduction, issued a written statement.

“The Belton MO Police Department has had conversations with the Cass County Prosecutor’s office about the possibility of utilizing the grand jury to question otherwise uncooperative potential witnesses,” said Police Chief James Person. “The Belton MO Police Department remains committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Kara Kopetsky.”

Sanders could not rule out the possibility some officer may have spoken to someone in the office, but said Hensley said there is no plan for a grand jury.

Some of the Kopetsky sleuths are retired law enforcement officers, others bring civilian expertise in psychology, research, or, like the woman leading the cadaver dog the night our cameras followed the search, help search for human remains.

The group came together as an earlier 41 Action News investigation identified what police experts called missteps in Belton’s investigation into Kopetsky’s disappearance.

In addition to a reported confession, the 41 Action News investigation identified a box of Kara’s possessions turned in to police two years after her disappearance, a report that Belton police did not return calls about suspicious behavior the day after she vanished, an official report that puts Kara’s initial disappearance two days earlier than previously reported, and other evidence never made public until now.

Read more:http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/secret-group-uncovers-new-clues-in-their-search-for-kara-kopetsky-feb2012swp

[Shannon]

http://casscounty.fo...ive-years-later

Family Remembers Missing Daughter Five Years Later

Submitted by Fox4KC Web Staff

Sunday, May 6th, 2012, 4:47pm

BELTON, Mo. — The parents of a missing teen held a march on Sunday to keep their daughter’s memory alive and appeal to anyone who knows what happened to her. Family members are keeping Kara Kopetski’s memory alive with buttons, t-shirts and more.

She was 17-years-old when she was reported missing five years ago. It’s a milestone her mother never wanted to reach.

“She was supposed to be at work at 4 o’clcok that day and she had every intention f being there or she wouldn’t have asked me to wash her work clothes,” said Rhonda Beckford, Kara’s mother.

A team of volunteers marched on Sunday with memorabilia. Terry Mason says five years ago she was compelled to help because news of the missing 11th grade girl pulled at her heartstrings and brought back memories of her own life.

“My brother was kidnapped when he was eight-years-old,” Mason said. “He was taken from an elementary school in Kansas City. He did get away from his pedophilia and all of it together brought back memories.”

Don Ross shares and uncommon bond with the Beckfords. His son Jesse was reported missing in 2006 during a college trip to Chicago.

“Jesse is kind of history for a lot of people and Kara is kind of the past but each day you look at the news and there’s somebody new,” Ross said.

Someone who has joined their unwanted ranks.

Kara’s mother hopes the $80,000 reward for information about Kara’s whereabouts is enough incentive to get someone talking.

If you have information about Kara’s disappearance call the tips hotline at 816-474-TIPS.

[Lori Davis]

Photo of woman who looks like Kara Kopetsky has Belton talking

Posted: Aug 23, 2012 8:57 AM EDT
Updated: Aug 23, 2012 9:09 AM EDT
By Chris Oberholtz, Multimedia Producer
By Alan Shope, Multimedia Journalist

BELTON, MO (KCTV) - It has been more than five years since Kara Kopetsky disappeared outside Belton High School, but a new photo had some believing she might be in Indianapolis.

The Belton Police Department continues to investigate a mother arrested in Indianapolis with similar features to Kopetsky, but at this point they believe she is not Kopetsky.

However, the picture has a lot of people in Belton talking.

"They had gotten a tip that they thought this girl was Kara," Kopetsky's mother, Rhonda Beckford, said.

Kopetsky's mother said she knew it wasn't her daughter, but said she did have to study the picture.

"She definitely resembles Kara, especially if you figure that maybe after five years Kara will have changed. Possibly lost a lot of weight you know," Beckford said.

Jim Beckford, Kopetsky's stepfather, says he noticed the resemblances too.

"But when I looked in her eyes, they were different," Jim Beckford said.

It has been a difficult five years for the family, but they are happy that people still continue to search and care about Kopetsky.

"Of course we're happy that people are still looking for Kara. We still really have no idea what happened to her," Rhonda Beckford said.

Kopetsky's family encourages everyone to bring questions forward about her disappearance.

"It gets Kara's name and face back out into the public, and we're grateful that people know who Kara Kopetsky is," Jim Beckford said.

An $80,000 reward is available leading to information on Kopetsky's whereabouts.

[Shannon]

http://www.kctv5.com...n-kara-kopetsky

New photo released to mark Kara Kopetsky's birthday



Posted: Feb 15, 2013 12:17 PM MST
Updated: Feb 15, 2013 1:12 PM MST

By DeAnn Smith

BELTON, MO (KCTV) - An age-progression photo of Kara Kopetsky has been released to mark her 23rd birthday, which is Sunday.

The Belton Police Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released the picture Friday. The hope is the picture will refresh memories and prompt new information.

Kopetsky, then 17, was last seen leaving Belton High School the morning of May 4. She has not been seen since then.

Her disappearance is one of the most high-profile missing persons cases in the Kansas City area.

Questions have been raised about the Belton Police Department's handling of the case and whether they could have moved more aggressively after the initial report rather than treating it initially as a simple case of a runaway teen.

Police have focused on Kopetsky's then boyfriend, who has since pleaded guilty to choking and beating his then-pregnant girlfriend in a separate and unrelated case.

Kopetsky went missing one week after she filed for a protection order against Kylr Yust, then 18 years old. Yust allegedly claimed to have told his then girlfriend that he had killed ex-girlfriends out of sheer jealousy.

"He 'threatened to kill her ... if she left him.' He 'had a family with a ranch where there were pigs that would eat anything including bones ... no one would ever find her,'"according to court documents in the domestic violence case involving Yust's pregnant girlfriend.

No charges have been filed in connection with Kopetsky's disappearance.

"The Belton Police Department along with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies continue to investigate Kara's disappearance, and receive tips regularly," according to a news release. "We also know that keeping this case in the public's mind is essential to developing leads and information that will lead us to her."

If you have any information, call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS or Belton Police at 816-331-1500.

[Kelly]

http://www.kshb.com/...missing-persons

Reaction to Cleveland case mixed among parents of Kansas City's missing teens

    By: Cynthia Newsome

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The mother of missing Belton, Mo., teen Kara Kopetsky called the latest development in the Cleveland case "a wonderful miracle."

Three women who had been missing for about 10 years were found alive and well.

"I'm so happy for those families," Kara’s mother, Rhonda Beckford, said.

But Beckford does not believe her daughter will be found alive.

"We believe she was killed,” Beckford said. “But we still want her body, and we still want answers about what happened.”

Kara has been missing for six years. Her body has not been found and no one has been arrested in the case.

Donald and Donna Ross' son, Jesse Ross, has been missing from Belton since November of 2006.

Jesse was 19 years old when he went to Chicago, Ill., to attend  a conference when he disappeared.

A surveillance picture at his hotel captured the last sighting of him in Chicago.

The resolution of the three missing persons cases in Cleveland gives Donna Ross new hope that his son will also be found.

"When I read the story this morning, I cried," Donna explained. "I cried because I'm thrilled for those families in Cleveland, but it is also a reminder that Jesse is still gone."

Jesse's father, Don, has written two books since his son's disappearance.

"I believe if Jesse could find a way out he would," Don said. "Everyday is a new day, and there is new hope that my son will be found. All we can do is hope and pray and keep putting his story in the news media so that someone may tell us something that will lead us to our son."

Don and Donna Ross said they are also hopeful for the thousands of other families with missing children that their loved ones will come home.

"We would love it if Jesse walked though that front door, but we still celebrate when other families are reunited with their missing children," Donna said.

[Lori Davis]

http://fox4kc.com/20...r-drug-charges/

Kylr Yust tells judge to ‘Eat a steak for me’ at sentencing
Posted on: 10:25 am, November 22, 2013, by FOX 4 Newsroom, updated on: 02:29pm, November 22, 2013

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The former boyfriend of missing Belton teen Kara Kopetsky will spend nearly 4 years in prison after being sentenced Friday for a drug trafficking conviction.

Kopetsky’s parents believe Kylr Yust knows what happened to their daughter. Yust, 24, was convicted of receiving designer drugs, which produce effects similar to Ecstasy, in the mail with the intent to sell or distribute it.

On Friday, Yust told a federal judge to: “Eat a steak for me,” when the judge asked him if he had anything to say before being sentenced.

Yust was Kopetsky’s boyfriend back in 2007 when the Belton girl left school and hasn’t been seen again. Although Yust has never been charged in Kopetsky’s case, she and her mother, Rhonda Beckford, filed for a restraining order against him shortly before she vanished. That order was granted by a judge after police started looking for Kara.

Now that Yust is going behind bars for another crime, Kopetsky’s parents are hopeful new information about their daughter’s disappearance will come to light.

"We’re hoping that when he gets into the federal system that maybe he will feel comfortable enough maybe with his cellmate, maybe one day he will say something to that cellmate, brag about what he did to Kara and maybe that will lead to answers,” Beckford said.

In the years since Kopetsky’s disappearance, Yust has been placed on two years probation after pleading guilty to abusing another girlfriend.

According to police reports, Yust claimed he had killed former girlfriends and said he could dispose of body parts by feeding them to pigs at a family farm. He also has been arrested for animal abuse but the charge was later dropped.

The Beckfords want Yust to know they are not going to go away. They will continue to show up when he’s in trouble with the law, as May will mark the seventh anniversary of Kopetsky’s disappearance.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.examiner..../News/140418395

 

Road race to wrap up in Independence

 

By Jeff Fox

Posted Apr. 19, 2014 @ 6:20 am

 

Independence, Mo.

 

Independence will play a prominent role in a road race that’s also designed to raise awareness about missing children.

 

The annual Fireball Run will end on the Square in early October, organizers announced Friday, and one of the 40 teams will be from Independence.

 

“We call it the race to recover America’s missing children,” said Fireball Run executive producer J. Sanchez. Since 2007, the event has helped lead to 43 missing children being found, he said.

 

Here’s how it works: The 40 teams leave Frisco, Texas, on Sept. 26, headed for Camden, Ark., the first stop, where they will read up on local trivia and will try to solve the daily riddles about the places in Camden they are supposed to visit and the things they are supposed to do. Sanchez said the teams are all type A personalities – celebrities, business leaders, others – and they get pretty competitive.

 

So it goes for eight days, with stops in Enid, Okla., and Bentonville, Ark., until the final three stops, all in Missouri: St. Robert in south-central Missouri, Sedalia and then on Saturday, Oct. 4, Independence.

 

And it’s all on tape.

 

“It’s real people on a real journey,” Sanchez said. “Those emotions are real, and we film it.”

 

This is season eight for the Fireball Run. The web-based series – family friendly, no cussing, Sanchez said – has been filmed in different parts of the country since 2007.

 

“The audience basically sees it as a unique travel series,” Sanchez said. The series is at www.fireballrun.com , and past seasons’ shows are posted there.

 

Independence Mayor Don Reimal was at the finish line last year in Riverside, Calif., with an estimated 35,000 people, and he said people can look forward to “a carnival, a race, a car show all rolled into one.”

 

The Independence team will be Andrea Schetzler and Darrell Tindall, owners of the Berry Nutty Farm and Granola Jones (the new name for Hippie Chow). They plan to drive the 1967 Volkswagen Beetle that they recently bought – it’s being painted seafoam green – to help promote their business.

 

They say it has the factory engine and only has 76,000 miles on it.

 

They will be racing for Kara Kopetsky, the Belton High School student last seen on the morning of May 4, 2007. She was 17 at the time. She’s described as 5-foot-5 and 125 pounds with hazel eyes and hair that’s light brown, red and blonde. She has a scar on her forehead.

 

Each team races for someone from their area, and they carry posters and other materials to get the word out.

 

Sanchez said that effort – a photo that helps someone make a connection – often leads to results.

 

Of the 900,000 children who go missing every year, he said, about 400,000 are found or come home quickly. Other cases are less simple, and about 25,000 a year end up being what he called “vanished cases.”

 

But Fireball Run’s efforts recently paid off when a boy missing for 14 years was found. A social worker picked up on something.

 

“One of those posters was seen by the right person at the right time, and another child was found,” Sanchez said.

 

The fate of missing children can be horrible, he said, particularly for girls and especially if they aren’t found within the first 72 hours. They are often sold into the sex trade.

 

“Those kind of predators are out there,” Sanchez said.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.kshb.com/...issing-daughter

 

Kopetsky family holds onto hope for missing daughter

 

Garrett Haake

9:37 PM, May 7, 2014

10:15 PM, May 7, 2014

 

BELTON, Mo. - Few, if any of the families of the 852 people currently missing in Missouri, have worked harder or longer to bring back a loved one than the mother and stepfather of Kara Kopetsky.

 

Kara walked out of her high school on a Friday morning in May of 2007 and simply vanished without a trace. Now, her family works tirelessly to keep some, any, attention focused on her case.

 

When human remains were discovered in Sedalia last week, then identified as those of a single, white, woman, it stoked the family’s anxiety on the 7th anniversary of Kara’s disappearance.

 

“Of course your worst fear is that they're no longer on this earth," Kara’s mother Rhonda Beckford said.

 

She spoke to 41 Action News from her home, surrounded by mementos of her daughter – including a quilt with pictures of her face on it.

 

"Every year on May 4th it’s another year that Kara's missing and we don't know what happened to her," she said.

 

Kara’s DNA is kept on file in a national register. On Tuesday, Beckford called Belton PD and asked them to check it against the unidentified body found in Sedalia. It was not a match. This body and this unhappy ending would not be theirs.

 

Beckford, who occasionally counsels family members of other missing children, knows what this means: heartbreak for another family and more waiting for hers.

 

“I don't know if it’s a relief,” she said. “Here we are waiting again. For that answer. For the resolution of the last seven years.”

[Kelly]

http://www.kansascit...icle679209.html

For parents of missing children, years pass but hope persists

By MARÁ ROSE WILLIAMS

The Kansas City Star
07/06/2014 7:01 PM
07/06/2014 10:50 PM

It’s no longer Tammy Mack’s daily routine to spend her first waking hours online and on the phone trying to find her missing daughter.

She did that for several years. But it has been a decade now since Ashley Renee Martinez disappeared at age 15 from a public pool in St. Joseph. Searching the Web and calling police to see whether any new leads have surfaced is something Mack now does only once in a while.

Still, she hasn’t given up hope that someday she will find out what happened to Ashley.
Ashley Martinez was 15 when she disappeared 10 years ago.

For parents like Mack, the waiting, worrying and never knowing can take an immense emotional and physical toll. Often they channel their hope into planning events to keep their child’s name in front of the public.

“It’s also a family’s way of saying to the child, ‘I love you,’” said Kelly Murphy, director and founder of Project Jason, which helps families of missing persons learn to cope. “Their way of saying, ‘I will never stop looking for you.’”

Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the last time Mack saw her daughter, heading through the gated entrance to Krug Pool with her younger brother for a summer afternoon of swimming.

“When I came to pick them up later, her brother was there but she was gone,” Mack said.

She gathered with family and friends Sunday night for a candlelight vigil in the pool parking lot. Maybe, she said, shining a light on the case, even all these years later, will shake loose new leads that “finally bring us the closure we seek.”

Last week, she planted a sugar maple tree for Ashley across the street from the pool.

“I chose the sugar maple because in the autumn its leaves turn red, and red is her favorite color,” Mack said. “When I drive by I’ll see it.”

Donald Ross of Belton knows exactly what Mack is going through. His son Jesse “Opie” Ross disappeared in 2006 while on a college trip to Chicago.

“We keep pushing Jesse’s case, keep putting it out there,” said Ross, who has billboards with his son’s face staring out at motorists along Chicago highways and who still circulates fliers through the city’s downtown, where his son was last seen.

Ross’ Facebook page is covered with pictures and discussions about his continued search for answers to what happened to his son. He wrote a book, “Where’s Opie? Vanished in Chicago,” partly for “personal therapy” but also to help other parents of missing children.

“It’s frustrating,” Ross said. Police get new cases, and investigations into cold cases ease, he said.

“But you as a parent, every morning when you get up you see your child’s face just as it was when you last saw them. You realize it’s probably changed. You’ve missed years. But that feeling never goes away.”

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children lists 16 missing children in Kansas and 51 in Missouri, including Elizabeth Ann Gill, who disappeared in the summer of 1965 when she was 2 years old. She would be 51 today. Her family thinks she is still alive. For years they have held vigils, balloon launches and other events in her name.

Elizabeth Ann, the youngest of 10 children, was last seen playing in the front yard of her family’s Cape Girardeau home. Some thought she had wandered off and fallen into the Mississippi River. Her parents thought she had been kidnapped.

Four years ago, friends and family persuaded law enforcement officials to interview members of a transient group who had been in the area at the time the toddler disappeared. The FBI reclassified her case as a kidnapping and opened an investigation.

FBI spokeswoman Rebecca Wu said Thursday that all leads had been pursued, without resolution.

But the case remains open with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “We never close a case until the answers are uncovered or the child is found,” said Lanae Holmes, senior family advocacy specialist for the center.

“We know that continued awareness brought to a case does bring children home. Children are found 10, 12, 20 years later,” Holmes said. “It some cases one tip can be the lead that brings a child home.”

That’s how Shawn Hornbeck was found, four years after he was kidnapped in 2002 when he was 11. The tip came from a teen who saw a pickup near a school bus stop where another boy was grabbed in January 2007. The description led police to a home in suburban St. Louis four days later. There they found the latest kidnapped child and Shawn.

For some families, the vigils, balloon launches, posters and billboards are about hoping that one tip will come. But often it’s also about “feeling in control of a control-less situation,” Murphy said.

She started the nonprofit Project Jason after her son Jason Jolkowski disappeared in Omaha, Neb., in 2001.

When a loved one disappears, she said, “it’s trauma that does not end. It’s like you have this gaping wound that never heals.”

“Trauma affects the brain and the body,” Murphy said. People can become physically ill. Consumed, even.

Some parents withdraw from the rest of their family or become so obsessed with searching for their lost child that they miss their other children growing up.

It’s common, too, Murphy said, for family members to have different views about what happened to their child. One parent may think the child is dead while the other is sure the child is alive and will come home.

Murphy recalled a family who moved from the only home their missing child had ever lived in with them. The couple got permission from the new homeowners to tack a plastic-sealed note to the door, so that if their child ever returned, he’d know where to find them.

“We never forget. And can’t, won’t, give up,” said Murphy, who has found herself staring into crowds or circling a block thinking that this time the familiar face she has seen is going to be her missing son. “There is always that glimmer of hope.”

Kara Kopetsky, another missing Kansas City area teen, disappeared in 2007. Last month her family held its seventh annual walk in her honor. At 17, Kara was last seen on a surveillance video leaving Belton High School; the last person she’d talked to was a boyfriend.

Mack thinks her daughter left the St. Joseph pool with a then-33-year-old convicted felon the teen had met in the neighborhood where they both lived.

Mack doesn’t know, but she thinks the man promised to take her daughter, who was on medication for bipolar disorder, away. “To her it was an adventure. I’m sure the picture was painted pretty,” she said.

Days after the girl disappeared, the man was arrested in a purse-snatching investigation in Olympia, Mo., but used a phony name and was released. Nearly two months later, after he failed to show up in court, he was arrested on a warrant.

Ashley wasn’t with him either time. He wouldn’t talk about the girl, but he remains a person of interest, said Sgt. Jennifer Protzman, the St. Joseph detective on the case. No arrest has ever been made in connection with the girl’s disappearance.

“Periodically I will get an email on a tip from another jurisdiction” that found a body matching Ashley’s age and gender, but then dental and DNA tests rule them out, Protzman said.

But police haven’t gotten any substantive information since Ashley disappeared, she said.

Tabitha Blohm Kretzer, who was Ashley’s best friend, was at the pool the day Ashley vanished.

“I thought she had gone to the convenience store, but she never came back,” Kretzer said. “I still think about her all the time.”

Mack said she knows her daughter didn’t stay away willingly. “One thing I know about Ashley, she wouldn’t just walk away from 15 years of life, never calling her family, her friends.”

“There’s always that thought,” she said, “that she is out there somewhere. Maybe like those girls who were kidnapped and found 10 years later in Cleveland. I’ve spent years getting her face out there. Maybe someone will come forward. I have her on every missing child website list.

“I want her to know, Ashley, you are not forgotten. I just want to bring her home, alive or dead. We’ve got to bring her home.”

[Kelly]

http://www.washingto...-years-missing/

Missouri girl Kara Kopetsky remembered in walk to mark six years missing

By Diana Reese May 6, 2013

BELTON, Mo. — May 4, 2007 should have been just another normal day.

Kara Kopetsky, 17 years old, headed off to school that morning but soon called her mom with a couple of requests. She needed her work uniform washed before 4 that afternoon and she’d forgotten a book. Rhonda Beckford threw the uniform in the washer and dropped off the book at the school office before heading to her own job.

But when Beckford came home that afternoon, her husband, Jim Beckford, Kara’s stepfather, asked if she’d heard from the teen. Kara had not come home from school at 2:30 as expected.

“I tried to call her but it went straight to voicemail,” Rhonda Beckford told me. She called Kara’s manager at Popeye’s Chicken where she worked. He hadn’t heard from the teenager, either, and she’d only missed work once — and that was because she was sick.

By 5 that afternoon, the Beckfords called the Belton police to report Kara missing. The first officer brushed it off, telling the family, “She’s a teenager, she’s probably just mad.”

“They [the police] basically treated her as a runaway,” Rhonda Beckford said. “But who knows their child better [than her parents]?”

Kara had never run away before. She’d left most of her belongings at home, including cash, clothes and an iPod. And then there was the matter of the boyfriend — or ex-boyfriend, as Kara had recently broken up with him. Rhonda Beckford told me he’d tried to abduct her a couple of weeks earlier and she had jumped out of his car. The teen had applied for a restraining order and a court date was set for May 10.

Rhonda Beckford, her family and Kara’s friends did their own investigating as they divided up the city of Belton, a suburb south of Kansas City, Mo., and went door to door with flyers.

It wasn’t until the June 2 disappearance of Kelsey Smith, an 18-year-old in Overland Park, Kan., a suburb west of Kansas City, that Kara made the news.

Suddenly there were two young women — both the same height, both with dark hair — missing in the Kansas City area. “The national news came calling,” Rhonda said. Could there be a connection?

Four days later, Smith’s body was found and soon after her killer arrested. Although he was questioned, no link between the two cases was ever found.

Surveillance tapes from cameras inside Belton High School show Kara leaving the morning of May 4, which doesn’t surprise Rhonda Beckford who knew her daughter had a couple of classes she hated and that she sometimes skipped. The school never called though, because at 17, Kara was considered an adult when it came to attendance. That has since changed; the school calls all parents of children enrolled in school when they’re absent.

And now surveillance cameras are placed outside the school as well.

Cell phone records show that the last call on Kara’s phone was with the ex-boyfriend that morning. It was 20 minutes long.

Rhonda Beckford said circumstantial evidence would seem to point to the ex-boyfriend, but the Cass County prosecutor needs more than that to build a case.

So Rhonda does what other parents of missing children do: They work to keep their child’s face and name out there before the public, with Web sites, Facebook pages, t-shirts, signs, magnets, events and media coverage.

Sunday was the sixth annual walk to honor Kara. Friends and family members showed up, but so did people who didn’t even know her or her parents, like Terry and Tracie Jennings from Pleasant Hill, Mo. “We drove over because we have five kids,” they told me.

Also present were the parents of other missing and murdered children, including Don and Donna Ross, parents of Jesse Ross, a 19-year-old who “vanished” during a school trip to Chicago; Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, parents of Baby Lisa, who disappeared from their home in October 2011; Mark and Kim Howard, whose 11-year-old daughter Michaela was murdered June 17, 1998; and Greg and Missey Smith, parents of Kelsey.

It was heartbreaking.

I didn’t realize there were so many cases, just in the Kansas City area alone. It’s “an epidemic,” Rhonda said. “If this [missing chidren] were a disease, there’d be a million dollars in research to find a cure.”

Instead, there’s $80,000 in reward money for anyone with information leading to Kara’s discovery.

Her mother isn’t expecting to find her alive. She hates the word “closure,” preferring “resolution.” She just wants to know what happened. She wants to have a funeral so she can say goodbye to her daughter.

She was “robbed,” Rhonda Beckford told me, while we walked together Sunday, “of the lifetime of memories I should have had with Kara.”

Meanwhile, Rhonda and Jim hope that someone, somewhere, will come forward to share information. Someone knows something.

“You just keep on keeping on,” Jim Beckford said.

If you know anything that could help solve Kara Kopetsky’s case, call 816-474-TIPS.