Posted on 06/06/2007 9:53:32 PM PDT by peggybac
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- An arrest has been made in the homicide investigation of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith.
Late Wednesday night, police said Edwin R. Hall, 26, of Olathe, was being held in the Johnson County Jail in connection with the slaying of Smith.
Law enforcement crews combing a large wooded area near Longview Lake Wednesday found a body believed to be missing teenager Kelsey Smith, who was abducted from an Overland Park Target store parking lot Saturday night.
Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said Smith's body was found about 1:30 p.m. across the state line near Grandview, Mo., about 20 miles east of the abduction site.
Positive identification was pending, but Douglass said volunteer searchers could stop their work. He did not say how the woman was slain, but KMBC reported that there were signs of trauma to the body.
"As I understand she was found at a wooded area, but I can't say whether she was directly concealed by bushes," Douglass told reporters during an afternoon news conference.
(Excerpt) Read more at thekansascitychannel.com ...
Found something very strange just now. Aletha’s parents have owned that house they live in (on N. Lincoln St in Olathe) for at least 13 years, so it had to have been her childhood home at some point.
I had gotten the impression it was just someplace “Jack” and Le had just found and moved into. There appears to also be a brother of hers who lives there or has lived there recently.
Well, her parents’s, David and Madeline’s, mortgage on the house was foreclosed on as of May 15th and papers (I assume eviction) were served on both parents and the tenant in the home, Aletha Hall, on Tues, June 5!
As if *this* isn’t the worst week of her life already.
Look what of society has brought us they should give their opinion what concern do have for victims of crime?
Ben Afflack: “none”
Ed Asner: “none”
Danny Glover: “none”
Chevy Chase: “none”
Martin Sheen: “none”
Sean Penn: “none”
Mike Farrell: “none”
Tim Robbins: “none”
Susan Sarandon: “none”
Whoopi GOldberg: “none”
The eviction notice would probably be kind of hard on Mr. Hall’s self-image - a triggering stressor event.
How better to reclaim one’s manhood than to stalk, kidnap and exert power over the life and death of a beautiful girl who would otherwise have little to do with you?
It would definitely seem to be a trigger. I’m also kind of half-wondering if maybe we’re looking at Travelers or Gypsies here.
Justice must be served..
I haven’t done a local records search on Aletha, so don’t know if I could pick up the foreclosure details in a local courts search. Did you run across the foreclosure info in a blog or news story or a records search?
Speaking of “travelers” I think I was just visited by one, trolling the neighborhood looking for easy targets. Hard work to get rid of him, and I am left feeling rather uneasy. Red flags galore, and wouldn’t take a plain, direct no for an answer.
What makes you think travelers or gypsies are part of the picture here? The frequent moves?
Well, my own search is a bust. Kansas charges for access to district court records. Boo and nay, and even if I wanted to pay and subscribe to online records, there is no online process for becoming a subscriber.
So, any tip to the forclosure info would be greatly appreciated.
Do you have a link to the story with the neighbor who sold him the truck? I can’t believe she said he seemed normal and friendly. Just look at his booking photo...yikes!
On Greta's show last night, someone (can't remember who it was) stated that the killer's juvenile record was sealed, of course, but that there was some "pretty heavy" stuff in the record. Any idea what would be considered "pretty heavy?"
I'm pretty sure that his juvi records can be unsealed because of this crime, but not sure if the public would have access to it.
Also, Greta, (don't know why, morbid curiosity??) asked this guy what the cause of death was, and he said that Kelsey had been strangled. Isn't that considered a very personal way of murdering someone?
Yeah, the frequent moves and the pattern of evictions, fairly young marriage, “appearance of normalcy” covering bad deeds, just things like that. It’s just a gut feeling, nothing I can put my finger on directly.
Found the foreclosure in local records:
http://www.jococourts.org/index.aspx
Yes, it is considered “personal” - but also is most common with sexual assault crimes.
I didn’t see Greta, but heard the same info on the sealed juvie records - I have no idea what the heavy stuff is, but am thinking rape or some type of assault.
What I couldn’t figure out was why that pattern might have stopped. He married at age 19, so maybe that was a deterrent - or it’s a cover of some kind.
Just the moving, moving, moving around so much might have covered up something.
Posted on Fri, Jun. 08,
Suspect was convicted of knife threat as juvenile
By DIANE CARROLL and LAURA BAUER
The Kansas City Star
The Olathe man accused of murdering Kelsey Smith of
Overland Park was convicted in juvenile court of
threatening his sister at knifepoint when he was 15,
according to court records.
Edwin R. Hall, 26, pleaded no contest to aggravated
assault in the incident that occurred on May 14, 1996, in
Emporia, according to Lyon County District Court records.
He was removed from his adoptive home after
entering his plea about two weeks later.
More here:
Oh, my. Thanks for the link. He was released July 1999 and got married Feb 2000. I wonder how much Aletha knew about all that.
I notice it said his adoptive family - no wonder I’m having such a hard time finding info on him, besides his teen years all spent in juvie.
His poor little boy!
Oh, I also read last night that the strangulation of Kelsey was by ligature, not just manual. No other clues as to what type of ligature.
I know some people had been speculating he might have had some of those plastic ties with him - seeing as how he was fairly skimpily dressed when seen on the video leaving Target and going to Kelsey’s car.
The thinking was that that could have been how he subdued her quickly, using them as handcuffs. He very well could have been concealing a knife, too, now that we know that was once his M.O.
I know it, and Hall has probably been bubbling inside for a long time....scary. Also, I wonder to which dad he refers to as (the bastard) on his myspace page? hmmmm, here's a screenshot that someone saved:
In addition to being released from the juvenile detention programs in July 1999, according to an earlier story, he also:
” ... Hall was arrested once by Wichita police in 1999 for shooting a gun near North High School and charged with discharging a firearm at a dwelling and two vehicles. ...”
He was later convicted on that charge in June 2001.
Thanks. Every time I see that page (which I can’t read, BTW, because of the black type - could barely read it when it was in the original - had to highlight it all with my mouse), I am struck by the resemblance of his and Aletha’s “friend” Michelle to Kelsey, even tho the friend wears glasses.
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