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 ...
Shocking story. He DID have people try to offer him love and a different life, he just rejected it. Sad.
Whoa....are you thinking that maybe they offed the parents?
I read on Aletha's myspace that she is from Texas, but you're right, there is little mention of her parents other than them being so far away, makes their relationship better. Something to that effect. Strange that a ME would come to the house unless there is a dead body someplace?
Aletha said she worked in an insurance office, and Karla Holmolka/Paul Bernardo comes to mind. Now I'll stop. :)
I left him as a “question mark?” because there is some overlap, but it might also be some errors in the databases, where they mixed the two (”K” and “R”) up. I’ll go back when I get a chance and try to clear it up.
You’ve probably seen by now that his adoptive father was named Donald D. Hall and his mother Carol J. Hall and they haven’t seen him in several years.
I don’t think his original name was Hall, either - as in a birth father being a relative - because they claimed to have found out about him in the newspaper before putting in to try to adopt him.
I found her in TX births - had narrowed it down to two Alethas born in Aug 1981 and was in process of trying to eliminate one or the other, when a story this morning confirmed that the Hallowell one was correct.
Then I found parents and followed the bread crumb trail. They don’t have any other current address anywhere other than the 511 N. Lincoln St in Olathe.
Now, it could be that they are retired and traveling, like going around the country in an RV or something, ya know? I didn’t mean to sound *quite* so alarmist - just that the ME thing played into my earlier fears, plus the SW for the BIL’s house.
They (the parents) had a company at one time, also at that address, called the New World Tea & Herb Company, which went defunct in 2003, as far as its KS registry and their ownership, but appears to be a viable company in Ann Arbor, MI. Don’t know if it’s the same one, like they sold it, or just a coincidence.
There are Hallowell family members in several of the towns Aletha referred to - such as Walthill, NE - looks like maybe paternal grandparents live or lived there, so they may have lived with them for a while. Same with Sioux City suburbs and with Wichita suburbs.
So far, I’ve found two brothers and a sister, plus assorted SIL’s, but none of the siblings were born in TX, so I am flying blind on that. I had originally thought “someone in the natural gas production business,” because of the moves from New Mexico to Texas to Kansas to Nebraska, but now I don’t think so.
She was apparently born in Dallas County (TX) and they lived in Arlington. I have more notes, but would need to organize them to post - and I’m eating dinner at the keyboard, lol.
Thanks to all posters/linkers/researchers. My wife was curious about this story (is recovering after surgery) and is angry about the DBM 24/7 Paris Hilton garbage. I will send her the link to this thread (after informing her that FReepers are on top of the story).
Thanks for the Hallowell tip, and the other research you have done.
What I guess the Medical examiner is doing at the house, is looking for instruments or ligatures that would have left distinctive marks on Kelsey Smith.
Or, if the cannibalism “jokes” turn out to less than funny...well, that’s almost too awful to contemplate.
Hmmm, that’s possible - good thinking. I had hoped we’d hear more after KC people saw their late local TV news, but I guess not.
I found a bench warrant that is still out from Wichita municipal court for Aletha under her maiden name. Funny, the index to the warrants says they are from the past 5 years, but this one was issued in 1999.
The date on it was 9-27-1999, which is 4 days after Edwin/Jack’s firearms arrest on 9-23-1999, so I’m betting she was a witness and didn’t appear when she was subpoena’ed.
That answers the question of whether she knew about it or not. She must have graduated from her private HS (”away from the druggies and horndogs”) that May-June of 1999. He got out of juvie on June 30, 1999. Then in September, she was apparently with him when he did that. And then they married the next February and started the hunt for their happy home *wherever.*
IF so, there’s also the age given as 51. So more is mixed up than a K and R. It leaves me rather confused.
Happens all the time and has happened for ages. This time, however, it's Bush's fault for depriving this forlorn soul of ice cream.
i have a few “friends” on the force and “rumor” is that they are looking at two homicides of young girls in wichita, and Kara as possible victims of Hall. The moving around from state to state is very strange for a young family that doenst seem to have a lot of money it does seem suspicous to me
Well, I think that’s a real person, with the “K” and that’s *his* real age.
It’s just that there are lots of things in listings that don’t differentiate by age or wouldn’t have any reason to have an age attached to them. It’s the ones where there isn’t a middle initial that have to be sorted out.
I’ve found something else confounding in the databases and hope it can be resolved as just a clerical error. Otherwise, Aletha would be related to the adoptive family, directly, and I don’t think that’s right. I think some wires have gotten crossed, but it takes a lot to figure out where.
Oh I think EKH, age 51, is a real person. But I can’t believe the coincidence of an Edwin Keith Hall in that area, perfect age to be this perp’s dad or uncle, but having no connection to the perp. Maybe that’s the case. But what a coincidence if true.
Thanks for all the research and reporting!!!
Keep it up and please keep sharing, very intriguing(sp)!
Be safe this weekend everyone.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070609/NEWS01/706090325/1001/NEWS
Also, here's his yahoo page:
http://profiles.yahoo.com/captn_666_howdy
ahem...he refers to his occupation as a "ceral killer"
ID captn_666_howdy
Wow, there are some good sleuths here on this thread! I heard on the radio news this morning that they are looking at his connection to the other girl’s disappearance?
http://www.kttc.com/News/index.php?ID=15821
I bet there are more, too.
Several of the media stories say the Halls “for some reason” decided it would be better to let him go back to state custody at age 15.
They don’t think that having Edwin hold their daughter at knifepoint and threatening her is a good enough reason?
The Iowa story linked earlier sure blows a hole in the “happy marriage” story, that’s for sure.
He “dated” someone’s daughter there and made up lies about where he lived and was from, on and on. I’m surprised at the revelation that he is diabetic, however.
Seems as chaotic as his life has been, it’s amazing that he has lived this long and managed it, while moving from place to place with little money for medications and health care. It might explain some of his “blackouts,” but not the violent episodes themselves.
Too bad that when he had such a bad time of it two months ago, medically, he didn’t learn something from it and change his life for the better. Now the taxpayers will have to support him forever.
And I see I was clairvoyant about “Jack and Le’s” living situation in Nebraska - they really were staying with Aletha’s grandmother, as I opined. It looks like her family has pretty much financed their life together all along.
I wonder where her parents are that the press can’t find them and I wonder what happened that made them quit paying their mortgage on the house in Olathe. The info I saw in that one story last night didn’t make sense - saying they’d gotten the loan in 2004 and had only paid $4000 on it.
I showed that they had owned it for at least the past 13 years, which is half of Aletha’s life. It must have been a 2nd to take out some of the increased value, although it wouldn’t appear to be a factor from what we’ve seen of the place. May have also had to do with closing or selling their tea company the year before.
Couldn’t find a more current address for her brother Dennis, who still showed the Lincoln St. one, like her parents do. He seemed to be attending the same college Le was and I made a mental note that he may have moved out of that house about 6 months ago, but I don’t know where to.
The brother Glenn does have another address in Olathe. He was married there in 2000, then divorced in 2002, with a child involved. That is probably the location of the 2nd search warrant.
I’m still just amazed at her denial of “Jack’s” obvious penchant for wrongdoing. I can’t imagine what is going through her mind now and how she’s coping with also losing her home at the same time.
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