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 ...
Can you imagine referring to your occupation as a serial killer? Wow, and that was in 2001, when he and aletha were together and no child yet. Yes, it seems as though her family was paying their way through life, although she may have been the only steady worker.
I’m not up to snuff on anything tonight - haven’t had time to read any of the newer stories.
Her grandmother in NE also appears to have another home, or did at one time, in a resort town on the Gulf Coast, so I’ve been trying to find some info on it - but no luck. Nothing there in her name. Just thought that would be a good place to “go into seclusion” if I were she.
And I have no idea where her parents or brothers might be now. I just hope they all cooperate if they know anything.
Thanks for posting the link to the cached site...
Prayers up for your wife...take care and tell her I too am sick of the hilton garbage
I think that the 1st court appearance (well 2nd) with more information will be on 6/14/07.
http://jack.crimeblog.us/sick.html
http://jack.crimeblog.us/sick2.html
Thanks very much. Nothing major. Hand surgery (last Tuesday) between the thumb and the rest of the hand but it was getting so painful she could not write and it was very difficult in her work (electrical related). She puts pressure on her hands all day at work. She has a cast and will be out of work for at least 3 months. Thanks again very much for your prayers, Kim.
Thanks! I haven’t had much time today to do any catching up on this, although I did find a little bit of interesting stuff about Aletha’s family.
I had been more interested at first in finding out how LE knew that “Jack” had grown up in the area near where Kelsey’s body was found. It doesn’t seem, from what I can gather, that the Hall family ever lived over there.
They have apparently been at Green Acres mobile home park in Emporia for 30 years. I thought they owned it, but have been unable to confirm that - only that they’ve lived there and still do - someone else’s name is shown as owner currently.
It’s hard to imagine that LE looked into his adoption background to ascertain that, but I suppose the Halls might have given them that info. His adoptive family said his past life before 7 was “troubled” or they seemed to think it was, but I’ve also seen a reference to his having been “orphaned” - so I’m not sure what to think.
I’m more inclined to believe that was an early media misreporting as to his “childhood home” near Grandview, MO. I believe they meant only that he had “lived” near there before, which was just a couple of years ago, on Newton Ave in south KCMO, which was something we already knew. Again, just speculating about that, from the people they questioned there near a former address for Edwin and Aletha.
As to the Hallowells, I’ve found that some of the family are members of the Omaha Indian tribe and that little village in NE, Walthill, is only population 909, with 300 households - and all on the Omaha Indian reservation. In fact, the whole of Thurston county is Indian Country (reservation).
The address Edwin gave in Walthill to Sioux City cops for his traffic accident was not the street addy for Aletha’s grandma, but a cross street - so her house might’ve been on the corner of it. I didn’t take time to map it. I also have another couple of addy’s in Walthill for family.
So far, I’ve counted over 30 family members who live there or have lived there - out of 900 population, that’s like 3% of all of them, lol. I believe grandpa died a few years back and that grandma has died more recently, as have some other family members, including at least one uncle, a brother of Aletha’s dad’s.
I did find someone that I think is another uncle who does have his name on some property on the Gulf to which I referred earlier. That part of her family - the dad’s and mother’s both - is originally from MA and I did track some of that down, except her mom’s.
Ironically, some members of her family have shortened their names to Hall, which also makes for some guesswork and some liberties the computer databases have taken, I believe. One even showed Edwin’s adoptive mother Carol as having the maiden name of Hallowell. I’m pretty sure that’s a glitch, which is why I do everything by hand.
I also want to hunt through some LE files for Wichita in the 2nd half of 1999 and then follow the Edwin trail to the other places. I got started a couple of days ago, but got sidetracked. I know there will be lots more info this week - look how much we’ve already found out in such a short time!
God bless Kelsey’s family!
Oops, I messed something up in my above post. Aletha’s grandmother, Betty, is alive and well and living in Nebraska.
She responded to the Des Moines Register’s reporter in an interview. I *knew* that, but when I was looking at family death records, I just didn’t *think* when I saw Elizabeth with the same middle initial and just about the same birthdate.
So sorry if I made anyone scratch their heads over the grandma interview!
Back to our regularly scheduled posting ...
Judge Issues Gag Order In Edwin Hall Case
http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/13499846/detail.html
Woman Encountered Kidnapping Suspect Before Kelsey's Murder
I watched the whole thing. The minute the death penalty was mentioned, the kid plead guilty. Was impressed with Kline. One thing, did she actually drive her car after Hall pushed her in, while threatening with the air gun, or, did he drive her car?
I didn’t know it was on TV, I heard it on 980, so I can’t answer your question.
All 3 networks were preempted for the hearing. It was quite interesting. You can watch it online if you are interested.
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