Free Republic

An Emporia, Kan., couple adopted Edwin R. Hall when he was 7 because they wanted to give him a better life. Eight years later, after Hall was convicted in juvenile court of threatening his adoptive sister with a knife, he went back into state custody. He would spend the next three years in four juvenile correctional facilities and never return to his adoptive home. The 26-year-old Hall now sits in the Johnson County jail on $5 million bond, accused of kidnapping and killing 18-year-old Kelsey Smith one week ago today. His attorney, Paul Cramm, declined to comment Friday... Hall pleaded...

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...