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Kelsey Smith's Body Found

Fox 4 News
June 6, 2007

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Police have confirmed Kelsey Smith's body has been found near a shallow creek bed near Longview Lake in south Kansas City in a heavily wooded area.

Members of the Hillcrest Covenant Church said they still plan to hold a prayer vigil at the church located at 8801 Nall Ave., in Overland Park, Kansas tonight at 7 p.m.

FOX Newschannel is reporting that police have identified a person of interest who lives within two miles of the Longview Lake area.

Police said they are talking to a number of people. But, they are not ready to identify any of them as a person of interest.

Police said they are still looking for their person of interest and they are still looking for the dark 70's Chevy truck.

Police were led to search a heavily wooded area based on a detailed analysis of cell phone data. They determined where Kelsey's cell phone was generally located on the evening of June 2, the night of her abduction.

More than 200 federal agents, police officers and police academy students searched an area in south Kansas City, south and east of U.S. 71 and Missouri 150.

Police said it took this long to locate the pings because they were following multiple leads and wanted to fully analyze the data.

The search of the area began Tuesday afternoon, and expanded Wednesday.

The cell phone analysis showed that the phone passed through certain telephone cells located on I-35 to I-435, then east to south 71 highway, and from there to an area in the vicinity of Longview Lake Park.

Cell phone signals, known as "pings," happen when a phone is in use, either receiving a call or message, or sending a call or message. Family and friends were attempting to contact Kelsey Saturday night.

Police have received and processed more than 500 leads in this case. Wednesday, in addition to more than 200 officers and police academy students conducting the search near Longview Lake, more than 50 officers and detectives were working leads. These officers are from Overland Park, Lenexa, Olathe, Prairie Village, Leawood, Shawnee, Merriam, Mission and the FBI. Also donating their time and equipment was Texas Equu Search.

The family told FOX 4 News there will be a prayer service open to the public at 7 p.m., at Hillcrest Covenant Church, located at 8801 Nall Ave., in Overland Park, Kansas.

Meanwhile, police were still asking for the public's help in identifying a truck from the Target where Kelsey Smith was abducted. The dark, older model mid-1970s Chevy truck with no license plate information was seen entering the same parking aisle as Smith's car on Saturday.

Enhanced surveillance video shows the same truck later seen leaving the Target parking lot at 9:29 p.m., 10 minutes after Smith's car was left in the Macy's parking lot across the street.

Overland Park police said that at 6:54 p.m., the truck pulled into the same parking lot aisle as Smith's car. At 6:55, Smith entered the store and at 6:56, a male was seen entering the store that matches the description as a person of interest in this case.

The person of interest's description was described as "close" to the description of the man leaving the truck. He's a white man, about 6 feet tall, 175 pounds, and in his 20's. He was wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts, and black converse tennis shoes. He has short dark hair and a goatee.

Police said that the person of interest remains just that, and has not been declared a suspect.

Unlike most Target customers, the man police want to talk to walked out of the store without buying a thing.

"We noticed that, he walked out with nothing, yeah, we noticed that, yeah, we noticed that he came out empty handed and that is kind of unusual," said Missy Smith, Kelsey's mother.

There was a reward of up to $35,000 for information leading to the whereabouts of Kelsey Smith. There were also "Find Kelsey" T-shirts available and half the proceeds go to the Kelsey Fund

Kelsey Smith disappeared Saturday night as she headed home from the Target store near Oak Park Mall. She went to Target to buy something for a graduation party but never made it back to her parents' house where she was supposed to meet her boyfriend at 7:20 Saturday night.

Kelsey Smith graduated from Shawnee Mission West just a few days ago. She plans to attend Kansas State University and study vet medicine.

If you have any information concerning the Kelsey Smith case, please contact the Overland Park Police Department at a new number set up to answer calls in regards to this case. That number is: (913) 327-5638. Or call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.

A fund has been set up to find Kelsey:
Kelsey Smith Fund
First State Bank
P.O. Box 5188
Kansas City, Kansas 66199-0188

[Admin]

$5 million bond set for suspect in Kelsey Smith murder

By Laura Bauer and Diane Carroll
The Kansas City Star
6/7/07

Edwin R. Hall appeared before a Johnson County judge via closed-circuit TV this afternoon and said he wants to hire his own attorney.

Hall was charged this morning with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping in the death of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith.

District Judge Daniel W. Vokins granted the prosecution’s request to set bond at $5 million.

Smith’s family attended the brief hearing, entering the courtroom after Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline, deputy Stephen Maxwell and two assistants.

Vokins set Hall’s next court date for June 14.

Afterward, Kline said during a press conference that the investigation was ongoing and that new warrants had been issued today.

When asked if the case might be transferred to federal court or if prosecutors might seek the death penalty, Kline replied: “Everything is on the table.”

Filing the murder charge in Johnson County does not necessarily mean that the murder occurred here, Kline said. There is no question the crime originated in Johnson County with Kelsey’s abduction, he said.

Kline declined to comment on questions regarding evidence. He also has declined to comment on how Kelsey was killed.

Hall’s arrest Wednesday night came as a shock to neighbors and former neighbors, some of whom said he liked to work on cars and collect scrap metal.

Hall and his wife Aletha and young son weren’t known to cause any trouble for neighbors. Their little boy, who was around 3 when they lived in a Newton Avenue town home in Kansas City, loved to play in his Batman cape.

“Just a nice young family,” said Sarale Russ, who lives in the 9300 block of Newton Avenue where the Halls lived until earlier this year. “Nothing unusual.”

Like countless others in the metro area, Russ followed the disappearance of Kelsey and has seen the surveillance video.

“It didn’t look like” her former neighbor, she said. Russ now remembers the family’s dark-colored, older model Chevrolet pickup — seen in surveillance video pulling in after Kelsey in a Target parking lot Saturday — that Aletha Hall would often drive to work.

Hall currently lived in a small yellow home with blue trim in the 500 block of North Lincoln in Olathe. Neighbor Cameron Migues described a nice, normal guy who worked in a restaurant. He lives next door and the two men often would work on cars together.

Migues has a 3-year-old child who played with Hall’s son. On Tuesday, the two worked on a car in the driveway as the children played in the backyard.

“We were talking about school,” Migues said this morning. “He wanted to go back to be a mechanic. It was a normal conversation. Nothing any different.”

Later that day, Migues’ wife saw the picture of a “person of interest” in the Kelsey Smith case on TV. Hey, that looks like our neighbor, they said, and laughed about it.

“It wasn’t until the whole truck came in the picture until we were like, ‘OK, I need to call,’” Migues said.

He then called police and told them that his neighbor looked like the person of interest and his truck matched the vehicle.
Migues said he had not seen Hall, who had only lived at that house for three or four months, at all over the weekend.

Shortly after Kelsey’s body was found in a wooded area not far from Longview Lake Park, detectives were talking with Hall. They said Wednesday night that it was tip from the public led them to the 26-year-old Olathe man.

Smith had been missing since Saturday evening, when she didn’t return from an errand to a Target store at 97th Street and Quivira Road.

Her body was found as more than 200 law enforcement officers searched a 900-acre area in south Kansas City. The search there came after police discovered that Kelsey’s cell phone signaled a tower in that vicinity Saturday night.

[Admin]

Source: Kelsey's Cause Of Death Was Strangulation

Fox 4 News
6/7/07

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- FOX News Channel Reporter Jeff Goldblatt told FOX 4 on Thursday night that a "well-placed source" in the OP Police Department said that Kelsey Smith died of strangulation.

Prosecutors charged Edwin R. Hall, 26 from Olathe, on Thursday with first degree murder and aggravated kidnapping for the murder of Smith, 18 from Overland Park.

Goldblatt's source could not confirm if Smith was killed in Kansas or Missouri.

Goldblatt also said that his source said there was evidence of a struggle in the Target parking lot where Smith was abducted. Goldblatt said his source said that Hall's juvenile record contained some "heavy stuff," but his adult record was relatively clean.

Hall was given a $5 million bond. More search warrants were being issued Thursday in the investigation and D.A. Phill Kline said more severe charges could be coming.

Kline said charges may be upgraded to capital murder, where Hall would face the death penalty.

"It's definitely on the table, both in the state's jurisdiction and the federal jurisdiction," Kline said.

Hall waived his rights to hear his charges until he had an attorney.

"I'm going to have to, I'm still trying to hire my attorney," Hall said.

Kline said the investigation is continuing and he said there's still a chance that federal charges could be filed against Hall.

The next court date is June 14 when the judge will set a date for a preliminary hearing. At that hearing the state will begin to publicly present some of its evidence against Hall.

Hall appeared on video before a courtroom filled with Kelsey Smith's family and friends. (See Hall's MySpace page here.)

Smith's family left the courthouse and said only that the hearing went as expected.

Police arrested Hall on Wednesday evening. Chief John Douglass with Overland Park Police said that Hall was believed to be the person of interest that followed Smith into the Target on 96th and Quivira on Saturday.

Douglass also said that the truck of interest was found in Hall's possession.

The murder charge Hall faces has a minimum sentence of 25 years to life.

Chief Douglass said that Hall was picked up and questioned on Wednesday afternoon after coming to their attention from a tip.

Chief Douglass did not have any information on why Smith was targeted, or if Hall acted alone.

A second bike run was going to be held on Sunday, June 10th at 12 noon at the Kickstand, 2847 Roe Lane, in KCK. BBQ will be served at noon, then an auction at 2 p.m., followed by a bike run from the Kickstand to Target.

On Wednesday evening, Kelsey Smith's family spoke, following the discovery of her body earlier in the day.

Police confirmed Kelsey Smith's body was found near a shallow creek bed near Longview Lake in Grandview in a heavily wooded area.

Police were led to search a heavily wooded area based on a detailed analysis of cell phone data. They determined where Kelsey's cell phone was generally located on the evening of June 2, the night of her abduction.

More than 200 federal agents, police officers and police academy students searched an area south and east of U.S. 71 and Missouri 150.

Police said it took this long to locate the pings on Kelsey's cell phone because they were following multiple leads and wanted to fully analyze the data.

The search of the area began Tuesday afternoon, and expanded Wednesday.

The cell phone analysis showed that the phone passed through certain telephone cell towers located on I-35 to I-435, then east to south 71 highway, and from there to an area in the vicinity of Longview Lake Park.

Cell phone signals, known as "pings," happen when a phone is in use, either receiving a call or message, or sending a call or message. Family and friends were attempting to contact Kelsey Saturday night.

Police had been asking for the public's help in locating the dark, older model mid-1970s Chevy truck with no license plate information that was seen entering the same parking aisle as Smith's car on Saturday. That same truck was found in Hall's possession, according to Chief Douglass.

Enhanced surveillance video shows the same truck later seen leaving the Target parking lot at 9:29 p.m., 10 minutes after Smith's car was left in the Macy's parking lot across the street.

Overland Park police said that at 6:54 p.m., the truck pulled into the same parking lot aisle as Smith's car. At 6:55, Smith entered the store and at 6:56, a male was seen entering the store that matches the description as a person of interest in this case.

Unlike most Target customers, the person of interest later identified as Hall walked out of the store without buying a thing.

"We noticed that, he walked out with nothing, yeah, we noticed that, yeah, we noticed that he came out empty handed and that is kind of unusual," said Missy Smith, Kelsey's mother.

There was a reward of up to $35,000 for information leading to the whereabouts of Kelsey Smith.

Kelsey Smith disappeared Saturday night as she headed home from the Target store near Oak Park Mall. She went to Target to buy something for a graduation party but never made it back to her parents' house where she was supposed to meet her boyfriend at 7:20 Saturday night.

Kelsey Smith graduated from Shawnee Mission West just a few days ago. She plans to attend Kansas State University and study vet medicine.

[Admin]

Suspect in Kan. teen's death had record

By: John Milburn
Associated Press Writer
6/8/07

TOPEKA, Kan. --A man accused of kidnapping and killing a suburban Kansas City teenager pleaded no contest as a 15-year-old to threatening his sister at knifepoint, according to court records.

Edwin R. Hall remained jailed on $5 million bond Friday, a day after being charged with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping in 18-year-old Kelsey Smith's abduction from a Target parking lot.

Prosecutors said Friday that Smith was strangled with a ligature but would not say exactly what was used.

A judge ordered Hall removed from his home after he entered the plea to aggravated assault in May 1996, and he was placed in state custody, the court records state. A second charge of making a criminal threat was dismissed.

Hall's parents, Carol and Don Hall, of Emporia, didn't immediately return a call Friday.

Carol Hall told The Emporia Gazette for Friday's editions that the couple adopted Edwin Hall when he was 7 and knew he had problems associated with his early childhood.

Court records show the boy ran afoul of police several times before the attack on his sister, who a biological child of the couple, though the earlier offenses were nonviolent.

In Kansas, court files are open for crimes involving defendants who are at least 14 years old, said Ron Keefover, spokesman for the state judicial system. A judge also can choose not to close records for defendants younger than 14.

Carol Hall told the paper the boy did something when he was 15 that made the couple feel he was a danger to the family, which included three biological daughters. She did not provide details but said the couple felt they would have to give up on him.

"That was the last time he was in our home," Carol Hall told the newspaper. The Halls hoped then that someone would be able "to get him the help that he needed," she said.

Hall was confined in four facilities from 1996 until 1999, according to the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority.

In 2002, Hall and his adoptive parents were sued by a Lyon County man who claimed Hall beat him in the back of the head with a baseball bat, court records show. The man sought $50,000 from the family, but the case was dismissed.

Hall, 26, of Olathe, faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the murder charge and more than 12 years on the aggravated kidnapping count.

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline said it was unclear whether the case would be tried in state or federal court but that the death penalty would be possible either way.

Hall's attorney of record, Paul Cramm, declined to comment Friday through his secretary.

[Admin]

Report: Kelsey Smith Murder Suspect Was Convicted of Threatening Adoptive Sister

Associated Press
Friday, June 08, 2007

TOPEKA, Kan. — A man now accused of kidnapping and killing a Johnson County teenager was convicted 11 years ago of threatening his adoptive sister at knifepoint.

According to court records obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, a judge convicted Edwin R. Hall after he pleaded no contest to aggravated assault in May 1996 and removed him from his adoptive home. Hall was then placed in state custody. A second charge of making a criminal threat was dismissed.

Hall, 26, of Olathe, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith at a Target parking lot in suburban Kansas City.

The Johnson County district attorney's office said Friday that Smith was strangled with a ligature, although spokesman Brian Burgess would not say exactly what was used.

Hall's attorney, Paul Cramm, did not return calls seeking comment, and his secretary said he was not commenting. Cramm filed notice with the court Friday that he would be representing Hall and requested prosecutors' evidence against his client.

His adoptive parents, Carol and Don Hall, of Emporia, about 80 miles southwest of Edwin Hall's Olathe home, didn't immediately return a call placed by the AP. However, Carol Hall told The Emporia Gazette that Edwin did something when he was 15 that made the couple feel he was a danger to the family. She did not provide details of the incident to the newspaper but said the couple felt they would have to give up Edwin, whom they had adopted when he was 7.

"That was the last time he was in our home," Carol Hall told The Gazette about the incident that occurred when Edwin was 15. The Halls hoped then that someone would be able "to get him the help that he needed."

She said the family felt "sick and in shock" about the charges against Edwin Hall involving Smith's death.

Surveillance video shows Smith being forced into her car in the Overland Park Target store's parking lot around 7:10 p.m. Saturday. The woman's body was found four days later near a lake about 20 miles away in Missouri.

The knife incident wasn't Edwin's first brush with the law. He was placed under supervision in 1994 by a Lyon County judge for taking his father's truck without permission, according to juvenile court records. A year later, he was again placed under supervision for stealing cash and a tape recorder, the records show.

In 2002, Hall and his adoptive parents were sued in civil court by a Lyon County man who claimed Hall beat him the back of the head with a baseball bat, court records show. The man sought $50,000 from the family, but the case was later dismissed.

Carol Hall told The Gazette she and her husband, who have three daughters, adopted Edwin after reading a newspaper article about children available for adoption.

"I felt like we could make a difference, help someone out," she said. "I love kids. We took him into our home with the intention of adopting him."

However, she said Edwin had behavior problems that were associated with his early childhood. Some of those problems were evident during the time he lived with the Halls before the adoption.

"You think you can give them love and all those things they didn't get, like support. It works with some, but with him, it didn't," Carol Hall said.

Despite the family's best efforts, Edwin continued to have problems at home and school, she said, often being defiant.

After Edwin was removed from the home, the family didn't see him again until he called them about three or four years ago. Carol Hall said he seemed calm and in control of his life.

"I felt really good. I would have had no fear of him," she said.

[Admin]

Suspect had Long Juvenile record

By Bobbi Mlynar
The Emporia Gazette
June 9, 2007

Trouble seemed to dog Edwin Roy Hall as he grew from child to adult. Hall, accused of kidnapping and murdering 18-year-old Kelsey Smith of Overland Park, had been in the custody of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services when, at 7, he was adopted by an Emporia family.

The hope was that his life would get better; reality was that Hall continued to show behavioral problems that eventually culminated in appearances as a juvenile in Lyon County District Court.

Juvenile and civil court records available show accusations of temporary deprivation of property, theft, aggravated assault and a civil suit alleging an attack on a younger boy.

Juvenile records are open when the child reaches 18 years of age, unless the records have been sealed by a judge.

According to case records available, Hall was 14 years old when he was charged on Dec. 2, 1994, in juvenile court with temporary deprivation of property, a 1984 Chevy van.

On June 23, 1995, Hall was charged with two counts of theft — $25 in cash and a microcassette tape recorder.

All of the charges were misdemeanors.

The cases were handled through a diversionary agreement, with supervision by a member of the Lyon County Attorney’s Office staff or a person designated by that office. Hall was ordered to remain in school without violating school rules or missing classes unless excused, satisfactorily completing the 10-session “Law Related Education Class” program, and completing 100 hours of community work service if assigned by the diversion coordinator, among the 11 conditions of the diversion.

On May 22, 1996, Hall’s charges reached felony level with accusations of aggravated assault and criminal threat.

The aggravated assault happened on May 14, 1996, when he allegedly “unlawfully and intentionally place(d) another person ... in reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm and said act was committed with a deadly weapon, to-wit: a knife...”

He also was accused of communicating “a threat to commit violence with the intent to terrorize another” in conjunction with the aggravated assault.

The criminal threat case was dropped as a result of plea negotiations, and Hall pleaded no contest to the aggravated assault.

The late Magistrate Judge Francis Towle found Hall to be a juvenile offender, and ordered him to be returned to the northeast Kansas Regional Detention Facility in Lawrence until he could be placed by SRS.

In July 1996, Hall was transferred from Forbes Juvenile Attention Facility in Topeka to Larned Youth Center in Larned for a direct commitment, according to court records.

He escaped from the Comprehensive Evaluation and Training Unit (CETU) in Topeka on April 25, 1997. The request for an arrest warrant that had been made was cancelled and Hall apparently was returned.

He remained confined until a conditional release on March 9, 1999, from the Topeka Juvenile Correction Facility and formally discharged on June 30, 1999.

Hall also was the defendant in a civil suit filed by Jonas Patton against Hall and his adoptive parents, Carol and Don Hall, on April 4, 2002, more than seven years after the incident occurred. By then, Hall had not been living with his adoptive family for about six years.

The petition filed in the civil case stated that on Oct. 3, 1994, Edwin Hall, then almost 14 years old, had struck the victim on the head with a baseball bat “with such force that it caused the Plaintiff to be hospitalized and to suffer head injuries which continue to cause the Plaintiff periodic debilitating headaches to this day.”

Patton was then 11 years old.

An out-of-court settlement was reached before the case could go to trial. The case was removed from the docket on Feb. 26, 2003.

[Admin]

Hundreds share memories of slain Overland Park teen Kelsey Smith

By Laura BauerAND Melodee Hall Blobaum
Kansas City Star
6/13/07

Kelsey Smith was daring and feisty, competitive to the point she made up the rules in a game with her boyfriend just so she could win.

Always the confident and assertive one, Kelsey never hesitated to give her opinion.

And she was caring. More than once Kelsey stayed up half the night making gifts for friends and once drove more than two hours just to be in a charity run when the one at her school was canceled.

Hours after they buried their cousin and sister, girlfriend and daughter Tuesday morning, one by one those who loved Kelsey explained why. They let strangers and friends inside their world, using pictures and memories to tell the story of a young woman the world came to know only after her family lost her.

"My family is a typical family," Kelsey's dad, Greg Smith, said to the hundreds attending his daughter's memorial service Tuesday afternoon.

"Nothing special to anyone except to those of us in it, just like many other families around the country."

And "like other typical teenagers, Kelsey had big dreams," Greg Smith said, "and frequently told me, 'Dad, I'm going to be famous before I'm 21.' "

Kelsey Smith was slain one month after her 18th birthday and just two weeks after her graduation from Shawnee Mission West High School. Her kidnapping from an Overland Park Target store made national headlines, the seemingly random act of violence shaking a sense of security.

Her body was found one week ago in a wooded area in southern Jackson County. She had been strangled.

Though they celebrated Kelsey's life Tuesday, the memorial service inside the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection also didn't shy away from how she died. A poem in the program referred to the person who kidnapped and killed her.

"I wore blue today to honor Kelsey's life. I don't know how one man could cause so much strife," the poem by Dawn Belshe read. "I wish he could have seen through his own craze. What a wonderful girl she was with a smile that left you in a daze."

The crowd included hundreds of her friends, people like Eric Hillmer, who organized a group of volunteers, "Kelsey's Army," to search for her. And Megan Hoss, a best friend for the past two years who planned to room with Kelsey at Kansas State University in the fall.

In one row sat public safety officers for Johnson County Community College who work alongside Greg Smith. In another, the Overland Park police chief and several officers.

The Rev. Mark Seversen of Hillcrest Covenant Church used a familiar chapter on love from 1 Corinthians to explain why Kelsey's death is so hard to comprehend.

"The three things that must remain in order for life to be vibrant and real and meaningful -- faith and hope and love -- took a tremendous beating last week," he said.

Love was assaulted, he said. Hope was assaulted. So was faith.

"The question changed from 'What can we do for Kelsey?' to 'What was God doing?' " Seversen said. "'Doesn't he care? How could He let this happen?' "

Jeff Kirby, a minister at United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, and Kelsey's dad offered direction, especially to the young people.

"My desire is that everyone here comes away with just a piece of her spirit," Greg Smith said. "Follow her example and try something that you've been thinking about doing. We only grow by doing and in order to do we have to try.

"Life should be experienced," he said, his wife and Kelsey's mom, Missey, leaning on him as he spoke. "From this point on in your life, do that, and think about her when you do."

Kirby challenged the students to be deliberate and intentional in their response to their classmate's death as they return to their lives.

Choose a career that helps people, he said, one that makes the world a better place than it is today.

And he urged them to boycott the culture of violence. Take a stand.

"I would just challenge you students to begin a boycott of our horrific culture of violence.... Nothing will cause moviemakers to tremble quicker than to find out 1,000 kids in Overland Park, Kansas, are really mad."

Before the service ended, pictures of Kelsey's life scrolled on big screens.

A smiling little girl with two big sisters, Stevie and Lindsey. A proud sister with her younger sister and brother, Codie and Zach.

Everyone saw the typical family Greg Smith talked about. The one that lost their middle child, the girl they often called "Kelse," way too early.

And the family that will always remember the last moments with her and the last words they spoke.

Missey Smith told the hundreds inside the church what she last said to her daughter on the cell phone, about 15 minutes before she was kidnapped. It was the same message she has for her now.

"'Bye, babe, see you when I get home.' "

[Admin]

Woman Encountered Kidnapping Suspect Before Kelsey's Murder

John Pepitone
FOX 4 News
6/13/07

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Police believe that Kelsey Smith was not the first woman Edwin Hall approached.

Diane Ulry told police she encountered Hall near Westridge Middle School just six weeks before Smith's kidnapping and only four blocks away from the Target store where Kelsey was kidnapped.

During her lunch hour, Ulry would take walks just north of Oak Park Mall. She said when she first learned of Smith's disappearance, she thought the surveillance video of the suspect looked familiar.

"When I saw the video, he was the same body frame. White, young male. I thought man, I wonder if that is the kid who approached me," said Ulry.

After Hall was arrested, she recognized him. "I almost threw up. I had no doubt in my mind that that was him."

Ulry said she first encountered Hall while walking in front of the middle school and he said something that made her uneasy.

"He hollered at me. I thought he wanted directions. I turned and looked at him. I said, 'yeah?' He says, 'you sure have a nice butt.' It just disgusted me," Ulry said of her encounter with Hall.

Ulry said as she speeded up her pace, Hall followed her down 95th street to Quivira. He then approached her again.

"He was sitting behind a retaining wall. He said, did I insult you? I said, absolutely. He said, why? I said, that was just gross!"

Ulry said Hall never touched her, but she regretted not reporting it to police. Detectives interviewed her last week.

Now Ulry said she is more aware of who and what is around her. Sources familiar with the investigation said what happened to Ulry matches descriptions of the suspect's behavior in Smith's murder.

[Admin]

Smiths focus on how Kelsey lived — not how she died
Family members find times they can smile amid their heartbreak.

By Laura Bauer
The Kansas City Star
6/16/07

They want to laugh in this house.

And as hard as that has been for a family that lost their 18-year-old daughter in a violent crime that drew the nation’s attention, sometimes they succeed.

Sometimes, as they sit in their Overland Park home, they remember the things Kelsey would do that made them laugh. Silly things, the kind of things that crack up a family but might not be so funny to others.

“When she got herself tickled, she’d wrinkle up her nose right here,” Greg Smith says, touching the sides of his nose. “She couldn’t stop laughing.”

Surrounded by photos of the family and flowers sent by strangers and friends, Greg and Missey Smith talked Friday for more than two hours about Kelsey and how their family goes on from here.

By now the nation knows the teenager played in the band at Shawnee Mission West High School, performed in school musicals and planned to be a veterinarian. But Kelsey also could be a wisecracker, belching and drawing a “Kelsey Ann!” from her mother, playing loud music when she got mad and teasing her older sister, Lindsey, about the water that would trickle into her basement bedroom after Lindsey showered upstairs.

“How come her bedroom only flooded when I took a shower?” asks Lindsey, who in the fall will begin her senior year at Kansas State University.

Lindsey doesn’t crack a smile as her mom and dad, younger sister Codie and Kelsey’s boyfriend, John Biersmith, all bust up. It seems to help for a moment.

For a moment.

Missey can’t forget seeing her daughter the last time. “I kissed the top of her head, touched her hand and said goodbye,” Missey Smith says, breaking down.

Last week she made Kelsey’s bed. Missey laid there for 40 minutes and cried.

The best part of the day for Greg is the first five seconds, when he wakes up. “I don’t remember then what’s happened,” he says. “Then it all comes crashing down. That she’s not here, and she’ll never be.”

On Friday morning he broke down in the shower, water pouring on his head.

“I just lost it,” he says.

Piles of cards and letters from across the country are in the Smiths’ living room. One box is full of the mail not yet opened. Another has those that the family has read.

One of Lindsey’s favorites is a multipage letter in big type from a little girl named Grace. The envelope reads simply, “To the parents of Kelsey Smith. Overland Park, Kansas.”

Each time Greg or Missey or one of Kelsey’s four siblings reads a letter, he or she initials it. Sometimes that person will leave a warning, such as, “Very hard to read this one,” which Greg wrote Friday morning.

That was when he sat down to read a stack of about 40 cards that had just come in the mail.

“I read so many it was like I had an anxiety attack,” Greg says, gesturing toward his chest. “I had to get out and ride for almost two hours to relieve the stress.”

On a friend’s borrowed motorcyle, Greg Smith rode until he relaxed. He rode to the fresh grave site of his middle child, a place he has been every day but one since he buried Kelsey on Tuesday.

•••

Capt. Tom Fredrickson of the Overland Park Police Department wanted to talk to Greg and Missey Smith in person. It was before 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 6, about four days after Kelsey was kidnapped in broad daylight from the parking lot of a Target store.

“What kind of news are we talking about, captain?” Greg remembers asking. “Do we need to brace ourselves?”

“Yes,” the captain answered. “I think you need to brace yourself.”

Four days earlier, when Kelsey didn’t return from her errand to Target, the family immediately feared that something was wrong. She had gone to buy a present and was supposed to come home to meet John before the two went out to celebrate six months of dating.

By midnight, the family was making fliers. The next day, they were doing interviews with local media, trying to get the word out. By Monday, it was national news and hundreds had joined “Kelsey’s Army” to search for her.

Kelsey would put up a fight, the family thought. The feisty one in the bunch, she could size you up and declare, “I can take you.”

And Greg, who has worked in law enforcement 16 years, had taught all his girls how to protect themselves. They know where the pressure points are and how to fend off an attacker.

But then the Smiths saw the video, the one from Target that showed Kelsey at the driver’s side of her Buick Regal. In a flash, someone ran up behind her, shoving her inside the car.

“Regardless of how much training you have … if you’re totally surprised and ambushed, you’re got,” Greg Smith says. “He took her by surprise, when she wasn’t prepared.”

They saw that video after Kelsey had been missing 24 hours.

By then, Missey was losing a little hope that Kelsey would be found soon.

By 48 hours, so was Greg.

They never gave up. They stood in front of TV cameras from countless national media outlets, from CNN to “Inside Edition,” from Nancy Grace to Greta Van Susteren. They looked into the camera and talked to whoever took their daughter, pleading for him to let her come home.

They always had a message for their girl:

“Kelse, if you are out there watching us, we’re coming,” sister Stevie Hockersmith said June 6 on “The Today Show.” “We’re not going to stop until you are home.”

Kelsey had been gone more than 72 hours.

At a noon news conference that day, police revealed they were searching an area in southern Jackson County. Kelsey’s phone signaled cell towers in that vicinity within an hour of her first going missing on June 2.

Volunteers who had spent three days in the hot sun passing out fliers and searching the area surrounding Oak Park Mall now were headed to the area near Grandview.

About two hours later, Greg Smith got the call from the captain.

•••

Though they had just graduated from high school, Kelsey Smith and John Biersmith felt they had met their match. In many long talks, they discussed college and careers, marriage and kids, and what it would be like when they were old. They also talked about death.

Kelsey wanted people to celebrate her when she died, not be sad. So that was what her family and John tried to do.

At the memorial service they played a song that Kelsey loved to sing. They told people to wear blue, Kelsey’s favorite color. At the visitation, which had been scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m., the family stayed past 11 to greet all who came.

Everyone in the family talked about Kelsey at the memorial service, except brother Zach. He’s 10.

In the days since Kelsey disappeared, Zach had stayed in the background. He played his video games and watched what was going on around him.

His dad took him aside one day, talking about how Kelsey wouldn’t be coming through the door again. She wouldn’t be picking him up from elementary school.

But they don’t think it had sunk in, not until Tuesday morning, when the family had a private burial before the public memorial service. Zach saw the blue casket in the ground.

“It finally hit him she wasn’t coming back,” Missey says. “We said, ‘We’ll sit with you, bud, as long as you like.’ We just sat with him at the grave site.”

•••

John is scheduled to leave for summer school today at the University of Kansas. Kelsey was supposed to go to Manhattan this weekend for orientation at K-State.

They dreaded being apart.

“We couldn’t spend the day away from each other,” John says.

“You two were pathetic,” says Lindsey, sitting in a chair nearby.

Greg, who plans to become a teacher, will still do his student teaching this fall at Shawnee Mission West. Lindsey still plans to get married next year.

Missey wants people’s lives to go on.

“I’ve told her friends, ‘You guys still have to live your life,’ ” Missey says. “Remember her, but don’t get stuck.”

They don’t sit around and talk about what may have happened to Kelsey. Or pick apart the timeline.

“I don’t want to speculate,” Missey says. “It might be worse in our minds than it was.”

When the time comes, prosecutors will tell them what they need to know. What they feel they can hear. And see.

They know they don’t want to view any autopsy photos or images from the crime scene.

“I don’t want to know the physical damage that happened to her body,” says Greg, a public safety officer at Johnson County Community College. “All my memories of Kelsey need to be the happy times.”

Missey wants that for everyone.

“Remember her beautiful brown eyes, her smiling pictures in the blue shirt. That was Kelse.”

The Smiths won’t spend any time talking about the man charged in Kelsey’s abduction and slaying. Kelsey is the one who matters to them. And they don’t want anything to jeopardize a fair trial.

“I’m not looking for revenge,” Greg Smith says. “I’m looking for justice, and they’re a different thing.”

•••

In the cards that the Smiths get, people write about the family’s courage. How Greg and Missey have handled themselves with grace.

“A lot of that is because we’re Kelsey’s parents,” Greg says. “We want to do that for our daughter.”

They also believe that the strength of God and prayers from strangers are keeping them going.

And the memories.

Before Kelsey’s visitation, Greg needed a haircut. Something he admits has been one of the hardest things since he lost his daughter.

Kelsey always cut his hair. This time Missey did.

“He cried,” Missey says. “I was like, ‘I’m sorry it’s not her.’ ”

The two look down. But then laughter soon finds a way in when Greg, who has lost most of his hair on top, describes the times Kelsey stood behind with the clippers as he sat in a dining room chair.

“When she was done, she’d sweep up the hair and it was just in a little pile,” he said, curving his fingers to make a golf-ball-size hole. “She’d say, ‘That’s sad, Dad.’ ”

And they all crack up.

“… If you find enough to get you to laugh,” says Greg, “it’s like she’s here again for that time, you know?”

That’s why they want to laugh in this house.

[Admin]

Suspect in teen’s death charged with capital murder
Edwin Hall, 26, of Olathe, was also charged with rape and sodomy — counts that were necessary under Kansas law for 18-year-old Kelsey Smith’s slaying to be considered a capital crime.

The Associated Press
July 10, 2007

Olathe — The man accused of abducting and killing a Kansas teenager was charged Tuesday with capital murder, making him eligible for the death penalty.

Edwin Hall, 26, of Olathe, was also charged with rape and sodomy — counts that were necessary under Kansas law for 18-year-old Kelsey Smith’s slaying to be considered a capital crime. Hall already had been charged with kidnapping and killing Smith, but Kline changed the first-degree murder count to capital murder.

Johnson County prosecutor Phill Kline said he has not yet decided if he will seek the death penalty Hall, but the capital murder charge makes that possible.

“After consultation with the family and law enforcement involved in the investigation and further review of the evidence, I decided and have taken action today to file capital murder charges against Mr. Edwin Hall in the disappearance and death of Kelsey Smith,” Kline said.

Kline also said Hall’s $5 million bond has been revoked.

Hall’s attorney, Paul Cramm, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Smith was kidnapped June 2 from the parking lot of an Overland Park Target store. Surveillance video from the Target showed a man entering and leaving the store and showed Smith being forced into her car in the parking lot.

Her body was found four days later in a park on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area, 20 miles east of the abduction site. Police were guided to the area by signals from her cell phone.

On Monday, Hall was charged with aggravated indecent liberties stemming from an alleged 2004 sexual relationship with a then-14-year-old girl. Johnson County authorities have not named the 14girl, but Kline has said she was not Smith.

[Admin]

Videotape At Center Of Smith's Death

KCTV 5
July 13, 2007

OLATHE, Kan. -- Lawyers for the man charged with kidnapping a teenager from a Target store parking lot, before raping and killing her, told a judge Friday they had concerns about the handling of store surveillance videotape that showed the teenager at her car.

Edwin R. Hall, 26, has been charged with capital murder, rape, aggravated sodomy and aggravated kidnapping in the death of Kelsey Smith, 18, of Overland Park. The capital murder charge makes Hall eligible for the death penalty if convicted, but prosecutors have not said yet if they will seek the death penalty.

Smith, 18, was kidnapped June 2. Grainy surveillance video broadcast nationwide showed her being confronted by someone and pushed into her car. Her body was found four days later in a park about 20 miles away in Missouri.

Hall's lawyer, Paul Cramm, told Johnson County District Judge Peter Ruddick during a hearing on motions about evidence that the defense needed access to the original Target store videotape that showed Smith going to her car.

Cramm said that tape was viewed early on by police who said it showed Smith getting in her car and driving away. It was not until the tape was enhanced by Target store employees that Smith appeared to have a confrontation with someone at her car, Cramm said.

"Two separate law enforcement officers were in concurrence that the video appeared to show the victim entering the car and driving away," Cramm said of the original video. "No one is seen at the time she enters the car and leaves, no one approaches her, and no one walks away from that area.

"It is only after the video is enhanced, and not enhanced by the crime lab or law enforcement, but enhanced by Target video lab personnel, that the video now shows a figure crossing," Cramm said.

Cramm said he didn't "dispute that the video shows what it says it shows." But he said, "unless the original video has been preserved such that defense has an opportunity to view what this video did look like when it was first reviewed by law enforcement ... it's difficult to know."

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline said he had received the original video Friday and would make it available to Cramm's office.

Cramm also presented several other motions, including a request to have a defense expert present when DNA samples from the case were tested in a way that would destroy them. Ruddick denied that request.

"If the state does something with the evidence that allows the defense to come in and suppress it, then we've done something terrible. I'm not so much interested in philosophy as I am in how to get this case fairly tried before a jury," Ruddick said.

Hall's wife, Aletha Hall, joined him in court for the first time since his June 6 arrest and sat directly behind him. Smith's parents, Greg and Missey Smith, also attended the hearing.

Ruddick has issued a gag order in the case prohibiting those involved from talking with the media and witnesses. Ruddick, however, granted a defense request that Hall be allowed to have contact with his wife.

Both Aletha Hall and the Smiths left the hearing without commenting. Hall's preliminary hearing was scheduled for Aug. 15.

[Admin]

Kelsey Smith Foundation will focus on education, advocacy

Holly Kramer
KC Community News
July 26, 2007

Many people have turned hurt into healing in response to Kelsey Smith's murder, including her parents, Greg and Missey Smith.

The Smiths said they started the Kelsey Smith Foundation to educate and empower young people.

“We need to educate young men that our daughters and sisters and friends are not trash to be thrown away on the side of the road,” Missey said. “We were looking into somehow getting them to value young women so that they don't do the sort of things that happened to Kelsey.”

Missey said the family wants to start high school programs to raise awareness about violence against women.

“Lindsay (Smith, Kelsey's sister) has looked into going to schools to talk to young women about rape and if you've been raped, you need to report it the first time,” Missey said.

“One of the things we've noticed is that young men tend to not confront other young men when there's a situation like if a guy and a girl are arguing, they just kind of stay back and say it's none of my business,” Missey said. “We need to have them realize it is your business. They need to step up and make sure that young man isn't abusing her in some way.”

Greg said a big part of the foundation is Kelsey's Army, which helped search for the missing teen.

“It's a program where we can go to other schools, nationwide eventually, and train them to do what everybody did when Kelsey went missing,” Greg said. “Our focus is more on 18- to 24-year-olds, rather than just children, because we ran into some disappointments when we called the missing children's line and they said, 'Well, she's 18.' We're trying to get some resources together to help people that if it happens to kids at that age, regardless of how old your child is, they're still your child.”

Getting a search team together fast is essential, Greg said.

“We want to help people organize search teams that can respond immediately,” Greg said. “We were really fortunate here in Overland Park to have so many resources to pull from, but particularly in some of these smaller communities, they don't have these resources.”

Greg said the foundation's board of directors plans to meet at the end of the month. He said they have been contacted by GPS manufacturers to participate in meetings about a GPS device that could help in emergencies.

“It could be smaller than a cell phone, maybe something you could put in your shoe that could be activated in an emergency situation,” Greg said.

Missey said the family kept Kelsey's name in the forefront of the search.

“The one thing we keep hearing on the news is it's because she was a pretty white girl,” Missey said. “It wasn't that. It was that her parents forced the issue and her friends and friends of ours to get her name out there.”

Kelsey Smith Foundation volunteer Eric Hillmer said he wanted to raise awareness.

“When the search for Kelsey happened, it got so much publicity,” Hillmer said. “People said they had never seen anything like it. The foundation was set up to help in events like another missing person.”

Hillmer and other volunteers have been raising money for the foundation through sales of Kelsey's Army T-shirts and bracelets.

People can also go to Kelseysarmy.com and make an online donation, Hillmer said.

One idea in the preliminary stages is an outline for a missing persons flier, Hillmer said.

Missey said the flier template would list the basics such as “who, what, when, where” information about the missing person.

Hillmer said the group would also like legislation to improve security cameras in buildings and parking lots.

The main idea is to prevent another tragedy, Hillmer said.

“We want to have an impact,” Hillmer said. “We want to save lives. We have to make sure we honor the memory of Kelsey.”

The Smiths said they have been overwhelmed at the outpouring of love from the community, the nation and the world. They said they received e-mails and letters from people in Europe and the Middle East.

“It's very humbling that she could touch so many people,” Missey said. “We knew she was a great person, now the world knows.”

[Admin]

Kline will seek death penalty in Kelsey Smith case

By Diane Carrol
The Kansas City Star
8/1/07

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline said today he will seek the death penalty against Edwin R. “Jack” Hall, who is accused of kidnapping and killing 18-year-old Kelsey Smith of Overland Park.

Hall, 26, of Olathe is charged with capital murder, rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated criminal sodomy.

Hall pleaded not guilty to those charges in court this afternoon.

A Johnson County grand jury Tuesday night issued an indictment against Hall. The indictment replaced earlier charges filed by Kline.

By taking the case through the 15-member grand jury, prosecutors avoided a preliminary hearing in the case, which had been scheduled for Aug. 15. Prosecutors would have had to present enough evidence in open court for a judge to decide whether there was probable cause to move to trial. Taking the matter to grand jurors, who by law meet in secret, bypasses the preliminary hearing phase.

Kline said Tuesday night that, by law, he had five days from the arraignment to decide whether to pursue the death penalty.

Kline said that going through the grand jury protected the family’s privacy because the case involved sensitive material.

“The media has played a crucial role in the investigative phase of this case, but now we are in a different process and we must ensure that we have a fair trial,” he said.

Kelsey Smith, of Overland Park, was kidnapped June 2 after running an errand at an Overland Park Target store. Her body was found four days later in a wooded area near Longview Lake in southern Jackson County.

Hall remains in the Johnson County jail.

The grand jury, which convened July 16, was called through a petition process spearheaded by the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. The anti-pornography group is pushing for indictments against several area businesses.

Kline spokesman Brian Burgess has said that Kansas law allows a grand jury to look into cases that were not the subject of the petition. The are 15 members of the grand jury.