Post by LadyBlue on Jun 5, 2007 18:45:50 GMT -5
Surveillance tape shows an Overland Park teenager missing since Saturday being forced into her car at a Target store where she had stopped on an errand.
Kelsey Smith, who graduated about 10 days ago from Shawnee Mission West High School, left the store around 7:10 p.m. and put packages in the passenger seat of her 1987 Buick. Out of nowhere, in a busy parking lot, someone ran toward Smith.
“As she opened the driver’s side door, the individual sprinted up behind her and pushed her into the car,” Overland Park Capt. Tom Fredrickson said. Her car was found about two hours later in the Macy’s parking lot at the nearby Oak Park Mall with her purse and packages inside.
Investigators spent Monday night poring over surveillance of the parking lot at 97th Street and Quivira Road to see if they could get a better view of the person or gain more insight into what happened. They don’t know if Smith, 18, was abducted by someone she knew or if she was picked at random.
The department released information Monday night about a “person of interest” who entered Target after Smith and left before she did.
“There were other people in the store at the same time Kelsey was, but this guy seemed to stand out,” Fredrickson said, not elaborating. “We’re not calling him a suspect. He’s an individual who may have information that is helpful to us. We want to find out his name and speak to him.”
Media attention on the case brought in dozens of leads, but investigators said they had not panned out.
The news late in the day that Smith was abducted made family and friends who’d walked nearby neighborhoods for several hours passing out fliers even more determined to find her.
“We will bring her home,” said Stevie Hockersmith, Smith’s older sister.
In Monday’s canvass, Smith’s close friends knocked on doors or stuffed fliers into door handles.
“Our friend is missing,” Chris Harvey said as he and Megan Hoss, who plans to room with Smith at Kansas State University in the fall, approached a man and woman doing yard work.
Dorothy and Thomas McCaskill had heard about Smith on television. Dorothy McCaskill stopped by the chapel at Holy Spirit Catholic Church that morning to say a prayer.
“It makes me sick,” Dorothy McCaskill said. “I can’t think of anything worse. She’s in my heart.”
Smith’s family was scheduled to appear on national news programs this morning to talk about the middle child in a family of four girls and one boy. A clarinet player in the Shawnee Mission West marching band, she plans to join an older sister in the K-State band.
Volunteers will regroup this morning to see what areas still need to be canvassed.
On Monday, the Smiths’ home in Overland Park served as one unofficial command post. The back parking lot at the Target store was another.
A banner celebrating Smith’s graduation still hung outside the family’s ranch home. Police detectives were in and out. A friend worked on the computer, constructing the “FindKelsey.com” Web site.
And Smith’s father, Greg Smith, went from one task to another, trying to stay busy.
“I don’t like it when the house goes quiet,” said Greg Smith, who’s been in law enforcement for 16 years. “When it gets quiet, that’s when it gets real bad. That’s when I start thinking.”
Smith was expected home by 7:30 p.m. Saturday. That’s why her family was puzzled by the surveillance tape that showed her car turning left out of the Target lot. She would have turned right to go home.
Her boyfriend, John Biersmith, was waiting for her there. The two planned to attend a pool party and then go to dinner to celebrate their six-month anniversary.
Eager for new information Monday, Smith’s parents leaned on each other, prayed and were comforted knowing that so many people in their community were helping search for their daughter.
“I just wonder where she is and if she’s all right,” Greg Smith said, his voice breaking. “We keep believing we’re going to find her.”
“Alive,” her mother, Missey, said as she lay her head on her husband’s shoulder.
The Smiths have a house rule, one their five children don’t break. If you change locations, you call home.
“If you’re at Dave’s house and you’re going to Betty’s, you have to call me to tell me you’re going to Betty’s,” Greg Smith said.
That way, if anything ever happened, the family would know a specific time frame to give to police. When your dad is a police officer it becomes a way of life.
So the family knew something wasn’t right Saturday night.
Smith left for Target as her dad fixed dinner. She wouldn’t be gone long, she told him.
She called her mom, who was headed back from Des Moines, just before 7 p.m. Smith knew that her mother would know where in Target to find the photo box she wanted to buy.
Before getting off the phone, Smith said she was going to meet Biersmith.
“I said, ‘Bye, babe, I’ll see you when I get home,’ ” Missey Smith said, starting to cry.
When her boyfriend text messaged her from the Smith home a little before 7:30, Smith didn’t text back.
That was the first sign something wasn’t right, her dad remembered thinking.
After awhile, Biersmith went with Smith’s sister Lindsey to search nearby Target stores, not knowing for sure which one she had gone to. Nothing.
Then they went to area Wal-Mart stores, thinking she might have stopped off to do more shopping. Still nothing.
The cop in Greg Smith knew too many little things weren’t adding up. He called area police departments, asking dispatchers to check their logs for his daughter’s name or license plate number.
Maybe she had been pulled over, or there was a wreck. He also called hospitals.
Greg Smith’s parents eventually left their Overland Park home near the mall to search for their granddaughter. They’re the ones who found her car parked outside Macy’s.
The Buick was unlocked, the driver’s side window down about four inches.
About 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Greg Smith made a missing person report on his daughter, starting a process he knows all too well as a law enforcement officer.
“From a cop standpoint I understand everything that’s going on. I know what some of the key things are, what the key time frames are,” Greg Smith said. “I try not to think about that.”
As a father, he thinks about Smith, the outgoing young woman who plans to be a veterinarian some day.
“From the dad standpoint, it’s all very frustrating,” he said. “You want answers and you want them right now and it doesn’t happen. … She’s my baby and I want her back.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ Go to KansasCity.com for video from the search for Kelsey Smith, an interview with her father and video of a person of interest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP
Kelsey Smith is white, 5 feet 6 inches tall and about 120 pounds, police said. She has long brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a pink tank top and black shorts and possibly sandals or tennis shoes.
Her car is a silver, 1987 two-door Buick Regal with Kansas tag WOZ 965.
Anyone with information is urged to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (474-8477) or Detective Bob Miller at 913-327-6950.
www.kansascity.com/105/story/136365-p2.html
Kelsey Smith, who graduated about 10 days ago from Shawnee Mission West High School, left the store around 7:10 p.m. and put packages in the passenger seat of her 1987 Buick. Out of nowhere, in a busy parking lot, someone ran toward Smith.
“As she opened the driver’s side door, the individual sprinted up behind her and pushed her into the car,” Overland Park Capt. Tom Fredrickson said. Her car was found about two hours later in the Macy’s parking lot at the nearby Oak Park Mall with her purse and packages inside.
Investigators spent Monday night poring over surveillance of the parking lot at 97th Street and Quivira Road to see if they could get a better view of the person or gain more insight into what happened. They don’t know if Smith, 18, was abducted by someone she knew or if she was picked at random.
The department released information Monday night about a “person of interest” who entered Target after Smith and left before she did.
“There were other people in the store at the same time Kelsey was, but this guy seemed to stand out,” Fredrickson said, not elaborating. “We’re not calling him a suspect. He’s an individual who may have information that is helpful to us. We want to find out his name and speak to him.”
Media attention on the case brought in dozens of leads, but investigators said they had not panned out.
The news late in the day that Smith was abducted made family and friends who’d walked nearby neighborhoods for several hours passing out fliers even more determined to find her.
“We will bring her home,” said Stevie Hockersmith, Smith’s older sister.
In Monday’s canvass, Smith’s close friends knocked on doors or stuffed fliers into door handles.
“Our friend is missing,” Chris Harvey said as he and Megan Hoss, who plans to room with Smith at Kansas State University in the fall, approached a man and woman doing yard work.
Dorothy and Thomas McCaskill had heard about Smith on television. Dorothy McCaskill stopped by the chapel at Holy Spirit Catholic Church that morning to say a prayer.
“It makes me sick,” Dorothy McCaskill said. “I can’t think of anything worse. She’s in my heart.”
Smith’s family was scheduled to appear on national news programs this morning to talk about the middle child in a family of four girls and one boy. A clarinet player in the Shawnee Mission West marching band, she plans to join an older sister in the K-State band.
Volunteers will regroup this morning to see what areas still need to be canvassed.
On Monday, the Smiths’ home in Overland Park served as one unofficial command post. The back parking lot at the Target store was another.
A banner celebrating Smith’s graduation still hung outside the family’s ranch home. Police detectives were in and out. A friend worked on the computer, constructing the “FindKelsey.com” Web site.
And Smith’s father, Greg Smith, went from one task to another, trying to stay busy.
“I don’t like it when the house goes quiet,” said Greg Smith, who’s been in law enforcement for 16 years. “When it gets quiet, that’s when it gets real bad. That’s when I start thinking.”
Smith was expected home by 7:30 p.m. Saturday. That’s why her family was puzzled by the surveillance tape that showed her car turning left out of the Target lot. She would have turned right to go home.
Her boyfriend, John Biersmith, was waiting for her there. The two planned to attend a pool party and then go to dinner to celebrate their six-month anniversary.
Eager for new information Monday, Smith’s parents leaned on each other, prayed and were comforted knowing that so many people in their community were helping search for their daughter.
“I just wonder where she is and if she’s all right,” Greg Smith said, his voice breaking. “We keep believing we’re going to find her.”
“Alive,” her mother, Missey, said as she lay her head on her husband’s shoulder.
The Smiths have a house rule, one their five children don’t break. If you change locations, you call home.
“If you’re at Dave’s house and you’re going to Betty’s, you have to call me to tell me you’re going to Betty’s,” Greg Smith said.
That way, if anything ever happened, the family would know a specific time frame to give to police. When your dad is a police officer it becomes a way of life.
So the family knew something wasn’t right Saturday night.
Smith left for Target as her dad fixed dinner. She wouldn’t be gone long, she told him.
She called her mom, who was headed back from Des Moines, just before 7 p.m. Smith knew that her mother would know where in Target to find the photo box she wanted to buy.
Before getting off the phone, Smith said she was going to meet Biersmith.
“I said, ‘Bye, babe, I’ll see you when I get home,’ ” Missey Smith said, starting to cry.
When her boyfriend text messaged her from the Smith home a little before 7:30, Smith didn’t text back.
That was the first sign something wasn’t right, her dad remembered thinking.
After awhile, Biersmith went with Smith’s sister Lindsey to search nearby Target stores, not knowing for sure which one she had gone to. Nothing.
Then they went to area Wal-Mart stores, thinking she might have stopped off to do more shopping. Still nothing.
The cop in Greg Smith knew too many little things weren’t adding up. He called area police departments, asking dispatchers to check their logs for his daughter’s name or license plate number.
Maybe she had been pulled over, or there was a wreck. He also called hospitals.
Greg Smith’s parents eventually left their Overland Park home near the mall to search for their granddaughter. They’re the ones who found her car parked outside Macy’s.
The Buick was unlocked, the driver’s side window down about four inches.
About 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Greg Smith made a missing person report on his daughter, starting a process he knows all too well as a law enforcement officer.
“From a cop standpoint I understand everything that’s going on. I know what some of the key things are, what the key time frames are,” Greg Smith said. “I try not to think about that.”
As a father, he thinks about Smith, the outgoing young woman who plans to be a veterinarian some day.
“From the dad standpoint, it’s all very frustrating,” he said. “You want answers and you want them right now and it doesn’t happen. … She’s my baby and I want her back.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ Go to KansasCity.com for video from the search for Kelsey Smith, an interview with her father and video of a person of interest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP
Kelsey Smith is white, 5 feet 6 inches tall and about 120 pounds, police said. She has long brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a pink tank top and black shorts and possibly sandals or tennis shoes.
Her car is a silver, 1987 two-door Buick Regal with Kansas tag WOZ 965.
Anyone with information is urged to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (474-8477) or Detective Bob Miller at 913-327-6950.
www.kansascity.com/105/story/136365-p2.html