Kansas City woman missing; acquaintance charged with torching her SUV
Solve This Crime 09/14/2016 11:57 am PDT
A breaking story out of Missouri: A young woman is missing and an acquaintance was taken into custody.
On Sept. 8, 2016, on the same day our Crime Watch Daily story aired about missing woman Kara Kopetsky, another woman, Jessica Runions, has gone missing, and according to family members, Kylr Yust was the last person to be seen with Runions.
Kylr Yust was questioned long and hard about the disappearance of Kara Kopetsky, his ex-girlfriend, who went missing in May 2007. Yust was never charged.
It's not the first time Crime Watch Daily's Andrea Isom has investigated Yust. Isom traveled to Kansas City for the story.
Runions, 21, disappeared on a Thursday, and two days later, on Saturday, her car was found abandoned and torched on the side of the road, with no sign of Runions.
Yust, 27, was arrested on Sunday morning, Sept. 11. He was charged with "knowingly burning" Runions's SUV.
Kara Kopetsky was last seen in surveillance video leaving her school just hours before she vanished in 2007. It was only a few days after Kopetsky had filed a protection order against her abusive on-again, off-again boyfriend, the man who had not long before that incident abducted her from work and threatened to slit her throat -- the same man police arrested just days ago: Kylr Yust.
It's been nearly 10 years since Kopetsky walked out those high school doors, and her case remains unsolved.
On Thursday, September 8, 2016, Jessica Runions was seen at a party with her boyfriend and his longtime acquaintance, Kylr Yust. No one has seen her since. Friday, Jessica's mom filed a missing-person report with police, then started reaching out to her daughter's friends.
Yust was held on a $50,000 cash-only bond.
A spokesman for the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office has declined to comment on the matter for now, telling other media outlets, quote "the case is now under seal."
