KANSAS CITY -- Prosecutors in Johnson County, Kan., charged three men on Tuesday in the murder of Keighley Ann Alyea, the 18-year-old suburban Kansas City teen who'd been missing for almost a week.
Alyea's body was found Monday evening in rural Cass County, south of Kansas City, Mo., police in Overland Park, Kan., said Tuesday. It was in a farm field near the intersection of East 235th Street and South State Route K Highway, police said.
An autopsy is scheduled for today at the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Cass County Sheriff's Office reported today. They are working with Overland Park police, they said.
The Kansas City metropolitan area straddles the Kansas-Missouri border. Both Overland Park, where Alyea lived, and Cass County, in Missouri, are considered suburbs of Kansas City, Mo., which is located in Jackson County.
The three men charged with first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery are Dustin B. Hilt, 18, of Shawnee, Kan., Gerald S. Calbeck, 18, of Merriam, Kan., and Joseph D. Mattox, 21, of Overland Park.
Friends and family said Alyea had dated one of the men, Dustin Hilt, for about two years. They broke up sometime last year, said friend Emily Gammill.
Gammill said the two broke up because “he just wasn’t a good guy.” But she declined to say more about his troubled past.
Although the steady relationship appeared to be over, several friends said Hilt and Alyea had an on-again, off-again, type of romance.
“It was just ridiculously on and off,” said longtime friend Emily Dillard. “They’ve known each other for quite a while.”
Alyea told Dillard that the two had seen each other recently.
“She had a very hard time saying no to him,” Dillard said. “She would tell me that she still loved him, but wasn’t in love with him.”
Dillard said that within the last few weeks Alyea woke up one night to the sound of Hilt tapping on her window. When she woke up, she realized that Hilt also had tried to contact her several times by phone, but the phone was on vibrate and she didn’t hear it.
Gammill said that Hilt didn’t have a place to live.
The two were so close at one time that Alyea had his name tattooed on her shoulder.
Alyea’s uncle, Eddie Frentrop, said of Dustin Hilt, “He’s got her name tattooed on him, too,” but the two broke up some time ago.
He said Tuesday morning that he still does not know details of the crime -- “I’m just trying to add it all up.”
Alyea hadn’t been seen or heard from since about midnight last Tuesday. A patrol officer found her 1993 dark green Mazda 626 over the weekend, parked in the 6200 block of Foster Street in Overland Park. The officer found the unoccupied car around 6 p.m. Sunday, and police towed it to search for evidence, Weaver said. It was unclear how long the car had been there.
Her parents declined to comment Monday night.
Frentrop said then: “I just broke the news to my 14-year-old daughter, one of her best friends, who was actually supposed to be with her Tuesday night; I love my niece. I love my brother, and right now we’re all hurting and we just want to have some peace and quiet tonight so we can talk and love each other, and we should be ready to talk in the morning.”
.jpg)
Comments