Authorities are investigating after a Kansas City woman tumbled out of a moving vehicle and died.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified the woman as 38-year-old Carla Cruz.  Sergeant S.A. Coats of the patrol says Cruz’s husband reported that his wife jumped from the minivan as he was driving south Saturday night along Interstate 470 in Independence.

Coats says the woman then was struck by another southbound car. It’s unknown whether she died before she was hit.

Her body was taken to the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Coats says authorities continue to look into what happened before the woman exited the vehicle. She and her husband were the only occupants of the minivan.

The Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Missouri will be closed for while conservation crews conduct a one-day aerial operation to kill feral hogs.

The Missouri Department of Conservation is conducting the hunt sometime between Monday and March 28. The closure includes all access to the refuge by foot, bicycle or horseback for public safety.

The department says the exact date hasn’t been determined because of weather.

The department says the wild hogs are an aggressive species that reproduce quickly and hurt native plants and animals at the refuge. The hogs, which are non-native, also compete with native species such as deer and turkey for food.

St. Louis police are investigating the theft of an ambulance that had been idling outside a hospital emergency room.

The ambulance was reported stolen early Monday outside Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

The ambulance had been left idling for about 15 minutes before paramedics realized it was missing. Police say the ambulance was from Illinois.

The Justice Department has asked a judge to make public a Kansas anti-abortion activist’s communications with the killer of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

The government’s request Thursday to unseal its filing comes a day after the court refused to shield Angel Dillard’s contacts with murderer Scott Roeder.

Prosecutors argue it’s in the public interest for court proceedings to be conducted transparently whenever possible.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Gale initially ordered the filing under seal until he decided whether Dillard’s communications were protected by ministerial privilege. Gale later ruled they are not because the Valley Center woman is not an ordained minister.

The sealed filing purportedly includes about 10 pages of letters obtained by the FBI that Dillard sent Roeder.

The government sued Dillard for sending an allegedly threatening letter to a Wichita doctor.

New numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show modest population growth in Missouri and Kansas.

St. Charles led all Missouri counties with a gain of about 3,700 residents, followed by Greene, Boone, Clay and Jackson counties.

The Fort Riley area ranking as the fastest-gaining region in Kansas.

The data show Missouri’s population grew by about 13,000 to 6,021,988 in the one-year period ending July 1, a growth rate of 0.2 percent.

St. Louis County gained more than 1,100 residents to climb back over the 1 million mark. St. Louis city lost nearly 400 residents. Jasper County, still recovering from the devastating Joplin tornado of two years ago, lost almost 2,600 people.

Kansas gained about 15,500 residents from July 2011 to July 2012, bringing its population to almost 2.9 million. The projected growth was 0.5 percent. The Census Bureau also said 40 of the state’s 105 counties gained population over the year. Holt County in northwest Missouri had the highest percentage drop, losing 3.3 percent of its residents.

The Census numbers are subject to revision.

 

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation says a man suspected of impersonating a sheriff’s deputy while writing bad checks across Kansas has tried the ruse in Colorado.

Investigators say 45-year-old Robert Helms of Pittsburg was spotted Wednesday at a grocery store in Walsh, Colo., about 18 miles from the Kansas border.

He reportedly flashed a fake badge and credentials claiming to be a sheriff’s deputy from Adams County, Kan.

There is no Adams County in Kansas.

 

The KBI says Helms has written bad checks at convenience stores and other businesses across Kansas, usually in smaller towns. The KBI said in February that Helms had pulled the scam in 24 cities.

He is a white man, 5-feet-7, weighing 190 pounds, with blue eyes and short gray hair. He sometimes wears round glasses.

Two suspects are facing charges after they were shot by a Joplin police officer during a confrontation in a Walmart parking lot.

The Jasper County prosecutor on Wednesday charged 24-year-old John C. Gage of Joplin with first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer.

Police allege he tried to run down Officer David McGough with a pickup truck Tuesday night.

McGough shot at the truck, wounding Gage and 22-year-old Tyeler K. Whetstone of Joplin.

The two were taken to a hospital, where they were treated for wounds and then arrested.

Whetstone was charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.

Police say the confrontation began when McGough and another officer saw a disturbance in the parking lot.

A couple suspected in a Kansas slaying and suspected of shooting at Nebraska law officers have been charged with attempted murder.

Michael Engstrom, 33, and Jamie Engstrom, 34, were arraigned on Wednesday in southeast Nebraska’s Johnson County.

Michael Engstrom faces 21 felony counts, including five of attempted second-degree murder. Jamie Engstrom, who also is known as Jamie Russell, faces a dozen counts.

Authorities suspect Engstrom in a double shooting in Topeka, Kan., on Feb. 13 that killed Ricky Mitchell and wounded a woman. Police believe Engstrom robbed a convenience store in Pawnee City, Neb., hours later.

Authorities say that when Nebraska officers tried to stop the couple, Engstrom fired at them, wounding one. The high-speed chase ended when their car became stuck.

Perryville Police Chief Keith Tarrillion has resigned amid allegations that he falsified a police report in a personal insurance claim two years ago.

Tarrillion denied the allegations when he resigned Wednesday.

His attorney says the city’s board of alderman intends to accept a resignation agreement next week.

 

Perryville officials alleged in a news release that Tarrillion used another officer’s name to create a police report about vandalism at his home. Tarrillion later received nearly $5,700 from his insurance company.

Tarrillion has been on voluntary leave since late February, when a police department employee made a claim of professional misconduct.

Perryville officials said the Missouri State Highway Patrol or another agency will be asked to investigate whether criminal charges are warranted.