TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Osage County Sheriff’s Office have identified the remains of a woman who was found last August north of Melvern Lake, in Osage County.

According to a media release, the victim was identified as Anna Marie Baldwin.

She was 40 years old at the time she was discovered. Baldwin lived in the Topeka area. She was 5 ft. 6 in. tall, and weighed approximately 120 lbs. She had brown hair, hazel eyes, and at times wore gold framed glasses.

The KBI believes Baldwin was killed sometime between April and July 2017.

They ask anyone who knew Baldwin in late 2016 or in 2017, or who has information related to this crime, to contact them at 1-800-KS-CRIME. Callers may remain anonymous.

 

EUDORA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas home day care worker has been convicted in the death of a 9-month-old baby.

Jurors deliberated 16 hours before finding 44-year-old Carrody Buchhorn, of Eudora, guilty Thursday of second-degree murder in the September 2016 death of 9-month-old Oliver “Ollie” Ortiz.

He was under Buchhorn’s care when he became unresponsive at the Sunshine Kids Group Daycare Home. The coroner ruled that he died of blunt force trauma to the head.

At issue was when Oliver sustained a skull fracture. Buchhorn’s defense team argued that Oliver’s fatal head injury could have been up to a week old. The coroner testified that the skull fracture was forceful enough that it would have rendered him unresponsive right away and, without intervention, dead within minutes.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Conservative candidate Kris Kobach so relished criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union in the Kansas governor’s race that he waved the group’s mailer in the air before 250 supporters last week so they could groan in disapproval at the effort to prevent him from winning the Republican primary.

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and sometime adviser to President Donald Trump, has made the ACLU a political foil for years as he has championed some of the toughest state voter identification and immigration policies in the nation. Now, he is hoping to ride the ACLU’s attacks to victory on Aug. 7 in a hard-fought primary with Gov. Jeff Colyer, who is seeking a full four years after filling out the remainder of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s term.

Kobach and his supporters have tweeted repeatedly about the ACLU’s actions, and in a Thursday fundraising email, Kobach’s campaign manager said the ACLU is opposing him because it wants “a weak governor who won’t challenge their liberal policies.”

“The enmity between me and the ACLU has been around for many, many years,” Kobach said during an interview with The Associated Press.

Kobach said he believes the ACLU attacks help him in the Republican primary because of “how much conservatives and Republicans dislike them.”

The ACLU mailers sent last week featured a color photo of a smiling Colyer and unflattering black-and-white one of Kobach. On two of three issues listed in the mailers — education and government transparency —Colyer was mentioned more favorably. Both were listed as unfriendly to LGBT rights.

The ACLU is spending about $200,000. It has sent about 22,000 mailers and made more than 10,000 phone calls to prospective voters — enough to influence a tight race.

The ACLU says it is not endorsing any candidates, only informing voters. Supporters of Colyer, who has the National Rifle Association’s formal endorsement, contend that Kobach’s attempt to tie the governor to the ACLU show he is losing.

“It smacks of desperation,” Colyer spokesman Kendall Marr said Thursday.

Faiz Shakir, the ACLU’s national political director, said Kobach “rises to the very top” of any list of candidates whose records on civil rights issues alarm the group.

“Kobach is unique among candidates around the country,” Shakir said. “It was a natural extension of the fight we have been waging for many years against him.”

The ACLU has also intervened in the U.S. Senate race in Arizona to criticize law-and-order former sheriff Joe Arpaio, and in a high-profile Democratic primary for local prosecutor in St. Louis County after a white police officer was not charged in the fatal shooting of an unarmed, black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri.

Kobach has a national profile and strong ties to Trump, having endorsed him early and advised his 2016 campaign and the White House. He served as vice chairman of a now-disbanded presidential commission on election fraud that was reviled by Democrats and voting-rights activists.

Kobach has publicly supported Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that “millions” of people voted illegally in 2016 to cost Trump the popular vote. In advocating tougher state policies against illegal immigration, Kobach regularly and falsely calls Kansas the “sanctuary state of the Midwest.”

“Kris Kobach is a guy kind of like Trump. He likes to throw out, you know, the outrageous stuff,” said state Rep. Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican backing Colyer. “Colyer’s more measured and thinks things through.”

At a parade in June in a Kansas City suburb, Kobach rode a jeep with a replica machine gun mounted on it. When some people who attended the parade complained that the stunt scared some children, he derided what he called a “snowflake meltdown” and kept riding the same jeep in other parades, posting photos on social media regularly.

Kobach has battled the ACLU repeatedly in court over strict voter ID policies, and a federal judge earlier this year struck down Kansas’ requirement for new voters to show papers documenting their U.S. citizenship when registering. The state is appealing the decision.

A judge became so exasperated with Kobach earlier this year in a case brought by the ACLU that she ordered him to take remedial legal training courses for misleading the court.

Shakir said the ACLU is appealing to GOP conservatives who have concerns about voter privacy and public education.

“I am not naive in believing everyone is going to suddenly change their mind, but there is some percentage who are open to the argument,” Shakir said.

But University of Kansas political scientist Patrick Miller said the GOP’s right-leaning primary voters are the wrong audience for the ACLU’s message and if their intent was to “ding” Kobach, “I have to question how well they understand electoral politics.”

Yvonne Starks, a conservative Republican and Kobach backer from the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, said she doesn’t trust the ACLU because of its liberal leanings.

“If nothing else, it will bring out his base supporters to rally for him more,” she said.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City woman who sold thousands of counterfeit designer merchandise has been sentenced to a year of probation.

64-year-old So Wun Pak, owner of Sue’s Accessories in Mission, was sentenced Thursday.

She pleaded no contest in May to counterfeiting merchandise worth from $1,000 to $25,000.

Officers removed and will destroy more than 3,300 items taken from the store. Fake brands sold at the store included Burberry, Chanel, Coach and Ralph Lauren.

Pak will face five months in prison if she violates probation.

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a Branson man who is charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer was arrested after trying to arrest someone.

Forty-one-year-old Kristopher Peters also was charged Tuesday with kidnapping in the case. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

A probable cause statement says Peters was wearing a T-shirt that read “POLICE US Marshal” on Monday when he tried to arrest someone in Branson.

The statement says Peters also had a gun and handcuffs on his belt. The statement says Peters has a previous charge for false impersonation. Branson police are urging anyone who was been pulled over by a small red vehicle with emergency equipment to come forward.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Top Missouri Republicans are joining together to fight a ballot initiative that would change redistricting.

The group Missourians First on Thursday announced former Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Talent will lead the effort. Top Republican lawmakers are also helping.

At issue is a proposal by Clean Missouri that would replace Missouri’s system for drawing state legislative districts with a model designed to have the number of seats won by each party more closely reflect its statewide vote.

It also would ban most lobbyist gifts to lawmakers and lower limits on campaign contributions, among other changes.

Talent says the Republican group supports ethics in government. But he says the ballot initiative is misleading. He says the true intent is to gerrymander legislative districts.