SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri youth football coach has been ordered to stand trial on charges of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 10-year-old Springfield girl.
KYTV reports a Greene County judge issued the order Thursday following a preliminary hearing for 46-year-old Craig Michael Wood.
Craig Michael Woods
Wood is accused of raping and killing Hailey Owens on Feb. 18 after throwing her into his pickup truck while she walked along a street in her neighborhood. Witnesses at Thursday’s hearing included a woman who witnessed the abduction and called 911 with a description of the pickup truck and its plate number.
Law enforcement witnesses described going to Wood’s home and finding Hailey’s body wrapped in trash bags inside a storage bin.
Wood has pleaded not guilty. He remains jailed without bond pending his next court appearance June 30.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Health officials are offering immunizations for up to 5,000 people who might have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus at a Springfield restaurant.
The Springfield-Greene County Health Department announced Wednesday that a Red Robin restaurant reported Tuesday that a worker had the liver disease. People who visited the restaurant between May 8 and May 16 can receive the immunizations.
Officials said customers must be vaccinated within 14 days of their possible exposure for the vaccination to work, The Springfield News-Leader reported
Kathryn Wall, a spokeswoman for the health department, said people may have been exposed as early as May 4, although she could not estimate how many.
“Those individuals should monitor their health and report symptoms to their health care providers,” she said.
Wall said the sick worker was a server, and that the Health Department has not confirmed any new hepatitis A cases. Health officials said the Red Robin is now safe to visit.
Allyson Tuckness and her husband, Chris, ate at Red Robin on May 16 with their toddler, Mason. She said their son has already had vaccinations against hepatitis A.
“I’m annoyed that it happened but glad we found out during the incubation period,” Tuckness said.
Hepatitis A infects the liver, and can result in a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a severe illness lasting several months, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It spreads through consuming fecal matter, which makes it different from hepatitis B and C, which spread through blood and body fluids. It’s also generally milder than the other two — rarely fatal, and most people experience no lasting liver damage.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — What happens now to a Missouri inmate after a rare last-minute stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court will be up to other judges.
The Supreme Court did not specify its reasons in directing a lower court to take another look at the case, leaving open the question of whether the ruling shows a growing weariness of lethal injection in general or trepidation specifically about Russell Bucklew’s medical condition, which affects his veins. It would have been the first execution since a botched one last month in Oklahoma.
The appeals court could review briefs, hold a hearing, or send the case down to the district court. Because Bucklew’s death warrant expired, a new date would have to be set. Missouri says that won’t happen until the appeals process ends.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Sam Graves (MO-06) made the following statement today after the House voted to amend the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 to designate the Liberty Memorial at America’s National World War I Museum in Kansas City as the National World War I Museum and Memorial:
“I would like to thank Congressman Cleaver for working with me over the years to ensure this long-held idea comes to fruition. Today’s decision by the House of Representatives to designate the Liberty Memorial in honor of our World War I servicemembers is the least we could do to express our profound gratitude and admiration.”
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — The reward for information in the July 2013 stabbing death of an Independence man now stands at $8,000.
Kansas City Crime Stoppers announced Thursday that the mother of 22-year-old Corey Laykovich has added another $2,000 to the reward.
Laykovich died after being stabbed overnight July 27. He had told friends who dropped him off that he was going to a QuikTrip near his home but it is not clear if he arrived. He returned home and a sibling found him in his bedroom suffering from stab wounds. He died later at a hospital.
Police ask anyone with information regarding Laykovich’s death to call 816-474-TIPS (474-8477).
A Corey Daniel Laykovich Burial and Memorial Fund has been established at Hawthorne Bank for additional donations.
DARLINGTON–A Missouri man was injured in rollover crash Wednesday night in Gentry County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported the accident occurred as a 2000 Ford driven by David W. Parmenter, 48, Gallatin, was northbound on Route H six miles south of Darlington. The vehicle traveled off the west side of the road and struck a ditch. The driver overcorrected to the right. The vehicle overturned, struck a fence and came to rest on its top in a field.
Parmenter was transported by private vehicle to Northwest Medical Center in Albany.
The MSHP report did not indicate whether he was properly restrained at the time of the crash.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) sent a follow-up letter to John Kerry, Secretary of the U.S. Department of State, and Jeh Johnson, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), calling on the Obama Administration to help the pregnant wife of an American citizen who is facing a death sentence in Sudan.
Meriam Ibrahim has been imprisoned along with her 20-month-old son since February. Blunt and Ayotte previously sent a letter to Kerry on May 16, 2014.
“Due to the nature of this case, it is critical that there is clarity between your Departments regarding the status of the family and their previous requests for assistance from the United States,” the Senators wrote. “Any gaps in communication between the Departments during this time are simply unacceptable.”
Blunt and Ayotte also noted that “American citizen Saeed Abedini had been beaten and taken back to prison in Iran.” The Senators urged the Obama Administration, “The U.S. must respond urgently to these grave human rights abuses. We continue to respectfully request that you, along with the Administration, utilize all resources available to secure freedom for Meriam and her son.”
HOLT’S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) — A medical examiner says a Kansas City woman whose body was found last January at a mid-Missouri gas station died of hypothermia.
The Boone/Callaway Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday that 44-year-old Jessica Murafetis had drugs in her system but not enough to be considered an overdose.
Murafetis’ body was found January 30 in a field near an Exxon Mobil station in Holts Summit.
The Jefferson City News-Tribune reports the medical examiner was not able to determine if her death was a homicide, suicide or accidental.
Holts Summit police Sgt. Marc Haycook says investigators are working on the case but no new leads have come in recently. Police have said it was not clear why Murafetis was in the Holts Summit area.
BUTLER, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a man once suspected in the murders of several Kansas City women has been found dead at his home.
Bates County Coroner Gary Schowengerdt says 67-year-old Gregory Breeden had been dead for several days when his body was found Wednesday in a motel where he lived in Butler. The Kansas City Star reports the coroner says Breeden died of natural causes.
Breeden was investigated in the deaths of seven women whose bodies were found in the Missouri River between 1982 and 1994. He was charged in 1996 with killing one of the women, but the case was dropped when a key witness refused to testify. He later served an unrelated 10-year sentence on a bad check charge.
Breeden always denied being involved in the women’s deaths.
John Shuchart, who has discussed his bout with depression, spoke Wednesday at the launch of the Greater Kansas City Mental Health Coalition. Looking on was Don Goldman, CEO of Jewish Family Services.
By Mike Sherry
KHI News Service
OVERLAND PARK — Organizers on Wednesday unveiled a new partnership that builds on a mental health initiative started in the local Jewish community.
The aim of the effort, known as the Greater Kansas City Mental Health Coalition, is to broaden to other parts of the metropolitan area the message from the Jewish community that it’s all right to talk about mental illness.
Led by Jewish Family Services (JFS), the coalition is a bistate effort that includes providers, support groups, advocacy organizations and other nonprofits.
“I want mental illness to be like what happened to cancer in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when it was a hush-hush thing, and you would stop a conversation, and now you won’t,” said JFS CEO Don Goldman. “I want it to be like AIDS, a terrible disease that people are dealing with, but at least today, you can say (something), and somebody doesn’t get up and stop the conversation. They give you support.”
The initial focus of the new coalition, Goldman said, will be dissemination through member organizations of educational materials that the Jewish community developed. Future projects, he said, may include a billboard campaign and a mental health fair.
The coalition is online at www.itsOK.us.
Goldman said the coalition has received initial philanthropic support from the Hall Family Foundation and the Barton P. & Mary D. Cohen Charitable Trust.
The coalition grew out of an initiative started a few years ago by JFS, the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City and a collection of volunteers. JFS officials said the volunteers initiated that effort because they felt they had not received help from the Jewish community in dealing with the effects of mental illness on their own lives.
The Jewish community launched its own anti-stigma campaign during the Jewish High Holy Days in the fall, with posters, postcards and other materials developed on a pro bono basis by Bernstein-Rein advertising agency.
Announcement of the new coalition came at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, where last month a southwest Missouri man – one with a history of anti-Semitism – allegedly began a shooting rampage that left three people dead at Jewish-affiliated facilities.
Authorities have not suggested that the suspect, Frazier Glenn Cross — an Aurora, Mo., man better known as F. Glenn Miller – had a mental illness.
Goldman said there was no symbolism intended in announcing the new coalition at the center.
Mental health advocates have, for years, tried to erase the stigma of mental illness. The time may be ripe for the message to finally sink in, Goldman said.
“You see athletes talking about this, you see stars talking about it,” he said. “I think this may be the time that people can start to look at this honestly and get past the fear.”
