TULSA, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma official says a man sought in the deaths of two people in eastern Kansas has died after he shot himself as law enforcement officers approached him.

Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office spokeswoman Amy Elliott confirmed Saturday that

Ben Converse had died and that his organs were being harvested for donation before an autopsy was conducted.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said Friday that Converse had been located in Tulsa and shot himself with a handgun as officers closed in on him.

Kansas authorities say Converse was a person of interest in the shootings deaths of 36-year-old Molly Wilson and her father, 69-year-old John Tadlock, in Iola, Kansas. The two were found Thursday in their home in Iola, which is about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City.

UPDATE 9 p.m. Friday: The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), and the Iola Police Department, announced that Ben Converse, the person of interest connected to the murders of Molly Wilson and John Tadlock of Iola, Kan., was located in Tulsa, Okla. this evening.

The KBI, the Tulsa Police Department, and the Broken Arrow Police Department located Converse at approximately 5:15 p.m. on Friday evening. Once located, he fled law enforcement on foot. As law enforcement officers approached him near 66^th Street and Mingo in Tulsa, he turned toward them and shot himself with a handgun.

Converse was transported to a Tulsa hospital, where he is currently being treated for a life threatening, self-inflicted gunshot wound.

---

ALLEN COUNTY– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), the Iola Police Department, and the Allen County Sheriff’s Office are investigating after an Iola man and his daughter were discovered dead in their home Thursday evening.

According to a KBI media release, just after 5 p.m. on Thursday,  the Iola Police Department responded to 114 S. Kentucky in Iola, and discovered the victims who had died from apparent gunshot wounds. Special agents and the KBI Crime Scene Response Team responded to the scene.

The woman who died was identified as 36-year-old Molly E. Wilson. The man was identified as 69-year-old John Tadlock.

A person of interest has been identified as 38-year-old Ben Converse.

Converse is described as a white male, 5-foot-9 and approximately 175 pounds. He has hazel eyes. Converse may be driving a maroon 2011 Kia Forte with Kansas license plate 509 KZS.

He may be in the Oklahoma area. If you see Converse or the vehicle, please do not approach, but contact police.

 

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri death row inmate who says execution drugs could interact with his medical condition is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

Ernest Lee Johnson is arguing that a brain tumor removed by surgeons could cause seizures and severe pain in reaction to Missouri’s execution drug.

Johnson was sentenced to death for killing three Casey’s General Store workers during a Columbia robbery in 1994.

Johnson’s appeal is moving through lower courts. But Johnson wants the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene because the high court is currently considering a similar case of another Missouri death row inmate with a rare medical condition that causes blood-filled tumors.

Both argue complications with their conditions and the execution drug could lead to cruel and unusual punishment.

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities continue their investigation of a suspicious death and have identified the victim.

The body of 19-year-old Jacob D.  Bouck was located approximately one mile west of Wamego on the Kansas River on Christmas Eve, according to Pottawatomie County Sheriff Greg Rait.

Sheriff’s Detectives believe that foul play may be involved in Bouck’s death.

He was last seen in the Wamego area in the early morning hours of Friday December 21st.

Thee Kansas Bureau of Investigation is assisting with this investigation, according to Riat.

The Sheriff’s Office is asking that anyone with information in the case is urged to contact the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office at 785-457-3353, online at ptsheriff.com or the Kansas Bureau of Investigations at 1-800-KS-CRIME.

————-

NEW YORK (AP) — Sears is closing 80 more stores as it teeters on the brink of liquidation. The 130-year old retailer set a deadline of Friday for bids for its remaining stores to avert closing down completely.

The retailer that began out as a mail order catalog in the 1880s has been in a slow death spiral, hobbled by the Great Recession and then overwhelmed by rivals both down the street and across the internet.

The 80 stores are due to close by March. That’s in addition to 182 stores already slated for closure. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October .

At the time of the filing, it operated about 700 Sears and Kmart stores.

HARTVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in the accidental shooting of her 5-year-old son after he and his 7- and 3-year-old siblings were left home alone with two loaded guns out in the open.

Bobbie Jo Scott, of Hartville, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child in the shooting of Timothy Deatherage.

Prosecutors say Scott and her boyfriend, Cory Gass, asked a neighbor to check on Timothy and his siblings in July while they went to pick up a paycheck.

The children were left alone with a loaded 12-guage shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle.

Wright Co. Sheriff Glenn Adler says the 7-year-old was handling the shotgun when it went off.

Gass is set to appear in court Jan. 25.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A private Missouri women’s college is changing its admissions policy to accept transgender women and nonbinary students assigned female at birth.

The Columbia Missourian reported Wednesday that the new policy at Stephens College in Columbia takes effect in fall 2019.

The policy requires prospective students to provide legal documentation that they live and identify as women.

The college also no longer will admit applicants who were born female and now identify as male or are transitioning to male. The same applies to students who are nonbinary but transitioning to male.

Students who begin transitioning after they’re enrolled will be allowed to finish their current semester.

The policy doesn’t apply to students admitted before fall 2019.

A statement from the college says it’s evolving as the world’s understanding of womanhood changes.

DESOTO, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas businessman is opening a new academy to train farmers to grow industrial hemp now that its production is legal.

Joe Bisogno’s belief in the crop’s potential inspired him to open America’s Hemp Academy in DeSoto, about 20 miles southwest of Kansas City. It plans to offer four-day courses led by agronomists and botanists starting in January.

“Industrial hemp is not pot, but it is a pot of gold for Kansas farmers,” Bisogno said during the academy’s recent ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Industrial hemp and marijuana come from the same species of plant, but hemp is cultivated to produce small amounts of THC, the main component in the cannabis plant that produces a high.

Legislators approved legislation nearly unanimously this year to allow for the production of industrial hemp for research purposes. Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer signed it in April and said the goal is encourage the resurgence of hemp as a production crop and promote economic development in rural Kansas.

President Donald Trump recently signed a massive federal farm bill that legalized hemp farming. U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who serves as Senate Agriculture Committee chairman, helped negotiate the measure’s final version.

Colyer said farmers have expressed an interest, but that “there is a lot of work to do it right. It’s not going to be for everyone.”

Industrial hemp stalks can be converted to clothing, rope, carpeting, caulking, insulation, cardboard and newsprint. Seeds can be processed into coatings, solvents, varnishes, inks and fuel. Lotions, soaps and shampoos can be produced from stems, and CBD oil can be extracted from its flowers, an option for pain relief without the marijuana high.

Bisogno started the Mr. Goodcents sandwich-shop chain in 1988 and said his interest in hemp started five years ago when he asked the Kansas attorney general’s office whether hemp cookies could be produced at a DeSoto plant. The answer was no, but Bisogno didn’t drop the idea, studied the hemp business and formed a company, KMC, for Kansas Miracle Crop.

The state’s climate and soil are right for hemp because “Kansas can grow two crops a year. One in the spring and one in late summer or early fall,” Bisogno said.

JOHNSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating gunfire at a Kansas mall and asking the public to help identify two persons of interest in the case.

Just after 8:30p.m. Wednesday, police responded to a report of shots fired outside the Oak Park Mall, 1121 West 95th Street.

According to a media release, an unoccupied vehicle in the parking lot was struck by gunfire. Police released security camera images of persons of interest in the case.

The shooting prompted the mall to close. Some shoppers and employees were locked in stores. Police released them just after 9:30p.m.

The mall reopened on Thursday.

The gunfire comes two months after a scuffle led to shots being fired outside the mall’s food court entrance. One man is charged with attempted first-degree murder.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City shopping mall filled with after-Christmas bargain hunters had to shut as police investigated a report of gunfire in the parking lot.

Shoppers poured out of Oak Park Mall on Wednesday night upon hearing the shots, but some were forced to stay inside as police put stores on lockdown. Police in Overland Park, Kansas, found several shell casings outside but no blood.

We’d like to thank @OverlandPark_PD, @OlathePolice and @LenexaPolice for their quick response. We will work with Overland Park Police as they continue their investigation.

— Oak Park Mall (@OakParkMall) December 27, 2018

Police say an unoccupied vehicle in the parking lot was struck by gunfire. Police are seeking a suspect and any possible victims. The gunfire comes two months after a scuffle led to shots being fired outside the mall’s food court entrance. One man is charged with attempted first-degree murder.

Oak Park Mall will resume regular hours tomorrow, opening at 10am.https://t.co/nhV2apMP7w

— Oak Park Mall (@OakParkMall) December 27, 2018

The mall tweeted that it’s resuming regular hours Thursday.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A man charged more than a decade ago with child rape in Kansas has been arrested.

48-year-old Javier Vera-Santos made his first court appearance Wednesday in Johnson County. He was arrested in California this month and returned to Kansas.

He was charged with one count of child rape in July 2006 in Johnson County. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but county authorities say they had information that Vera-Santos, who was born in Mexico City, left the country.

Charges allege Vera-Santos raped a child younger than 14 from July 2003 to January 2006. An Associated Press message seeking comment from his public defender was not immediately returned Thursday.

Vera-Santos’ bond is set at $100,000. He’s due in court Jan. 3.

BOONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — Federal officials say a small plane pilot who crashed last year in central Missouri, killing himself and a passenger, was under the influence of illicit drugs and was nearly blind in one eye.

The National Transportation Safety Board says 67-year-old Charles McCutcheon, of Fayette, tested positive for cocaine, methamphetamine, the sedative clonazepam and the antihistamine ingredient diphenhydramine.

He was making the final descent into Jesse Viertel Memorial Airport near Boonville in April 2017 when he his Bellanca 17-31ATC aircraft hit high tension power lines. The crash also killed his 49-year-old passenger, Bryan Roth, of Franklin.