Massive Search Underway For Missing Teen

[CaboBrian]

This is really sad. Kelsey Smith, an 18-year-old from Shawnee Mission, KS. has been missing since Saturday. She went to Target to get a gift for her boyfriend and hasn't been seen since. This is even making national news now. You always hope for the best in these cases, but it rarely happens that way.

From http://www.myfoxkc.com:

"Kelsey Smith disappeared Saturday night as she headed home from the Target store near Oak Park Mall. It was the last place she was seen, wearing a pink tank top and black shorts. She went to Target to buy something for a graduation party but never made it back to her parents' house where she was supposed to meet her boyfriend at 7:20 Saturday night.

The reward is up to $35,000 for information leading to the whereabouts of Kelsey Smith. There are also "Find Kelsey" T-shirts available and half the proceeds go to the Kelsey Fund."

Visit http://www.findkelsey.com for more information.

[TheresOnlyOneWay]

Ugh. They've found a body. Nothing more than that yet...

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — BREAKING NEWS: Search teams have found the body of a female and say it is missing teenager Kelsey Smith.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,278338,00.html

[muffdiver]

Man..I hate hearing about these type of things.....

WTF is wrong with people....

[CaboBrian]

Looks like the confirmed it was her. Very sad. The whole Kansas City metro area was searching and praying for her and her family.

[Wickett]

Looks like she probably didn't know her attacker who approached her in broad daylight in a Target parking lot. How terribly sad.

[willy4pres]

This is horrible.

[onefootoutthedoor]

What is it that goes through a manster's head to do such a thing?

[voivod]

http://www.myspace.com/bandbaby2007

[TheresOnlyOneWay]

"Police know who the suspect is and know that he or she lives near the location where the body was found, FOX News has learned. The suspect apparently has a long criminal record. Police say they don't yet know the killer's motive but they do not believe Smith knew her abductor."

[ZeoBandit]

That's horrible. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

[voivod]

The suspect apparently has a long criminal record.

Umm, yeah... How many times have we all heard this before!?!?!

[Kimmie5150]

Oh, that's so sad. God bless her and her family.

[voivod]

Police Chief John Douglass said the body was found across the state line at a Grandview, Missouri, lake. Positive identification was pending, but authorities believed it was 18-year-old Kelsey Smith.

He did not say how she was slain.

Officers had been searching woods at the lake since Tuesday after investigators traced two signals from Smith's cell phone to an area about 15 miles east of the Target store in suburban Kansas City.

Before a church memorial service Wednesday evening, Smith's father thanked everyone involved in the search.

"She could walk into a room full of strangers and walk out with a room full of friends," Greg Smith said, fighting tears.

"Her excitement and passion for life was unmatched," he said. "She lived more in 18 years than many people do with a great deal more time."

Police had questioned "numerous people" but had not identified a suspect, Douglass said.

[voivod]

Police arrested a man in the abduction and death of a Kansas teenager who disappeared four days ago from a store parking lot, authorities said late Wednesday.

Charges will be filed Thursday against Edwin Hall, 26, for pre-meditated first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping, said Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline. Authorities will ask for Hall to be held on a $5 million bond, Kline said.

Hall, from Olathe, Kansas, would face 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge and at least 12 years on the aggravated kidnapping charge, Kline told reporters at a news conference late Wednesday.

Hall is expected to make his first court appearance on Thursday or Friday.

"The community has lost a vibrant and promising life, and the family has suffered an unimaginable tragedy," Kline said, hours after police located the body of a teenager across the border in Missouri.

Positive identification was pending, but police believe it is 18-year-old Kelsey Smith, who has been missing since Saturday.

"I realize this is not the preferred conclusion," Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said. "While we cannot give (the Smith family) their daughter back, we can at least give them justice."

The police chief said Hall's Wednesday arrest "was the result of an intense investigation over the last four days."

Hall was considered a "person of interest" after one of the more than 500 tips given to authorities detailed an individual matching the description of a man caught by surveillance cameras in the department store parking lot.

"When we saw the videotape he came right behind her from the parking lot and it appeared he followed her there," Douglass said of Smith's apparent abduction.

Videotape released by police earlier in the week shows Smith entering and leaving the store. Other footage shows a young man with a goatee leaving the store shortly after she exited.

Later, a woman who appears to be Smith can be seen putting packages into her car when someone runs toward her and shoves her in the car. The car then pulls away.

"The person we believe who was the person of interest leaving the Target store was Hall," Douglass said. "We have located the truck we believe matched the description."

Police interviewed Hall, along with "numerous individuals," on Wednesday, deciding afterwards to arrest him, Douglass said.

At the end of the news conference Smith's parents, Missy and Greg Smith, stood to make a short statement together.

While holding his wife's hand, Greg thanked everyone involved in the search, concluding "we are very pleased an arrest has been made in this case. Thank you very much."

[jimmy812]

If, indeed, the evidence proves that the arrested creep did this, why can't we just kill him? With his long criminal record, he should have been still locked up, or, depending on his other crimes, dead already.