Crime & Safety

Missouri Remains ID'd As Missing Belton High School Girl

"We've gotten Kara identified and now we can have a funeral and put her to rest, the way it always should have been," Rhonda Beckford said.

Associated Press's profile picture
Associated Press, News Partner
|

BELTON, MO — Kara Kopetsky was last seen a decade ago leaving Belton High School in Missouri, about 20 miles south of Kansas City. But family members and authorities say bones found in a rural area earlier this year are those of the 17-year-old Belton girl.

Police said in a statement that the FBI confirmed one of two sets of human bones discovered in April were identified through DNA testing as those of Kopetsky.

Her skull was found in a wooded area near Belton a day after a mushroom hunter stumbled upon the remains of 21-year-old Jessica Runions, of Raymore. Runions was last seen a year ago and her death is being investigated as a homicide. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Find out what's happening in Across Missourifor free with the latest updates from Patch.


Kopetsky's mother, Rhonda Beckford, said Wednesday that relatives assumed the remains were Kara's ever since they were uncovered.

Find out what's happening in Across Missourifor free with the latest updates from Patch.

"We always felt when they found one, they would find both," Beckford said, referring to her daughter and Runions. "So of course we felt from the very beginning that the other set of remains were Kara."

Rhonda Beckford looks around in her daughter, 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky's room during an interview in Belton, Mo Friday, June 8, 2007. Kopetsky disappeared from Belton High School.

She said her family is headed into "a new phase." She described it as one of "resolution" rather than "closure."

"We've gotten Kara identified and now we can have a funeral and put her to rest, the way it always should have been, and move toward prosecution," she said.

Runions and Kopetsky have both been linked to Kylr Yust, 27, who was seen leaving a gathering with Runions on Sept. 8, 2016. He was charged with burning Runions' car, which was found in the days after her disappearance. Court records indicate Kopetsky filed a protection order against Yust in April 2007. Yust has not been charged in either disappearance.

This Sept. 12, 2016, photo provided by the Benton County Sheriff's Office in Warsaw, Mo., shows Kylr Yust. In court records obtained Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, Yust, who is facing charges in the burning of a vehicle belonging to a 21-year-old Missouri woman, was the subject of a protection order nearly a decade ago by his then-girlfriend Kara Kopetsky, who accused him of kidnapping and abuse. Kopetsky disappeared in May 2007. That April 30, 2007, filing alleged Yust kidnapped and restrained the teenager, choked her and threatened to cut her throat during their nine-month relationship. He has not been charged in Kopetsky's disappearance.

Beckford said she prefers to talk about her daughter, not Yust.

"Kara was 17 when we lost her and she was robbed of her life and she deserves justice," she said. "It's up to us now to make sure she gets that justice."

By MARGARET STAFFORD, Associated Press

Photo credit: Charlie Riedel/Associated Press; Benton County Sheriff's Office via AP

More from Across Missouri