Search for Missing Woman Turns Up a Man's Body, Again

Group searching for Jessica Runions has found two other bodies
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 30, 2017 7:46 AM CST
2 Bodies in 2 Weeks, but Not the One They're Searching For
Jessica Runions has been missing from the Kansas City area since September.   (Facebook)

Since Jessica Runions went missing in September, family and friends have formed a search party and combed the Kansas City area week after week. And while they have yet to find the 21-year-old Missouri woman or clues as to her possible whereabouts, on each of the past two Saturdays the search has yielded something entirely unexpected: the discovery of a man's body, reports the Kansas City Star. "Two bodies two weeks in a row?" says father John Runions, who has turned his home's hallway into a giant map of the area that's being searched. "It's unbelievable." And as frustrated as he is by not yet finding his own child, he adds that discovering other bodies is "good" because, as he well knows, "families deserve closure."

Police said on Sunday they hope to identify the second body soon, the AP reports, while the first belongs to 21-year-old Brandon Herring of Raytown. He was reported missing in November and police are investigating his death as a homicide. As for Runions' case, ABC News reports she was last seen giving 27-year-old Kylr Yust, a friend of her boyfriend, a ride home after a Sept. 8 get-together. Her burned car was found two days later in a wooded area, and Yust has been charged with burning it. He happens to have been a boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky, who went missing at the age of 17 nine years ago; NBC News reports her body was never found. He's been questioned, but not charged, in Runions' disappearance as well. (Cops say this mom's story about her missing twins doesn't check out.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X