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Five years later, march keeps search for Kara Kopetsky in the public eye
By MIKE HENDRICKSThe Kansas City Star
The parents of missing Belton teen Kara Kopetsky never imagined that five years after their daughter vanished, they would still be left with no answers.
Still, they never give up hope.
And so on Sunday, as they do every year, family and friends marked the anniversary of Kara’s disappearance with a two-mile march.
Some carried signs. Some wore T-shirts printed with a picture of Kara and a plea to the community over it.
“Help Find Our Missing Star,” it read.
“We’ve done it for the past five years as a way to honor Kara,” said the girl’s stepdad, Jim Beckford. “We call it our honor walk.”
Kara was last seen on May 4, 2007. She went to school that morning, skipped out and hasn’t been heard from since.
The reward for information still stands at $80,000, and no one has come close to collecting it.
Each time police check out a lead, it fails to pan out.
Little has changed since last year’s march.
“Intermittent,” Kara’s mom, Rhonda Beckford, said when asked how often they hear from police.
“If I’ve got a question,” Jim said, “I’ll call and ask them.”
In addition to honoring their daughter, the Beckfords say, the walks keep Kara’s name and face in the public eye.
Maybe a story like this one will trigger a memory or a flash of conscience. Maybe someone will pick up a phone and help unravel the painful mystery.
“It’s not closure we want — we’ll never have that,” Jim said. “But what we really want is resolution. We want to know what happened to Kara, good or bad.”