Suspected Kansas City highway shooter found in previously searched Independence home
Authorities said Wednesday they believe they have found the body of Oscar Sanchez-Munoz, the man suspected in a series of shootings on Kansas City roadways in June, in the basement of a burned home in Independence that police said they had previously searched “thoroughly.”
The home in the 700 block of South Brookside Avenue where the body was discovered Wednesday was the site of a police standoff and a fire last week and was the man’s primary residence, police said. Police said they are awaiting a coroner to make a positive identification of the body.
Independence police had the street blocked off Wednesday.
Capt. Jake Becchina, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department, announced the news Wednesday evening and indicated that it was a summons from family members of Sanchez-Munoz that brought police back to the residence.
“The family had been coming, working on the recovery effort here trying to kind of go through the rubble and the damage, the water damage, the fire damage, the collapse damage,” he said. “They’ve been in there several times. They’ve been in the basement several times.”
Becchina acknowledged that the case has been “at the forefront of concern for a lot of people in our community.” He said that the news provided “relief.”
“We have things we’re going to learn from this,” he said. “We have things we’ll iron out with our partners in Independence. We’re going to have conversations after this as well.”
“But the important thing for people to know, if you changed anything throughout the course of your everyday life because of concern from this, you don’t have to anymore, and there’s definitely a sense of relief,” Becchina said.
End of manhunt
The discovery of the man’s body marked the conclusion of a remarkable manhunt that stretched out over several days after Sanchez-Munoz was accused of firing shots along a stretch that included Interstate 670, Interstate 70 and Truman Road on June 16. One man was killed and four others were injured.
As recently as Wednesday afternoon, Kansas City police indicated they were still searching for the man and released new photos of him.
Last week, following the shootings, police said they had tracked the man to the Brookside Avenue home. After a fire broke out at the house, police said they searched the residence and did not find the man.
“KCPD Detectives worked with Fire Department Personnel, as well as Missouri State Fire Marshals, to include K-9’s to thoroughly examine the burned house,” Becchina said in a June 17 news release. “As of this afternoon, a search of the property and house has yet to locate the subject of interest.”
The search continued, and police were led to another residence in Kansas City, where they did not locate the man. The FBI joined in the search and offered a reward of up to $25,000.
In a TV appearance on Monday, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche indicated that Sanchez-Munoz may be dead but said authorities were still working to confirm that information. The news surprised local law enforcement, who said the information did not come from them.
“We think we got him tracked to a house in Missouri,” Blanche said in his appearance on Fox News on Monday. “We’re still looking into whether he’s there and what condition he’s in. That’s an example of when law enforcement works together and the public helps as well.”
In the highway shootings on June 16, an Uber driver taking fans to the Argentina-Algeria World Cup match was injured. A woman who had just left work and was heading to pick up a family member heard a noise as she was exiting Interstate 70 and was shocked to find she had been shot in the leg.
The man who died, Jeremy Keenan, 43, was found in a vehicle that crashed along Truman Road, and was found to have a bullet wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police linked Sanchez-Munoz to a June 11 shooting in Kansas City, Kansas, where another vehicle was struck by gunfire. No one was injured in that incident, but the shooting set off an alert to officers in the metro.
This story was originally published June 24, 2026 at 6:01 PM.
