Revenge for drug ripoff allegedly behind kidnapping and murder charges for KC brothers

Two Kansas City brothers have been charged with murder, accused of tying a man up before beating, stabbing and shooting him in revenge for an alleged drug ripoff.

Miguel Love, 26, and Antonio Love, 25, are accused of killing 26-year-old Michael High-Frump on Aug. 16 last year. High-Frump’s body was found dumped by the side of the road in Kessler Park in Northeast Kansas City.

Jackson County prosecutors earlier this month charged both brothers with first-degree murder, kidnapping, abandonment of a corpse and two counts of armed criminal action. Both were in custody Thursday in the Jackson County jail.

According to court documents, witnesses told police that the brothers sought revenge against High-Frump for a February 2016 incident in which Antonio Love was ripped off for $500 worth of drugs and badly beaten.

Witnesses told police that on Aug. 16 Miguel Love encountered High-Frump at an Independence home. Miguel Love had a gun, according to one witness, and kept High-Frump at the house while he called his brother Antonio and waited for him to arrive.

Later, according to court documents, the brothers tied High-Frump up and beat him repeatedly, at one point putting him in a closet and taking him to the basement where he was beaten again. At some point High-Frump was stabbed. A witness told police the brothers wrapped High-Frump in a blanket and loaded him into the trunk of a car.

Police found High-Frump’s body shortly after 4:30 p.m. that day at Cliff Drive and Chestnut Trafficway in Kessler Park. The body showed blunt trauma, stab wounds and gunshot wounds.

Detectives serving a search warrant on the Independence home found blood all over the house: in the living room, in a bedroom, on a doorway and in the basement, where they found a pile of used duct tape next to a chair.

The brothers are both being held in jail on a $250,000 bond in the murder case.

Miguel Love is also facing charges in an Oct. 19 drive-by shooting on St. John Avenue, in which he is accused of shooting a man in the legs over an argument from six months earlier. Jackson County prosecutors charged him with armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.

Antonio Love is also facing an illegal weapons charge from a Sept. 24 arrest in Raytown, where a police officer allegedly found him in a car with a sawed-off shotgun, wearing a sling of more than a dozen shotgun shells around his neck.

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Revenge for drug ripoff allegedly behind kidnapping and murder charges for KC brothers."