Accused killer left earbuds at crime scene, KC police say. DNA match leads to charges
A Lee’s Summit man left his cellphone and wireless earbuds lying near a slain Kansas City woman last summer, Jackson County prosecutors say.
A DNA match and phone records have resulted in murder charges.
Rafael M. Armstrong, 30, was charged Thursday in the Aug. 5 killing of 55-year-old Cyrenaica Lange.
Armstrong faces charges of first-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Lange was one of six people killed in a rash of violence in the Kansas City area in the first week of August 2018.
Police were called to the 10700 block of Greenwood Drive about 3 a.m. to investigate a woman’s body in the street. They found Lange dying from gunshot wounds.
The cellphone and earbuds, later identified as belonging to Armstrong, were lying close by near the curb, according to court documents filed with the charges.
An analysis of the phone found several calls from Armstrong to Lange earlier that morning.
Family said Armstrong had lived with Lange in the past and believed they may have been arguing about a gun that Armstrong allegedly had kept in Lange’s storage unit.
Five days after the killing, Armstrong was arrested on an unrelated felony at a local motel. A stolen firearm was allegedly found under a mattress.
The gun handle and the earbuds were swabbed for DNA, and court records said both matched to Armstrong.
