Kansas City woman accused of killing two men in separate homicides in March and April
A 32-year-old Kansas City woman has been charged in two separate killings that occurred weeks apart in the Kansas City area.
Francesca A. Hernandez was arrested Tuesday by Kansas City police and charged in Clay County with second-degree murder, robbery and armed criminal action in the March 31 shooting death of a man near a construction site in Kansas City, North.
Then on Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office in Jackson County announced they had charged Hernandez with killing another man, who was found dead in a trailer in the parking lot of a Blue Springs Walmart store on April 19.
The charges include second-degree murder, armed criminal action, stealing a vehicle and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Hernandez remains in the Jackson County jail. Online court records do not yet list an attorney representing her.
Charging documents released this week detail the allegations in both cases.
Man found dead in Kansas City, North
On March 31 police were sent to a residential construction site in the 7300 block of N.E. 46th Terrace, where they found Travis Stamper sprawled on the pavement. He had been shot. Investigators recovered bullet fragments near his body, police said.
Residents who live near where the shooting occurred told investigators they heard a loud bang and the loud muffler of a vehicle moments after the shooting.
Investigators recovered a cellphone in Stamper’s front pocket that showed he had exchanged several text messages with an unknown woman. In one of the messages, Stamper agreed to pick up the woman near 12th Street and Askew Avenue.
The woman described herself as “having short, shaved head, dressing and looking like a male,” but reassured Stamper that she was in fact a female. Investigators learned that Stamper drove a green 1998 Ford F-150 with a loud muffler.
Hours after the shooting, police recovered the pickup after it had been towed off private property in the 3200 block of Gillham Road. Investigators obtained video surveillance taken in the area where the pickup had been towed. The video showed a woman getting out of the pickup and grabbing what appeared to be small luggage, clothes and a metal pot out of the bed of the truck before walking away.
The female in the video had short, buzzed hair, wore an over-sized T-shirt and was short. The woman appeared to match the description in the text message to Stamper, prosecutors allege.
Blue Springs homicide
Weeks later, Blue Springs police were called around 2:50 p.m. April 19 to the Walmart parking lot at 600 N.E. Coronado Drive and found Wayne S. Tindell in a trailer. He had a gunshot wound to the head.
A witness told police that a woman who introduced herself as “Frankie” smoked methamphetamine with him and Tindell a few days before Tindell died.
“Frankie” was described as a short, heavy-set woman with short, black hair.
Police found that the witness’s description of the woman matched the suspect description provided in a separate homicide investigation in the Kansas City area. Court records state the suspect in that case, also known as “Frankie,” was identified as Hernandez.
Surveillance video reviewed by police allegedly showed Hernandez walking in and out of the victim’s trailer in the Walmart parking lot and the victim’s truck being driven away around 2 a.m. April 17. Footage from a Kansas City gas station showed Hernandez with the victim’s truck that same morning, court records state.
Arrest
When police arrested Hernandez, they allegedly found her in possession of Tindell’s cellphone, his credit card and a handgun, according to prosecutors.
In an interview with police, Hernandez said she had been at Tindell’s trailer at the time of the killing but someone else shot him.
Detectives also later identified Hernandez as the woman who allegedly exchanged text messages with Stamper, the man found dead at the Kansas City, North, construction site.
Hernandez allegedly told investigators that she and another woman met’ Stamper over a chat service and began texting each other. She said Stamper agreed to pick up Hernandez near East 12th Street. Stamper, and Hernandez and another woman drove around for several hours until they eventually ended up near North Corrington Drive and NE 46th Terrace.
Once there, Stamper was shot after he got out of the pickup and handed over the keys and some methamphetamine to the women.
They drove to 10th Street and Monroe and then later abandoned the pickup on Gillham Road, according to court records.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 8:29 AM.
