Kylr Yust murder trial starts Monday in Cass County, years after two slayings
The trial of Kylr Yust, accused in the deaths of a teenager and a young woman who each disappeared after being linked to him, will start Monday in Cass County.
The case will go before a jury of 13 women and three men selected in St. Charles County and brought to Harrisonville because of publicity surrounding the case in the Kansas City region.
Yust, 32, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kara Kopetsky, 17, and Jessica Runions, 21. Kopetsky was reported missing in May 2007; Runions was last seen alive in September 2016.
Both had been connected to Yust before their disappearances, but their cases remained long-running mysteries in the Kansas City area until a mushroom hunter found their remains in April 2017 in a wooded area south of Belton. Yust was charged six months later.
Since then, his defense team has raised questions about the Belton Police Department’s investigation and a Kansas City police officer’s involvement in the case.
The families of Kopetsky and Runions have long anticipated the start of the trial.
Rhonda Beckford, Kopetsky’s mother, said her family’s loss has been “a nightmare that you wouldn’t want to wish even on your worst enemy.”
“Her life was cut short,” Beckford said. “She was 17, she didn’t get to have the life she should have had.”
For John Runions and his wife Natalie, the word that came to mind was justice.
“We want justice for Jessica and Kara which would in turn be justice for our families and our community,” they said in a statement Friday.
The jury will be transported to Cass County and opening statements will be presented Monday afternoon, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s been a long time and it’s finally going to happen,” Beckford said.
According to a probable cause statement filed in the case, Kopetsky reported that Yust, her ex-boyfriend, had kidnapped her on April 28, 2007. He eventually let her out of the vehicle and Kopetsy went to the police and got an order of protection.
She was reported missing days later, on May 4, 2007.
Yust was interviewed by Belton police officers, but not charged in Kopetsky’s disappearance.
Between 2010 and 2012, police spoke to at least four people who said Yust had confessed to killing Kopetsky, according to court documents.
On Sept. 9, 2016, Runions was reported missing. She was last seen leaving a party with Yust, according to charging documents.
Human remains were discovered April 3, 2017, in the area of Y Highway and 233rd Street in Cass County. During a more extensive search of the area, a second set was found the next day. They were identified as Runions and Kopetsky.
Yust was charged with murder about six months later and the case has been working through the courts since.
Last year, Yust’s attorneys said police failed to fully investigate an alternative suspect and alleged that a Kansas City police officer had sex with a witness.
“The defense has serious concerns regarding the integrity of the evidence in this case,” defense attorney Sharon Turlington said in a July 2020 statement.
She did not respond to an emailed request for comment Thursday.
This story was originally published April 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
