Prosecutor says Yust dumped victims in ‘his spot;’ he claims innocence in murder trial
Opening statements were presented Monday afternoon in the trial of Kylr Yust, who is charged in two killings that occurred years apart in Cass County.
Yust, 32, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kara Kopetsky, 17, and Jessica Runions, 21. Kopetsky was reported missing in May 2007, and Runions was last seen alive in September 2016.
Jurors selected last week from St. Charles County due to the publicity surrounding the case, were transported to Harrisonville on Monday. They were seated throughout the courtroom’s public gallery to maintain social distancing.
Cass County Prosecutor Ben Butler stood before the jurors and told them, “Kara Kopetsky was 17 when she died.” Yust killed her, Butler said, when she tried to end their relationship and admitted to friends that he “‘strangled the (expletive) out of her and threw her in the middle of the (expletive) woods.’”
Nine years later when Runions attempted to end a relationship with Yust, he killed again, prosecutors said. Yust dumped their bodies in “his spot,” Butler said.
Defense attorney Sharon Turlington told the jury Yust is “innocent.” No physical evidence connected Yust to the murders, she said.
“When you don’t have all the facts, you can come to the wrong conclusion,” Turlington said.
Police conducted a “suspect driven investigation,” Turlington said. Officers failed to collect evidence, including Yust’s phone records with location data and lost other evidence, she said.
Yust had been linked to Kopetsky and Runions, but their cases remained long-running mysteries in the Kansas City area until a mushroom hunter found remains in April 2017 in a wooded area south of Belton.
Kopetsky reported that Yust, her ex-boyfriend, had kidnapped her on April 28, 2007, according to a probable cause statement filed in the case. 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 charging documents.
On Sept. 9, 2016, Runions was reported missing. She was last seen leaving a party with Yust, according to court records.
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 in their deaths six months later.
Since then, his defense team has raised questions about the the integrity of the investigation.
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.
Testimony will continue Tuesday. The trial is expected to take three weeks.
This story was originally published April 5, 2021 at 4:32 PM.
