‘Potential witness’ in KC area kidnapping, torture case found dead in Missouri River
Six months after Kansas City area law enforcement began publicly circulating information of a “potential witness” in a high-profile kidnapping and torture case, authorities say her remains were found in the Missouri River in Saline County.
Clay County prosecutors said Monday that the office was notified the remains had been matched to Jaynie Crosdale, 36, of Kansas City. In January, a photograph of Crosdale, who is Black, was broadcast by Excelsior Springs police and the Clay County Investigative Squad as they sought information related to the investigation of Timothy M. Haslett Jr.
Sgt. Andy Bell, a spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said the agency was called June 24 to recover and identify the body of a woman found in the Missouri River. The discovery was made by two kayakers, Bell said.
Authorities have yet to outline details surrounding Crosdale’s death or how it pertains to Haslett’s ongoing criminal case. Based on the development, prosecutors filed a motion to increase Haslett’s bond, currently set at $3 million.
Since last year, Haslett’s case has raised concerns among Black Kansas City community leaders that police were not taking reports of missing Black women seriously enough. The issue garnered national media attention.
Haslett has been jailed since October. He was charged with kidnapping, rape and other crimes after a 22-year-old woman ran down his street, barely clothed and wearing a collar locked around her neck, and begged neighbors to help her.
Excelsior Springs police, assisted by KCPD forensics investigators and the FBI, searched Haslett’s house in the 300 block of Old Orchard Avenue for three days. They also brought a cadaver dog, a canine trained to detect human remains, to examine his rental property and pickup truck last year — though they never made any findings public.
Details that came from court papers identified the escapee as a woman who’d been picked up somewhere on Prospect Avenue in early September. She remained captive for weeks in a basement room Haslett had built, she told police, where she was raped repeatedly and whipped.
The case struck a nerve among many Black Kansas City leaders and residents as Haslett, who is white, is accused of holding a Black woman captive in his home for weeks, after police had dismissed concerns made on social media that a killer was on the loose and that Black women were going missing in Kansas City.
In late September, a Facebook post from Bishop Tony Caldwell of Eternal Life Church in Kansas City made claims of young Black women going missing from Prospect in south Kansas City and dead bodies being discovered in the area. The Kansas City Defender, a Black-led digital news outlet, shared a story at the time highlighting the concerns.
The claims were refuted by Kansas City police who said they had no active reported cases of young Black women being missing or killed during that time frame. Police later said no missing persons cases were linked to the investigation of Haslett, who was arrested Oct. 7 roughly two weeks afterward.
Meanwhile, one of the issues raised regarded concerns around reporting missing persons and the barriers critics say the Black community faces in making missing persons reports.
Police have said the woman who reportedly escaped had not been reported missing. A family member of Crosdale, contacted by The Star in January, said Crosdale had not been reported missing at the time law enforcement launched the public campaign to find her.
In a statement Monday, the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office said Crosdale’s family had been notified of her death “and our hearts go out to them for their loss.”
“Our office is working closely with law enforcement to gather all evidence and information that is needed to build the strongest case possible and deliver justice for Jaynie Crosdale.”
In the motion filed Monday, Clay County prosecutors said the office “was provided details of an ongoing investigation which impact the present case, and cause greater concern for the safety of the community than had previously been addressed.”
Alexander Higginbotham, a spokesman for the Clay County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, declined to provide further details about the investigation of Crosdale’s death on Friday. He said the office anticipates being able to share more information publicly in the near future.
The Star’s Glenn E. Rice contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 31, 2023 at 4:54 PM.
