Jury selection begins in Ottawa, Kansas, quadruple homicide

They found the first body beneath a tarp and a jumble of cinder blocks in the garage outside a farmhouse in Franklin County, Kan.

Inside the house, they found two more bodies buried under piles of clothing in a bedroom. One of those victims was 21-year-old Kaylie Bailey of Olathe. Her 18-month-old daughter, Lana, was missing.

Five days later, police solved the mystery of what happened to Lana. Her little body was found stuffed inside a suitcase floating in a creek.

Shotgun blasts killed all four.

Now, almost three years later, the trial for the man who allegedly fired the shotgun began Monday with jury selection in Franklin County District Court in Ottawa.

Kyle Trevor Flack, 30, is charged with capital murder. Prosecutors are seeking a death sentence for the killings of Lana and Kaylie Bailey.

Flack is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Andrew Stout, 30, and Steven White, 31. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 50 years in those killings.

Authorities anticipate that jury selection could take two weeks. Trial testimony is scheduled to begin Feb. 17.

According to testimony at a 2014 preliminary hearing, Flack lived at the farm property with White and Stout.

Prosecutors allege that White died between April 20 and 29 in 2013. Stout was killed on April 29, and Kaylie Bailey and Lana were killed on May 1.

But it was not until May 6 that police discovered the bodies after being called to the property by concerned friends and relatives of the victims.

White’s body was in the garage. In the bedroom, Bailey’s body was naked from the waist down. Her hands were bound behind her back with a black zip tie, according to testimony.

After finding the bodies, law enforcement officials began searching for Flack and Lana.

They arrested Flack in Emporia two days later.

Lana’s body was found several days after that.

At the preliminary hearing, prosecutors said DNA evidence showed that Lana was killed in the same room where her mother was found dead.

When questioned by detectives, Flack told them that Stout shot White during a dispute over rent money. He then said Stout handed the gun to him and he also shot White, according to preliminary hearing testimony.

Police stopped the interview after Flack requested an attorney.

In seeking a death sentence and the “hard 50,” prosecutors listed several aggravating factors, including Flack’s prior conviction for attempted second-degree murder.

They also allege that Kaylie Bailey was killed in an “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner” and that she was killed to prevent her from being a witness in a criminal proceeding.

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Jury selection begins in Ottawa, Kansas, quadruple homicide."