Missouri farmer finds human remains near shotgun stolen from KC police car

A northern Missouri farmer may have solved a 19-month-old mystery this week when he discovered a shotgun and human remains in one of his fields.

The bones may be what’s left of the man who stole a Kansas City police cruiser in August 2014 and led authorities on a chase up Interstate 35 that exceeded 100 mph. Along the way, he called his father and complained that the car would not go faster than 130 mph.

The man fled into the countryside after somehow freeing a locked shotgun from the police cruiser. Authorities searched the area but never found him.

Serial numbers on the shotgun found by the Daviess County farmer prove it came from the stolen police vehicle, said Capt. Tye Grant, a Kansas City police spokesman.

The farmer led Daviess County sheriff’s deputies Monday afternoon to a field near I-35 and Granite Avenue, near Pattonsburg, Mo. Deputies and the Daviess County coroner processed the scene. They sent the human remains to the Kansas City Crime Lab for DNA testing.

Jackson County prosecutors charged the missing Joshua W. Boyd, 30, with robbery after he allegedly stole the police car after the Aug. 27, 2014, confrontation and chase. The events began to unfold at 2:15 a.m. outside a Kansas City convenience store at 38th and Main streets.

Two Kansas City officers in separate vehicles had arrived at the store to investigate a man acting suspiciously. A store clerk said the man kept walking in and out of the store and said someone was following him.

The man told the officers that his name was Joshua and that he was schizophrenic and not taking his medication.

One officer called for an ambulance. But when it arrived, the man blurted, “That’s not a real ambulance.”

He raced toward one police car, a Ford Taurus, and opened the driver’s door. One officer chased him. When the man tried to to shift the car into drive, the officer reached in and tried to remove the key with one hand while holding on to the gearshift with the other.

The man won the battle over the gearshift and floored the gas pedal. The officer backed away to avoid being injured.

The two officers chased him in the second patrol car as the driver ignored several stop signs before speeding north on Broadway, exceeding 100 mph as the officers tried to keep up.

At one point, police dispatchers tried to contact the driver by radio, but he didn’t respond.

About an hour after the car was taken, authorities found it abandoned in Daviess County on the shoulder of I-35.

Investigators found a wallet inside the undamaged patrol car. It contained a jail wristband bearing Boyd’s name. A store clerk identified Boyd as the man who stole the car.

Investigators later talked with Boyd’s father, who told them his son had called him while driving the stolen car. He told his father that he was upset the car wouldn’t go faster.

Boyd had a prior sex crime offense in Utah and was listed as an absconder on the Missouri sex offender registry for failing to register as required.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Missouri farmer finds human remains near shotgun stolen from KC police car."