Taken in 16 Seconds! The Terrifying Case of High School Senior Kelsey Smith - Abduction On Video

It was supposed to be a perfect day, a trip to the fair, a little shopping, a graduation pool party, and a romantic dinner with her boyfriend. But in the blink of an eye, during an everyday ordinary routine, one 18-year-old girl's future was ripped away. And it only took 16 seconds. This is her story. Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. I'm Kimberlya. If you've never been here before, it's nice to finally meet you. Now, let me introduce you to Kelsey and Smith. She was born on May 3rd, 1989 in Overland Park, Kansas, which locals refer to as OP. It's part of Johnson County. It's considered the second largest city in Kansas with a population of over 200,000 people. And since it is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, some people consider it a suburb. I've never covered a case in Kansas City before. And I know that you know if you've been here while that I love learning about new places. Let me know if you're from Kansas City. This city is unique because it's directly on the border between Missouri and Kansas. So crimes that happen in Overland Park and the Kansas City area can get more complex when there are different apartments and state laws involved. It's known for good barbecue sports facilities and being a great place for families to raise their children. OP was Kelsey's home for 18 years. Kelsey's parents are Greg and Melissa Smith. Greg was born in Emporia, Kansas and joined a Navy after high school. He spent over 20 years in law enforcement becoming a police officer. The year that Kelsey was born and later he even worked as a Kansas senator. Melissa, who actually goes by Missy, had her hands full with five children. And she regularly volunteered at vacation, Bible school, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. In 2001, she started working as a drug screen collector in Advent Health. And now is a huge activist and you will find out why during this story. When Kelsey was born, she had two older sisters who were super protective of her. Stephanie, who went by Stevie, was five years older and Lindsay was older by just a few years. For a long time, Kelsey was the youngest child, which meant she was just a little bit spoiled and she was so cute. She could get away with almost anything. I was an only child for five years and I remember what it felt like when I found out my mom was going to have another baby. Let me know if you can relate. I distinctly remember saying she'd better not play with any of my stuff or go in my room. And boy, did that change as we got older. But as a toddler, Kelsey was curious, inquisitive and a bit devious. She had a little shirt that said, "My name is No-no," because she was always a little troublemaker. Once she actually wrote, "Although for the walls," using permanent marker. Greg took it as a sign that one day she would become an artist and that's one way to be a positive thinker and a supportive parent, which Greg and Missy were. She was the type of kid who was also always asking questions. I said, "She was inquisitive." Well, she wanted to know how things worked. Whenever she didn't understand something, she would ask, "Why?" And then her parents or siblings would explain it. And then she'd ask, "Why again?" And just keep asking, "Why?" until they gave up. When Kelsey turned four, Missy's friends started calling her blueberry because she was obsessed with the color blue. She wanted to wear it every day to preschool. And you know, I like asking questions to get to know you a little more. So what is or was your favorite color? When you were a kid, did it change? When it comes to colors, some people are obsessed for life. And they kind of adopted into their personalities. And I think that's cool. I've told you what minus before? Does anyone remember? I'll give the first person to comment correctly below something special. When Kelsey was six years old, her spot as the youngest child was taken when her younger sister Dakota was born. Everyone called her Cody. And surprisingly, Kelsey was actually excited not to be the youngest anymore. Then just two years later in 1997, Kelsey's younger brother, Zach, was born when she was eight. Now Kelsey was a true middle child. Though the age gap between her and her younger siblings meant she took on an older sister role and she adored little Zach. When he was a baby, Kelsey insisted that she always be the one to take care of him. If she was there, she was looking after him, not Greg or Missy, carrying him around the house, playing with him and even feeding him bottles. She loved her role as a big sister. Kelsey was independent. She was creative, fun-loving, funny, and she loved being a practical jokester. Even though she had a serious side, Kelsey had a great sense of humor. She and her siblings regularly roasted each other. It was actually running joke in their household that Kelsey had middle child syndrome because she loved all the attention she got. She liked to say that out of all of them, she was the one who was planned. And her older sisters would say that if Kelsey was the result of a plan, then Greg and Missy should have been more spontaneous. I think that's cute. But as much as they liked to tease each other, the Smith siblings had each other's backs no matter what. One time, when they all went to the mall as a family, Greg and Missy offered to buy Kelsey a treat and she flat out refused to get anything unless all of her siblings were allowed to get something. She was generous. She was a bright kid with a big personality. And most of all, she was a huge social butterfly. I want you to think of the most extraordinary person you know. That was Kelsey in her friend group. Her brother called her loud in your face and defiant. But her sister Stevie said she was so giving. She was literally the type of person to give you the shirt off of her back. And she didn't just do everything, but she was skilled at everything she did. When people say someone commands a room, Kelsey truly did. She could walk into a room full of strangers and make friends with everyone in that room. It was almost as though it was a challenge that she had to prove she could do it. Because if anyone told her she might not be able to do something, she would prove she could and she wasn't afraid of a challenge. When she didn't agree with something, she'd talk back. She'd happily get into debates even with her own teachers. And her favorite catchphrase was "You want a bet?" That's totally a 90s sitcom line. But now the cool kids just answer with the word "bet" when they agree with something. When Kelsey was in middle school, she decided to take band class. And that is where she met Megan, her best friend. Both of them were in the clarinet section. And at first, Megan thought Kelsey was loud and a little bossy, but they soon became inseparable. They both ended up attending Shawnee Mission West High School and stuck together in the same music classes all four years. Kelsey was so spontaneous and so brave. Always willing to explore new things on her own. In high school, she made the most of every moment. She did art class writer's workshop, track, choir, theater, and marching band. But out of all those things, Kelsey's biggest passion was marching band. For four years, she played in football game pet bands to competitions and worked her way up to the clarinet section until she was the leader of that section. Sooner year, she invited all the clarinet players over to her house, bought a bunch of snacks, and gave out personalized gift bags to everyone. One of the people in clarinet was super introverted. And she pushed him to come out and hang out with the rest of them. Greg and Missy called him one of Kelsey's projects. But that wasn't a bad thing. Kelsey took people under her wing. She was just a natural caretaker and wanted everyone to feel included and surrounded by friends. She also loved social media and would constantly be updating her friends on what was going on in her life. Mostly about her accomplishments, she was proud of making the win ensemble or getting a solo in choir. I think 2006 was the time when Facebook started to become more of a thing than my space. And Kelsey also loved texting. Her dad called her text prolific because there was always a lot of them. The Smith children all got flip phones once they were in high school and Kelsey got hers when she turned 16. And she was always on it. It makes sense for someone that was so social. She loved keeping in touch with her friends and her family. There were a number of pictures I found with her cell phone in her hand. Kelsey was also involved in choir at football games before she went up to the stands to join the pet band. Kelsey was part of her choir singing group and she sung the national anthem. She was casted in school musicals because she had a beautiful singing voice and would regularly actually surprise her parents by conveniently not telling them that she had a solo. At one of her last high school choir concerts, she had a very big solo that she could hardly keep a secret. She was so excited. But she wanted to see the look on her parents' faces when they figured it out so she didn't spell. She ended up surprising Greg and Missy and the solo moved one of Missy's friends two tears. She was also super committed to band so much so that once she had the flu on a day that she was supposed to audition. She stayed home from school all day and slept until it was time to go audition. She went in her pajamas. She did what she needed to do and she came back home and went to sleep. That's how dedicated she was. Not everyone knew this about her but I'm sure they could have guessed if they were around her long enough. She was a very strong athlete. She started playing T-ball when she was just a kid. And her mom said, She loved to play in the chalk, and there's a really cute photo of her right here. Kelsey was more than a triple threat, it seemed like she was good at anything she put her mind to. She liked track, but she was even more interested in long distance running, which was actually a light hobby for her, because she ran at least two miles a day, but would regularly go running for eight miles at a time, I don't know how she did it. She loved to push herself and her family dog, and sometimes she would even come home in the middle of her run and drop off the dog, because she complained to her dad that the dog could not keep up with her, so she had to bring it back. And then she'd go right back to running. I feel like she was actually super woman. She was the whole package. She was smart, talented, and she was beautiful. She had beautiful long brown hair and these gorgeous, almond-shaped brown eyes. And the boys definitely took notice of not just her looks, but the personality to match. When she was 17 and a senior in high school, Kelsey met her boyfriend through one of her jobs. I said one of her jobs, and before you ask, how in the world did she have time for any job? I don't know. Kelsey worked at the Naul Hills Animal Clinic in the summers, and she also worked at AMC Movie Theater. And in the fall of 2006, she fell for one of her movie theater co-workers, John Byersmith. They started dating, and they were quickly head over heels for each other. Where Kelsey was loud, John was calm. He kind of tammed some of Kelsey's wilder side. They could barely spend a day apart. They hung out at Kelsey's house, snuggling on the couch watching TV, and just laughing at everything. John lived a little further away, and Kelsey said he was wasting gas coming to see her, but he felt like it was worth it. And when they weren't together, they were texting all of the time. Their relationship got more and more serious eventually. They began talking about marriage, kids, religion, and death, and everyone thought they were in-game. Stevie actually remembers when she first saw John and her sister snuggling up on the couch in her parents' home, and she was like, okay, wait a minute. Who is that? Or where's Dad? He wouldn't let me do that when I was younger, but as time went on, it was obvious that this was more than just a fling. Kelsey spent most of her free time with John and with her family. Her older sister, Lindsay, went to college at Kansas State University, which is known as K-State, and it's in Manhattan, Kansas, about a three-hour drive away from OP. Kelsey really wanted to visit her sister, so she learned to drive, and got her first car so that she could drive there. Kelsey's car was a silver 1987 Buick Regal. She had two doors, it was a boxy grey vehicle, but she was obsessed with it because it was her own. She actually bought it from a member of her extended family who lived in Nebraska, and she only paid $400. She did end up having to replace the stereo twice because it got stolen. People used to do that back then. I mean, I'm sure they still do, but we just have those face plate stereos. So her family had a running joke that she spent more money on blasting music than she had on paying for the car itself. She kept this car a mess, by the way. I mean, she was a teenager. I don't exactly know when she would have time to clean, but she would also let anyone in her family use it if they asked, including her uncle, her father, so on and so forth. One time, she drove three hours just so that she could do her sister, Lindsay's hair. She loved bonding with people over hair. Kelsey was even her dad's barber. She would do his hair whenever he needed a cut. And I wondered if there was anything that Kelsey could not do. And this was before we had YouTube tutorials. Remember how I said that Kelsey loved to surprise people and make everyone feel loved and included? Well, she was known for making these huge balloon bouquets for her friends on their birthdays. She would buy the same amount of balloons as the age they were turning and she would stay up all night long, the night before tying them all together. And she actually found this pretty hilarious that she would bring them to school and then her friends had to carry them around all day and they would get a lot of attention. She also loved to share these kind of things on social media. She would take pictures of the balloons hanging on her friends' lockers. Her secrets and surprises went even further though. Senior year, she began applying to colleges, but she didn't tell anyone where she was going to go, especially not her parents. Greg and Missy had no clue whether Kelsey wanted to go to Kansas University or if she wanted to go to K-State. Those were the two biggest state schools in Kansas. Greg was convinced that Kelsey wanted to go to KU, a school only 40 minutes away in Lawrence. He had taken her to all their football games growing up and KU football was trash, but they both loved to root for the 100 dog. Plus, Kelsey's boyfriend John was going to KU. Greg of course knew that the odds of staying in a high school relationship through college were pretty low. And Kelsey and John knew this too. They were mature and rational about their future, but Greg was still convinced that they would end up at the same college. They were just drawn to each other like magnets. But on the other hand, Missy was team K-State all the way. She thought that Kelsey would choose K-State because the city of Manhattan is a little smaller. And Missy thought the people were nicer and more Kelsey's vibe. Plus, both Kelsey's sister Lindsay went there and her best friend Megan was going to go to K-State. So Kelsey would feel at home right away. And not only that, K-State had a great veterinary program. And Kelsey was a huge animal lover just like her grandparents, and she was interested in medicine. But she told Greg, she didn't want to cut people open, but she loved working at the animal clinic, and she could see herself taking care of animals for the rest of her life. Greg and Missy went into senior night with no clue what Kelsey would decide. But it was finally announced over the intercom that she was going to go to K-State. Greg looked at Kelsey and he's like, what the hell? And she just could not stop laughing. She told him she picked K-State because it had the best marching band program. With all of Kelsey's hobbies, it was hard to figure out what she would put first. One thing was for sure, Kelsey was full of life. But she didn't take life too seriously. She loved being silly. And sometimes she would do things like chug and entire soda and then burp like a trucker to just annoy her mom. Even though Kelsey seems like a very happy, fun-loving and positive person, she was human. She definitely had her bad days, especially because she was a typical teenager that had mood swings sometimes. Her bedroom was downstairs near Greg's office, and he remembers one day she slammed her door shut after an argument with Missy and she shouted, "That woman, your wife!" It was funny. She got hangry easily. She was genuinely stubborn. But everyone thought that was a good thing, because Kelsey had a lot of fight in her. Greg, being a police officer, taught her a bunch of defensive moves. She knew all the important pressure points on the body, and out of the five kids, Kelsey was the one who was the most prepared if something bad were to ever happen. Her parents trusted that she would be okay. She would know what to do. Can you ever truly be prepared, though? This case begs that question. Kelsey went to senior prom with Megan and John, she wore this beautiful yellow dress, and her hair was curled just like bell from Beauty and the Beast. She looked gorgeous. It was just a magical night. They rented a limo, they danced, and then a few weeks after Kelsey's 18th birthday, she graduated from high school. She walked the stage on May 24th, 2007, while her entire family and her boyfriend cheered her on. John had actually brought an air horn, and they were being so loud that the principal turned to her and said, "Is that your Hooligan family?" That's a pretty big deal when you have a 400 person graduating class who invited all their families and friends, and Kelsey just laughed and said, "That's them. They sound like such a great family to be a part of." You can tell where Kelsey got her personality in her spunk. That summer, Kelsey was invited to about a dozen graduation parties. She spent the day's party hopping, relaxing with her family, and working at AMC. The movie theater had actually offered her a promotion at this time, and for a while, she considered it. But this promotion came with an ultimatum. If she was going to be promoted to manager, then she needed to break up with her boyfriend since she would become his superior. She ended up declining that promotion, and of course staying with John. Besides, she was headed to K-State in two months, so it wasn't really that much of a loss. And after six months of being together, Kelsey and John were still going strong. They didn't know if college would separate them, but they were prepared for anything, even if it meant breaking up, traveling, or even transferring schools. Their six-month anniversary was set for June 2nd, and John made dinner reservations until Kelsey's sister Lindsey, that he actually had plans to give Kelsey a promise ring to show the commitment that he had for her. Now it was Kelsey's turn to be surprised, and John could not wait. The morning of Saturday the 2nd, Kelsey hung out with her family. Missy had gone to a trip to Des Moines, Iowa for the weekend. Her friend's son was getting married, and Missy was out of town helping that friend set up the wedding. But Lindsey was back from college, and everyone was excited about getting out of the house and enjoying the weather. Greg took Kelsey Lindsey Cody and Zach to old Shawnee days. This is a town over from them, and it's a start of a summer festival with live music and a bunch of amusement park rides, and they spent the afternoon going to the spare and buying carnival food, playing games, and riding the rides. Now you could have guessed this, but Kelsey was somewhat of a daredevil, a little risk-taker within reason, of course, so she liked heights. Her sister Lindsay did not, but Kelsey. managed to talk her into riding to the top of the Ferris wheel with her. And Greg watched from the gondola below them as Kelsey began rocking her and Lindsay's gondola from side to side. She looked down at Greg and said something that he wasn't able to catch, but both of them just started laughing. Lindsay was screaming for her to stop. And Greg thought it was hilarious. It was a nice time for the family to just be together before Kelsey went off to school. And they got home later in the afternoon, all the kids separated to do their own things. Kelsey went over to a friend's graduation party nearby in another town called Linux about a 12-minute drive away. But she only stayed about 20 minutes or so because she had a very busy day ahead of her. Later on, Greg was making dinner and he saw Kelsey grabbing a CD from her room before heading to her car to run some errands. Greg saw her getting ready to leave, so we asked her what her plans were for that night and Kelsey gave him the rundown. She said first, she had to stop a target to get a gift for John. He was going to meet her at their house around 720 and drive them to their friend's graduation party. This was a pool party. It started at 7.30 pm and Kelsey was excited. After that at 9.30, she and John had plans for their sixth month anniversary dinner. Kelsey was running a little bit behind before she left, so around 6.30, she texted John, letting him know she was running about 10 minutes behind. But she would see him soon. Then she got her purse, her keys, and she jumped into her Buick. She put her CD in this area and she was on her way to the nearest target store. Now this was located on 97th Quavera Road and this target was about 8 minutes away from her parents' home and it was right across the street from Oak Park Mall and this is the largest shopping complex in all of Kansas. It has over 180 stores and people from all surrounding cities drive over to Overland Park for the day to shop there. Target is right across the street from Northstrom and Macy's department stores, which are attached to the mall. Since it's so close to the rest of the shopping district, it's usually a very busy and full parking lot. It's the perfect place to buy someone a gift or just spend time window shopping but of course that evening, Kelsey was on a mission. She didn't have any time to waste. She had to do a lot that night. She arrived at Target around 6.57 pm and walked inside and had one goal to find one of those nicer scrapbook boxes for John so that he could keep all of his important cards and pictures in one place and this all stemmed from something that happened a few months before this. Kelsey had gifted him a card. It was very heartfelt and he thought he lost track of it but it turned out his mom had accidentally thrown it away. They were both very upset about it. John wanted to make sure he could preserve all of their memories together, which is so sweet. He seems like an absolute gentleman. So after this, Kelsey decided that this is what she wanted to give to him, especially after Kelsey's mom mentioned seeing scrapbook boxes at Target. So there she was looking for one. When she could not locate them fast enough, she decided to pull out her flip phone at 7 pm and call her mom to ask where she could find them. Macy told her to try the picture frame aisle. On the other line, Macy was on her way home from Iowa. She told Kelsey she would be just a little late getting home because unfortunately, she had car trouble. So her friend had to give her right back, but she assured Kelsey that she would definitely be home by 9 pm. At that point, Kelsey relayed her own plans for that evening just like she had to Greg earlier. She told her mom she would be home before 7.30 pm to meet John at the house and then they were going to that graduation party and then dinner together. Kelsey and Macy talked for a few more minutes before Kelsey headed to the checkout line. The call lasted the duration she was in the store, 11 minutes. Macy's last words, "For bye baby, I'll see you when I get home. I love you." Little did she know that that would be the last time she ever spoke to her daughter. It's truly unbelievable how fast our world can be turned upside down. Each time I do these cases, I am still shocked at how easily such horrible things can happen. When 7.30 came around, which was the time that Kelsey had told her family that she would be home, Greg, Lindsay, and John, who had been waiting on her at this point, began texting and calling Kelsey, but they got no answer. Lindsay then called their sister Stevie asking if she had heard from Kelsey, but the thing is, Stevie and Kelsey, they did not talk very often unless it was something related to their family. So she responded to Lindsay saying, "Why would Kelsey be reaching out to me?" And that's when Lindsay explained what was going on. And at that moment, Stevie got worried too. She hung up with Lindsay and started calling and texting Kelsey herself. She even started yelling at her and breaking down crying, begging her to answer. Letting Kelsey know they don't care where she was, they just needed to know she was okay. You may wonder why they are so frantic at this point and you won't figure that out in just a moment. On 7.45 pm, 15 minutes passed the time that Kelsey said she was going to be home. Missy got a call from her daughter, Lindsay. Lindsay said that Kelsey was running late and she wasn't answering anyone's text or calls, worried Missy hung up and started texting Kelsey to try to get a hold of her. When Kelsey did not immediately respond to those texts, her mom felt that deep down something was wrong. They say that a mom always knows, but it goes beyond intuition. When she was told that John was there waiting for Kelsey, Missy said, "Call the police. Something's not right." This myths had a family rule. If you had to change your plans or change your location while you're out, you immediately called or texted either Greg or Missy. You let somebody know and Kelsey actually carried this rule out with her friends as well. You would make them call their parents and let them know if their plans changed. I actually have the same rule with my family and my boyfriend and I have for a very long time, so I know how much break in this rule can affect a family member or a partner. Mine started after a tragedy happened with someone close to me. In Kelsey's case, it was part of growing up in a law enforcement in Navy household. Greg had seen some really bad things in his time and he worried for the safety of his kids. If Kelsey or any of her siblings were late, even by a minute they were grounded two days for every minute they were late and I know that this seems really strict. But this is how they understood just how important it was to abide by this rule. And for Kelsey and the other Smith children, it was all they knew and they lived by it. Kelsey was very responsible. She never wanted to scare or worry anyone. So her silence, especially after 30 minutes, was a huge red flag. Even if it doesn't sound very long to any of us, it was to the Smith family. Actually Greg initially started worrying as soon as Kelsey didn't come home immediately at 7.30 and that is how reliable Kelsey was. But her Buick wasn't. So we thought that maybe she had broken down because as a matter of fact, her 1987 Buick had broken down earlier that month. So we wondered if something had happened to her car, but why wouldn't she call? Maybe her flip phone had died, but what are the odds of both of those things happening at the same time? It did not seem likely, especially for Greg with his law enforcement mentality. I know we don't like to assume the worst, but like I said, you can imagine Greg had seen a lot of things, just like you and I have heard a lot of true crime stories. Our minds tend to go towards a negative as much as we want to give someone the benefit of the doubt. John had actually shown up for their date at 7.20 and had been excited just hanging out with Greg and Lindsay waiting for Kelsey to show up. But when they all realized she was late, they freaked out. John was really worried. He called and texted her again and again. And remember, this was flip phone age. You had to push the same key a few times to get a certain letter to text. They would have taken a lot more work than it does today with like voice to text. But he was so concerned. This is around the time they called Missy and she told them that Kelsey had been shopping at the Oak Park Mall Target. She knew which target it was because they had discussed the layout of the store and where to find the scrapbook box. So Lindsay and John wasted no time at all. They drove over there looking for a Buick, but they didn't see it anywhere. Meanwhile, by 8 p.m., 30 minutes past the time Kelsey was supposed to be home, Greg started making calls. First, he reached out to a bunch of different police departments in the area asking them if they had any contact with a car matching Kelsey's description of her Buick or the license play number. He wanted to know if any accidents have been reported. He said he was being a cop at this point. This was just his instinct, but there were no reports. So then he started calling all the hospitals around town, trying to see if Kelsey had been admitted, but she hadn't. After that, Greg called his parents who lived even closer to the Oak Park Mall than they did, and he told them to please drive around in the area and look for her car. When Missy finally got home around 9 p.m., they caught her up on all the details, waiting and hoping does he Kelsey walk through that door and apologize for being late, but she never did. And it was getting later and later. Everyone was still calling Kelsey non-stop, and now Missy was joining the rest of her family as they stood around desperate for answers. It was 10.48 p.m., hours had gone by with no word from Kelsey, and that is when Greg called the police department to report her missing. Too much time had gone by, and they had looked everywhere that they could think of. He wasn't going to take any chances and knew that time was of the essence if she was truly missing. Around the same time, Missy gets a call from Kelsey's grandma Mimi, who was still out there looking for Kelsey's Buick. She asked Missy if it had any Nebraska license plate. And that's when Missy realized they had drove to Nebraska to pick up the Buick. What were the odds? It was someone else's car. It had to be hers. So she said yes, it did. Kelsey's grandparents had found her car. It was at the mall parking lot near Macy's. Right across the street, half a mile away from the target where Kelsey had been shopping. Even though John and Lindsay said that they went over there and not seen it when they drove over there an hour earlier. Now that was concerning. No, it was more than concerning. It meant that Kelsey's car had been abandoned and Kelsey loved her car. She was responsible. She would never willfully abandon it. Greg and Missy set out for Macy's parking lot and called John and Lindsay to let them know where they were going. And Stevie was also on her way over there at this point. And she was in a panic. So she actually had one of her friends drive her there. Since John and Lindsay were still out looking in the area, they arrived at the Macy's parking lot first. It was pitch black outside. The law was vacant by this time a night shoppers had already gone home. But there was Kelsey's car. Still there. When John looked through the car windows, it was way too dark to actually see inside. So he told Lindsay he was going to open the door. And Lindsay was on the phone with her dad. And Greg said, under no circumstances, could John touch that vehicle? And we know why? If this was some kind of crime, he could inadvertently destroy evidence. By 10.54 pm, Greg was calling back the police department and letting them know that they had found his daughter's car. At this point, the case was an open investigation. When Greg and Missy showed up, they hoped that there would be some sign of where Kelsey was, but their hopes were dashed. The car wasn't even parked in a parking spot, which was another clue. Not only was it further from the target parking area, but it appeared that it had been abandoned in a hurry. It was not as if it was parked there in a hurry because Kelsey was more responsible than to park that way. And she would park near target so that she could run in and out. It just did not make sense. I mean, could there be a possibility that that lot was too full? And she had a park on the other side. I don't think so. And they didn't either. And again, it didn't seem like a likely scenario. At this point, they were so worried that something happened to Kelsey that they've started to check in this area behind bushes and even in dumpsters. And you may wonder what they're looking for. And I know it sounds crazy that they'd be in this mindset so soon, but let's face it, they were looking for her body. Greg knew in his heart that this was an objection. He had seen so many missing persons cases. He just never thought it was going to hit so close to home. You know how dedicated he was to teaching his kids how to protect themselves. Be vigilant. Be aware of their surroundings. So how is it that this happened to his bright, strong, responsible daughter? There were so many questions going through their minds. Where was she? Was she still alive? Were they too late? It's just unimaginable how someone would feel in this situation. They called her again, but now it just went straight to voicemail. And that is never a good sign. John's uncle actually worked for sprint the phone carrier. So we had some extra knowledge of how cell phones worked. His uncle told him that cell phone companies could figure out someone's location based on the way phone calls and texts came through in relation to where the cell towers were. And that they now have this technology to measure where the phone was in proximity to the nearest tower. This was way back in 2007 when find my iPhone was three years from being introduced in its first iteration, which wasn't nearly as precise as it is today. And in 2007, the global positioning system, what we now know is just GPS finally went mainstream, but it wasn't in all cell phones yet. However, there were certain phone companies that did have the technology to conduct mobile phone tracking. They could calculate the general area of a phone by measuring the time it takes for a signal to travel back and forth. This technology is called cell tower triangulation. And it combines location data from at least three cell phone towers. When a phone communicates with a cell tower, it creates a record known as a ping. But this was not a common word at the time, even though most of us know what it is today. And I like to understand everything. And it's really simple actually. In order for a cell phone to work, they have to be in contact with a cell tower. The signal that emits our pings, our phones, even back then, don't just ping when they're being used, but also if they're being called, because the signal is being sent out from the person who's calling's phone to the phone in question. It wasn't completely unheard of for the police to locate someone by pinging their cell phone. Actually, a year before this in December in 2006, a ping from a cell phone helped save the life of a Buffalo college student. The young man whose name was never released to the public called his father to strut over a breakup with his girlfriend. And he said he wanted to take his own life. And then he just hung up on his father. His dad tried to reach him again and again and failed. So he called the police hoping that they could somehow find him before he put himself in danger. The student had a sprint cell phone, police contacted the carrier and they were able to see a record of a ping from that student's phone. And that provided them an approximate location of where he was. And it led them right to his car. He was inside only semi-conscious after taking a bottle of sleeping pills. But luckily, they got to him in time. He was taken to the hospital and he got medical assistance and survived. All this is to say that even back then, even though it was more rare, some people were aware that paying a phone could provide a location. And one of those people was Kelsey's boyfriend. His uncle had given him this golden piece of knowledge that at the time that he learned it, he probably had no idea he would be attempting to use it to find his missing girlfriend. As a matter of fact, pinging cell phones was quite controversial back then because it was seen as an invasion of someone's privacy. But all this being said, with what John knew, he simply asked Greg and Missy if they had tried pinging Kelsey's phone. I'm sure with Greg being a cop, he knew what it meant. Kelsey didn't have sprint where John's uncle worked and sprint was also the carrier that the student in Buffalo had but Kelsey had Verizon. But it was worth a try. So Missy was the first person to call Verizon the night asking if they could pang Kelsey's phone. She told them her daughter was missing and that she was Kelsey's mom and she urgently needed them to pang Kelsey. Well, they may not have been apprised of this newer technology but this poor customer service representative had no idea what she meant by a pang. They explained it was not possible to ping a phone and that Missy should just go online if she wanted a record of Kelsey's phone activity down to the time she received her last call. Well, sure, the time mattered somewhat but what this representative did not seem to understand is that they were looking for Kelsey's last known location, not a call log. Still not understanding Missy's objective and just doing their job, this representative very robotically as they were trained to do actually had the audacity to attempt to convince Missy to upgrade her Verizon plan so that she could have easier access to online information and more features. Yeah, this was back when you had to pay for the minutes you use on your phone and the concept of unlimited minutes wasn't really a thing yet. You could get an unlimited texting plan. Well, you had to pay for calls. Back then, you got 6000 minutes for 239.99. Missy was definitely not interested in upgrading at a time like this. She's like, "Did you hear me?" I said that my daughter is missing and needless to say this phone call went nowhere. When the police showed up, Kelsey's whole family was there in the parking lot and they realized how intense this situation was when Missy said that she had checked bushes and dumpsters for Kelsey's body. Kelsey's parents gave the police permission to search and gather evidence from her vehicle. In the passenger seat, police located a target bag containing a scrapbook box and a roll of wrapping paper and Kelsey's purse was still there. This indicated that she had made it back to her car after her shopping trip. When they checked inside her purse, Kelsey's phone, her ATM card, and her car keys were missing. Other than that, it did not seem like there was any sign of a struggle or forced entry, but there was something suspicious hanging out of the trunk. That was really uncharacteristic for Kelsey. Police thought it might be a piece of paper or maybe even a piece of clothing. As they got closer, they realized it was actually the handle to a bag. You can imagine how frightening that thought must have been. I'm sure you know what everyone was thinking. Could Kelsey be inside? They knew they had to open the trunk even though they were completely terrified that they could find Kelsey's lifeless body inside. Her parents even brought a spare set of keys with them just in case the car was locked and now the police were using them to unlock the trunk. They couldn't hear anything coming from the inside and it was just a surreal moment where they did, and at the same time didn't want Kelsey to be inside. On one hand, if she were alive and merely tied up and gagged, then of course it would be a relief. But on the other hand, they realized that they could also find her deceased. Her whole family was standing there, just holding their breath, watching as the cops opened it up. And when they did, they looked inside, and it was completely empty. That seems like it would have been a relief, but not knowing where Kelsey could be was unbearable for her loved ones. Stevie dropped to her knees. It was becoming more real at this moment. Kelsey wasn't just late and not responding. Something was really wrong. Missy's heart dropped. Friends of investigators were sitting there bagging up all the evidence from the car, and having the Buick toad to the Johnson County Sheriff's Office crime lab for testing. By midnight, detective Sergeant Bob Miller and detective Candace Bridges were both assigned to this case. Greg could not officially work on his own daughter's case, even though he was a police officer. Not only did he work in an entirely different department, but investigating his daughter's case was not legal for him to do in Kansas. Plus, he, like everyone else in the family, was actually considered a potential suspect at this point. You know, watching true crime, anyone that is close to a person who has gone missing, or as a victim, is looked at first, until they can be rolled out. So they took everyone back to the police headquarters where detectives conducted several interviews. Missy and Greg were sitting in one of the interview rooms, and he pointed out the cameras. And he's like, you know we're suspects, right? And Missy responded, I don't give a sh- she wanted them to interview them so they could be ruled out and detectives could go out there and find their daughter. After answering all the questions that authorities had for them, the detectives moved on to John. Now, of course, John being Kelsey's romantic partner, he would be the most likely suspect, but Kelsey's family didn't think so. They described him as a wholesome, nice guy, but detectives cannot think on that. The way they saw it, here's this 18-year-old girl who just graduated from high school. She was beautiful and now missing at this pivotal age and a time in life when things change a lot. Maybe Kelsey didn't want to be with John anymore. John had to prove he had nothing to do with this. When he was interviewed, they asked him about his relationship with Kelsey and how it was going. Kelsey was super excited about going to case date in the fall, but he was going to Kansas University and they were planning on splitting up when they went to college. So this peaked the detectives interest. They were going to break up. Didn't John tell Kelsey's sister he was just going to give her a promise ring? So that seemed a little contradictory and suspicious, especially now that she's missing. So Detective Bridges started coming up with things that could have gone wrong. Maybe Kelsey got pregnant and they didn't want anyone to know. Maybe they planned to have Kelsey disappear for a while until they figured out everything or maybe John had made her disappear. How they got into a fight, had John driven to Kelsey's house just to give him an alibi. Detective's questioned whether Kelsey was upset about them breaking up and they really grilled John. They were treating him as their prime suspect, but he insisted he loved Kelsey and he was not involved. He just willingly just handed over cell phone without them telling him to and he showed all their text messages. There was no sign of an argument, but there were a few cryptic messages, so to speak. As he's asking where she was and what's going on, at one point he says something about property that his parents owned and he suggested to Kelsey that if she was really mad about something and that's why she was answering, she could go meet him at that property and he wouldn't tell anyone. But still, she never responded. However, after looking at the context of these messages, they realized that most of their exchanges before Kelsey went missing were all positive. They were excited, they were planning their evening together, and then after she went missing, all of John's unanswered texts were asking Kelsey where she was and expressing how worried he was about her. The police began to realize John probably wasn't involved. They were actually pretty surprised about how open he was. People can become really defensive about their privacy when it comes to cell phones, especially teenage boys. Even if they have nothing to hide, but John was super cooperative and both Missy and Greg insisted he was not involved from the very beginning. Detectives ended the interview and they put in a request for his cell phone records, he gave them a DNA sample and his fingerprints. The detectives actually took DNA samples and fingerprints from the entire Smith family and they continued interviewing to get the whole story, and that's when they learned that Kelsey had not even been shopping at Macy's, even though that's where her car was found. That she'd actually been a target the last time she talked to Missy. Since Verizon wasn't willing or able, I guess, to figure out where Kelsey's phone was last located, the target surveillance footage seemed like their best bet. They were hoping that there were cameras in that parking lot that would show which direction Kelsey drove in after she got in her vehicle. However, it was in the middle of the night. Target did not open until 11 a.m. because the next day was a Sunday. But of course, the officers asked target management if they could come in earlier to look at the tapes and they obliged, but they still had to wait till the morning. The rest of the night, Missy and Greg got in touch with a couple different Verizon representatives, but every time it was the same story, they couldn't ping a phone. They couldn't even give them that much information because Kelsey was 18. Even though her plan was in her parents' name, she was an adult. They needed the subscribers permission, which didn't make any sense because the subscribers are the one that's missing. It was very frustrating. Even after the investigation began and a team of detectives called Verizon at 3 a.m. trying to find Kelsey's location, Verizon still refused to reveal the information. The police needed proper documentation, which is what I alluded to earlier, privacy issues. Law enforcement agencies have to get subpoenas before they can access these records, especially back then. Now it's a little different. I can only imagine how frustrating this was for Kelsey's family. I'd be very upset. I already hate dealing with customer service, but in such a dire situation, the stress is amplified. No one was sleeping that night at the Smith residence. Kelsey's friends had even come over to help find her. They even made missing person flyers with her age that she was 18, that she was 56, her hair color brown, eye color brown, weighed 120 pounds. And last location she was seen at that target. Then everyone gathered around to listen to Greg explain how police conduct searches. He actually took out a map and began showing them where to start looking. And by the next morning at 6 a.m. Kelsey's friends took it upon themselves with the information they gathered from Greg and they went out covering different areas and handing out flyers. Greg was already on the phone with radio and TV stations trying to get the word out. At the same time, that Sunday morning on the third, detectives showed up at Target and they watched as much surveillance footage as they could from the day before on Saturday to 2nd when Kelsey would have been there. They even went back a little further and checked between the hours of 6.55 p.m. and 7.15 p.m. scouring the footage for even the smallest clue. On that small screen, in Target and their security department, they finally spotted Kelsey. They watched her as she entered the store wearing her usual summer attire, a pink tank top, black shorts and tennis shoes. It was the time of the year when it's still light outside and I was able to get my hands on some of this footage and here's when she enters at 6.57 p.m. She walks through the store while she's talking to her mom on her phone and then she goes to the checkout. She signs a receipt for items and she leaves the store carrying a target bag and a roll of wrapping paper, which is the exact items of her found in her car. Kelsey was walking pretty fast. She was clearly on a mission to get back home in time to meet her boyfriend. This lot was packed and had a lot of cars, but hers was in the slot, not at Macy's. She goes to the passenger side of her car where there's a vacant spot next to her car and she puts her things in the passenger seat. Now, I'm just going to say this now because I cover these cases not only to memorialize the people who have lost their lives but to educate. So I'm going to tell you please try not to do this, especially if you are a woman and you are alone. This is not a judgment at all. I know it's tough. We have our hands full. We're in a rush. It's convenient to take our time to unload at the passenger seat or even the trunk. It makes sense, but I urge you do not. I've covered enough cases to know why and I don't like to admit this very often. A lot of you already know. My dad is an ex felon. He's been in prison. He's taught me how evil people can be and what to look for. And destruction is one of the number one things that makes us a target. Don't take your time getting in your car. I'm not saying it applies in this specific case, it's just something I wanted to note. Just get in the driver's side, close the door, lock it, and then put your items aside in the back or the passenger seat, especially if you are all alone. In Kelsey's case, case, she unloaded a few of her items in her passenger seat before walking behind her vehicle to the driver's side to get in. And on that side, there was a car parked next to her. From the video footage, they can see her get into the car and drive away. The whole thing takes about 16 seconds, but this footage wasn't exactly high definition. It's the normal 2007 parking lot camera footage, but nothing seems out of the ordinary, but they thought there had to be some clue they were missing. What happened next? Where did she go? How did her car end up back in the same vicinity in a different parking lot? And some of her personal belongings were not there. Why would she have gone anywhere else? The detectives are actually more confused than before, because it doesn't appear to be a missing person's case. It looks like a girl who left the parking lot on her own free will. This continued to search through hours and hours of surveillance footage. Now they were trying to take note of the other people who were in target at the same time before or after Kelsey. On June 4th, to go one step further, the detectives relied on the effort of the Smith family that they were putting towards getting Kelsey's story out there to the media. Everyone in her family had a role. Greg and Missy were dealing with nationwide news. Stevie dealt with the local news stations and Lindsay was in charge of all the volunteers. At least we're now looking for anyone who had been at target that day if they could just come forward with any information they may have. You never know if you may be asked to come forward one day as well. So always keep your eyes open. But of course, lots of people were willing to help, and many tips came in. There were about 400 people that actually came out to that target to help look for Kelsey. And the detectives were conducting interviews with the people who called in saying they'd been shopping the same day Kelsey went missing. And no one knew what they were going to be asked about seeing that day until they were officially interviewed. And ultimately, not a single person saw anything they could remember that was out of the ordinary while they were shopping that day. No one that they noticed doing anything creepy or suspicious. And even the salesperson who was working the register when Kelsey checked out that evening couldn't remember seeing anything or anyone that looked unusual. It's hard to actually look back on these moments that you don't know are going to be significant until later. There had even been a police officer at the far end of that parking lot. His name was officer Andy Black. He reported he didn't see anything strange, but he was also too far away from where Kelsey's car was or even the target store to stop anything in time if he had seen something. To everyone who viewed that footage of Kelsey, it looked like she'd gotten to her car and drove away. Her only hope was to possibly narrow down any witnesses or people of interest at target. So they go back to the footage and they looked for people who either entered the store after Kelsey walked in who could have seen her or seen anyone following her or anyone who left a little bit before she did who could have waited for her to pass them and maybe followed her to her car or exited right behind her and saw anything. They were still hoping someone noticed something that they didn't. On the footage, police did notice one guy who entered the store after Kelsey did. And he happened to leave a little bit before she did. He was a younger looking guy in his mid-twenties with closely cropped our care and a goatee. He was wearing a dark colored pair of shorts, a white t-shirt and black converse sneakers. And he looked like he might have a gold necklace on. But he didn't look strange or creepy but they did categorize him as a person of interest. The interest they had in him was a someone who might have witnessed Kelsey's kidnapping or someone who followed her around the store because this man was there at the same time. So maybe he saw something on the news. They put out to call if anyone knew who this guy was or if you were the guy so that he could be interviewed and they could get more information. And not everyone watches the news. I know that I don't usually. I rely on word of mouth, social media, things like that. So not all the time do people come forward on their own. Sometimes they have to wait to be notified that something like this has happened. So now authorities wait and meanwhile, detective Miller and Bridges, they showed the target footage to Kelsey's family to see if they recognize any people that were shopping that day. But they didn't recognize anyone, including the younger guy who was there at the same time that Kelsey was. So in an effort to be thorough, the officers went over to Macy's to request footage from their parking lot. And unfortunately, the Macy's footage was even worse. They didn't even have like the night vision cameras or anything. And the parking lot was really badly lit, but it's all they had to pinpoint when Kelsey's Buick got back into that parking spot. So they did their very best and they combed through minute by minute diligently until finally, they spot something. Around two hours after Kelsey went missing, her Buick is seen pulling into that dim parking spot and someone parks the car and gets out. And this is where it gets creepy. This person has some kind of swagger. There's a distinct way that they move their body and it doesn't look like Kelsey's walk at all. They believe it appeared to be a man and it looked like he was wearing a light colored shirt. Detective Bridges had this really bad feeling that Kelsey was not only missing, but that she was in grave danger or even dead at this point. Everything they had, though limited, added up to Kelsey being taken somehow by someone and they took all of her belongings and then they returned her car to this lot to discard it, possibly hoping to throw off the police. Maybe making it look like Kelsey had intentionally left, but they probably didn't account for CCTV footage or they were just willing to take the chance. Now the detectives know the person who drove Kelsey's car was wearing a light colored shirt even though that's not much. They went back to the target footage. This time they were in the Overland Park Police headquarters in their command center. The chief of police, John Douglas, he had bought this huge 15 by 12-foot screen for another case he was working on. So they loaded the video of Kelsey's case up on the screen. Now they weren't viewing it on the small little security department TV screen at Target. Instead, the video from Target was blown up on this projector and they had the ability to manipulate the footage to slow it down to speed it up. Police tried to find any clue of Kelsey's kidnapping. But 16 seconds was vital. They watched it again and again. The part where Kelsey loaded her items into the passenger seat and then walks around the car. They watched it and watched it and then all of a sudden, that's when they saw something, just a flash. Do you see it? I'm going to rewind and play it again. It's right here. You really have to look closely, but in a span of two seconds, something happens. Someone runs up from out of the frame. They come up behind Kelsey between her car and the one parked right next to her on the driver's side. It's someone wearing a white shirt and dark shorts. With a flash of their legs moving quickly, the person comes right behind Kelsey and they shove her into the car. Then they get inside and somehow they must have taken control of this vehicle. They peel out of the parking spot and in just a couple seconds, she's gone. It's unreal. I told you that I cannot believe how fast something like this can happen 16 seconds. That's all it took. And less than that, really, it was just a couple of seconds that resulted in a simple flash on that screen to overpower Kelsey, a girl who was prepared for something like this. Trained to be alert, daughter of a cop, it can happen to anyone. And watching all this, the investigators heart sank. They held their breath realizing what they just saw. They knew this wasn't good. Chief Douglas said that after watching that video closely, he noticed some sort of activity at the back of the car and the car leaves. You see two individuals come together and there's no separation of those two individuals. Those were his words. In the next two days, police watched this footage again and again. They analyzed every single second. Now they had to see if they could match the very little detail they had on this suspect to anyone that had been in or around target. That's when they realized they still had not heard from that guy who was the person of interest that I mentioned earlier. So they compared the footage of Kelsey being pushed into the car and what that person seemed to be wearing to the footage of the younger guy walking around target. They looked at what he was wearing and also what he was doing and when he left and they also compared that to the footage of the person parking Kelsey's car in the Macy's parking lot. They tried to figure out if this was all the same person but let's face it. A white shirt and shorts is pretty generic. Without being able to make out someone's features, there was just no solid evidence connecting all of these videos. So they had to go beyond the basics, investigators sent surveillance tapes to a forensic lab to be enhanced. They hoped by zooming in, removing some pixelation, they could help identify this perpetrator. That same day on June 4th, police also released all the footage to the public, officer Annie Black, the officer who had been in that parking lot that day, he actually felt guilty for being at the Oak Park Mall and not being able to do anything. So he volunteered his time working the tip line. Hundreds of tips were coming in. There were so many that the tip line actually crashed. Police amassed the list of names and spent hours getting pictures of each of these people's driver's licenses to compare it to their footage. If a guy even slightly looked like the guy leaving target, they would go to the top of their list. And I got a hand at them. They really milked this video for every drop of evidence that they could get. And that's what it should be. You got to work with what you have. And by June 5th, they were still going through the video frame by frame. They were hoping to get a clear screenshot. And this was the best they could get. But honestly, it's not bad. If someone knew this person, I think they would recognize him. All the while, detectives continued to correspond with the reps at Verizon about getting the location of Kelsey's phone. Verizon still has it to provide this information because it wasn't standard policy. But you'd think with the police and investigators asking for this information that this company would be more than willing to hand it over, but apparently more red tape. They just weren't budging. So alternatively, the investigators requested Kelsey's phone records. But Verizon said, I kid you not, that they were unavailable because they required upper management to release. Then I'm sitting here thinking, the obvious next step is just to talk to someone in upper management. It was a mess for a literal communication company. There were a lot of communication issues when it came to cooperating with authorities. And Verizon just did not have the resources in place to provide information quickly. They just did not have systems in place for these specific requests back then, because they weren't made that often if ever, investigators resorted to old fashion police work. They went door to door. They searched the Oak Park Mall area in the surrounding neighborhoods in Overland Park. They were hoping to find any clues that any residents may have that they heard and seen. Greg and Missy had also mobilized a group of people to search for Kelsey. In the five miles surrounding the place of Kelsey's disappearance, over 500 volunteers passed out flyers and put signs on cars. These search parties were going door to door. Each group consisted of two men and one woman for safety reasons. Police thought that the person of interest in their video might even be living in an apartment near the Oak Park Mall. Someone who could have had easy access to this area. And if they happened to find him, they could take him in for questioning and discover what he had seen that night. And if he was the kidnapper, over the next four days, so many people were involved in trying to find Kelsey, that this group became known as Kelsey's Army. Everyone was running on energy drinks and zero sleep. And Greg and Missy started a website called findkelsey.com. They raised $30,000 for reward. They never stopped trying to contact Verizon either. And they called Kelsey's phone again and again until it finally died. Because of other efforts, Kelsey's case got a lot of attention, national attention. It was all over Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. And everyone in the area was pretty freaked out. This was an 18-year-old girl who went missing because she was just shopping very close to her home. It's such an innocent activity. And people were left thinking this could happen to any of them. Let me tell you what the crime lab found in Kelsey's car. They lifted fingerprints as well as they could. But it was hard because a car is such a small space. They knew that the traditional fingerprint dust would go everywhere and it could possibly contaminate DNA evidence. So the investigators chose to do what they call a superglue bomb. And the fancy name-- I'm probably not going to say this right-- cyan accurately, fuming. I'm probably not saying that right, like I said. But it basically helps detect any latent fingerprints on non-porous surfaces like glass, metal, and plastic. When the superglue is hot enough, it actually becomes a vapor. And then it gets in the air. It's attracted to the sweat and oils that are excreted from our fingertips. And then when it comes in contact, the vapor becomes a crystallized material. And it leaves behind a white residue that reveals the fingerprints. And now they can be lifted and analyzed. With this method, they found a single fingerprint on the metal clip of a driver's side seat belt. Unbelievable. While Missy and Greg tried to stay strong for their daughter, these people were hurting. Missy couldn't even eat, because she knew if Kelsey was kidnapped or worse if she had passed away, then she wasn't eating either. Now knowing what happened to her was literal hell. Greg was slowly losing hope. He didn't think that his daughter was still alive. He knew that 48 hours after an abduction, the odds of someone coming back alive are much lower. But still, he continued to tell the newspapers that anyone who may have taken her is probably going to have a hard time keeping her subdued because she was strong, and she would stick up for herself no matter what. On the friends' side of things, police obtained fingerprints of everyone who had driven Kelsey's car in the last 10 days. They already had Gregs and John's DNA and fingerprints, and they also got prints from Kelsey's friends and her uncle, who she had let borrow her car for a few days. All of the tests came back negative. The fingerprint found on that seatbelt buckle did not belong to anyone in Kelsey's close circle, and that was a big clue. They had to keep going. They had to find that suspect so they could compare his print to this one. The police also determined that Kelsey's disappearance was not consistent with a robbery. When they looked at the records of her ATM card, which we know had been missing, it had not been used at all. Whoever took her didn't seem to be after her money. As police continued to look at the target footage, they zeroed in even more on the guy in the white shirt. They watched his every move as he walked around that store, and this is when he quickly moved up to the top of their list as their number one suspect. First of all, he had a similar walk to the guy in the Macy's video, but that's not all. As they look closely, they noticed he was looking in Kelsey's direction at her the entire time he was in that store. He didn't even look like he was shopping. He looked like he was on the hunt. It looked like this man was following Kelsey, but keeping enough distance that she wouldn't be able to notice him. But remember, she was also on the phone with her mom. Distraction, as I warned, it's one of the things perpetrators look for. Someone who isn't paying much attention, someone who won't notice their being watched, being followed and being targeted. This man, he never tried to approach Kelsey or talk to her at all, but he definitely was targeting her. He remained incognito on purpose. He, just like Kelsey, was on a mission, but his was of the sinister kind. Detective Miller described his behavior as hunting prey. As they watched his movement, he would snap his head around whenever Kelsey turned a corner. And with poor Kelsey on the phone with her mom and searched for the perfect gift for a boyfriend, she had other things on her mind. She was completely oblivious of the grave danger she was in. While she did such an innocent task, monsters walk among us. By June 5th, police were trying to figure out which car belonged to the guy in the white shirt. That's when they landed on something promising. In this video of the Target parking lot, a dark late 1970s model Chevy pickup truck pulled up around 6.54 p.m. It parks in the general vicinity of Kelsey's Buick just a few minutes after she gets there. And that's where it stays. The truck sits there for two hours. Then just minutes after Kelsey's Buick was discovered in the Macy's parking lot only about a half a mile away, the truck leaves the target lot. That's not a coincidence, it's a connection. It seemed obvious. The guy had shown up a target after Kelsey did. He saw her, he targeted her, he followed her out of the store, then he attacked her and pushed her into her own car. They don't know what happened after that, but it couldn't have been good. Because later that night, the man came back and he abandoned her Buick at Macy's and walked a target to pick up his own truck and drive away. But for all the tips that they'd received, they still were not sure who this guy was. And Chief Douglas sent the police all over the Overland Park area. They were looking for a Chevy that looked like the one in the video. But they didn't find any that looked similar. The morning of June 6th, the Chevy pickup video was aired on the news, along with another request for tips. And once again, Officer Black had dozens of phone calls come into the tip line and a lot of leads to follow up on. A woman and her husband actually called in. They said they knew someone by the name of Jack, who fit the description of the man in the white shirt. He was actually their neighbor. He lived out in Olay, Texas, about a 20-minute drive away from that target store. The woman gave Officer Black this man's address and Sergeant Bob Miller went out there to ask this guy a few questions. But I'm going to get to that later because there's something else I want to let you know about. Within the same hour that Officer Black got this lead, the Overland Park PD had convinced the FBI to get in touch with Verizon. Finally, some more authority. It had been almost four days since Kelsey had disappeared. When the FBI agent called and asked Verizon for location on her device. Verizon finally agreed and they sent out an engineer to determine Kelsey's location. It turns out Verizon's process of finding a location was not called pinging, which was how it led to the confusion. It was simply called locating. As I briefly mentioned, the method for finding a phone without GPS is called triangulation. And they use what's called CSLI, which stands for Cell Site Location Information. The technician looked at all the text and the calls that were received on Kelsey's phone. And they calculated how close it was in relation to the three different hours by measuring the distance, Verizon narrowed down a small piece of land where the phone had approximately been located last. This was actually a different technique than the one John's uncle talked about at Sprint. And most of the Verizon customer service representatives did not know anything about this process and how it worked. It was beyond their training and their expertise. And they didn't even have a standard procedure set in place back then to follow for emergencies like this. It wasn't legally mandatory for Verizon to give out a person's location. So technically, they did nothing wrong. But it did take much longer to get this information than it does today. So I am so thankful for the advancements that we have today in technology and that we have GPS. But around 1 p.m. on June 6th, Verizon did their mathematical magic and they were able to locate a 900-acre location of where Kelsey's flip phone could be. When police looked at her call and text records, her phone can be tracked the entire drive there. Kelsey's phone had lit up or connected to a tower every time John sent her a text. Her phone's last location registered at 756 p.m. with the closest cell tower near Byers Road in Grandview, Missouri. It was a remote area just 20 minutes from Oak Park Mall. It was called Longview Lake Park, a heavily-wooded area southeast of US Route 71 and Missouri Route 150. 240 officers from Kansas and Missouri, police academy students and the FBI searched for Kelsey's phone, and by extension, Kelsey, because the grim reality was that they were looking for her body, not for her still being alive. They split up into groups of 20 and they walked shoulder to shoulder through this park along with a team of search dogs. The area was super dense with trees, brush, and tall grass. But Kelsey had a whole army looking for her, Kelsey's army. And within one hour of getting those results from Verizon, they found Kelsey. John's texts proved to be what led them to where her phone had been active last. The officers who found her were from Texas, and I believe they were talking about Texas County, Missouri, and not the state of Texas, because that would have been a long drive. But Kelsey was found in a small hollow next to a tree. The area was between the roads of Hygrove and Raytown, near a hiking trail that wrapped around Longview Lake. All of her clothes had been removed, and she was covered by a mat that was woven with bare branches, sticks, brush, and leaves. At that time, exposure to the elements had severely affected her body, including insects like ticks. Someone had also made an extra effort, and poured bleach all over her body in order to wash away evidence. Her shirt was near her body, but the rest of her clothing was around 100 feet north of her. They were a flowered bathing suit top and bottom, and her black shorts and shoes. She was found with a gray belt tied around her neck. The police were not 100% sure this was Kelsey, but they had reason to believe it was because of the proximity to her phone, which they found. She was taken in for a forensic examination, and of course, an autopsy. Now the police were in a race against the media. They wanted to let Kelsey's family know before they saw it on the news. And at 2 p.m., Greg and Missy were at home when they received that call from the police department. The police officer said that there was a breakthrough, and they were coming by with the news. Greg asked, "Is this something that we need to brace for?" And the officer responded with, "Yes, you better brace." Greg and Missy waited in agony. But within just a few minutes, the officer was there in their driveway, and he said that they recovered Kelsey's body. And Missy started screaming. She just kept saying, "Not my Kels." They were devastated. Their entire world had been ripped apart. Stevie pulled up and saw her parents sitting on the back of her dad's pickup truck, just bawling their eyes out. She'd never seen her dad cry like that before and she just lost it. And she dropped the ground and she screamed, "No." Over and over again, she couldn't even walk. John's parents also got there and they heard the news and John learned soon after this. When he saw his dad cry, it heard even more. But the long search for Kelsey was finally over. But now started the long search for justice. Kelsey's body was identified at 3 p.m., and Chief Douglas held a 4 p.m. press conference to reveal their next steps in the case. Douglas said there were still no suspects, but they had received over 500 tips in the past few days and they were interviewing numerous people, hoping that it would lead to a result in justice for this family. The only person of interest was the man in the white shirt in the surveillance footage. They wanted to know if anyone could connect him to a Chevy pickup truck. And with the help of the Missouri police, who were involved because Kelsey was found over state lines, they amassed a list of people with longer criminal records who lived near Grandview. Someone called with a tip about someone who lived two miles from where her body had been hidden and he was labeled a person of interest. Greg even spoke at press conferences. And he thanked everyone for helping with this investigation. He said Kelsey was deeply loved and that she was now home in heaven. He asked the community to keep the Smith family in their prayers. In the meanwhile, the forensic pathology examinations began and medical examiner Mary Dudley worked hard to determine the manner and cause of Kelsey's death. When her autopsy eventually did come back, it was very clear what had happened. Kelsey had fought, she fought hard to survive. She had bruises all over her hands and her cause of death was strangulation. Her killer had used a nylon belt that was found in her car as part of her movie theater job uniform and they used that to strangle her. She'd actually been strangled over and over again with this belt just enough until she lost consciousness and then she would be brought back to being conscious. And I can only imagine the horror she was going through until she eventually passed away. The nylon belt was still around her neck and the marks cut deep. Strangulation is horrible, it takes a while and she was probably so confused and terrified. Knowing Kelsey had been found without her clothing, the medical examiner confirmed that she had been targeted by a male perpetrator. She had been violated both vaginally and annually and likely while she was still alive. Whoever did this, tried to take away her power and completely erase all DNA evidence with that bleach, but let's face it, it would be really hard to destroy all of the evidence after an attack like this. When Missy and Greg found out about all of this, they felt completely sick and they chose not to look at any images and I don't blame them. Seeing a daughter or a sister like that would haunt you forever. From what they could tell, whoever had killed Kelsey, they didn't know her. The nature of her injuries were severe but they were not overkill. She was targeted in that target store at random. She was kidnapped and killed in a very short amount of time. So even if her family had gotten those cell phone records from Verizon on the second, they probably wouldn't have been able to save her. But they had spent four terrifying days spending every waking hours searching for their daughter. They could have been spared some of that grief, had Verizon just helped them locate her sooner. And they still had so many questions. Had Kelsey been driven to the second location or did she drive there herself? In what circumstance would she willingly drive to another location? Because Greg had always warned her, never drive to a second location. If you are attacked in public, you have to fight to stay in the public. And I wondered about this too. It kind of baffled me. I thought about it again and again, picturing how he subdued her. I understand being pushed into her vehicle, but how did he keep her there? I thought about her being able to possibly get out of the passenger's side. Every scenario went through my head, but there wasn't any way for me to know. I had to figure it out and you will too. How do you knock her out? Had he had a weapon of some kind? While Kelsey's siblings and boyfriend were deeply affected by this news. you can imagine. When Kelsey had talked about death in a passage on, she said that she wanted her funeral to be a celebration. He was devastated that he couldn't spend the rest of his life with her like he intended. Greg said that Kelsey's little brother, Zach, who was only 10, spent a lot of time playing video games before Kelsey's celebration of life. It didn't sink in what had happened to his older sister. He would always take in care of him, that she was truly gone. It wasn't until the private visitation that it really hit them. Kelsey's service was held on June 12th at Hillcrest Covenant Church, and over 800 people came to honor her life. Everyone wore blue. At the service, they played her favorite songs and her father made a speech. He said he was thankful for Kelsey's army and that Kelsey lived more in 18 years than many people do with a great deal more time. Kelsey's friend Megan didn't know how she was going to cope with going to college that next big step without her best friend by her side. And John was going through a living nightmare. I mean, he had been talking to Kelsey about marriage and children. He told Fox News that she was my fish from that ocean. She was so perfect for me. I can't imagine what he must have been going through. Buying a promise ring about to surprise her. The only comfort was that Kelsey might be watching all this from heaven and that the person who killed her was behind bars. And I know you're probably thinking, wait a minute, behind bars, who? Well, I want to take you back to June 6th before Kelsey's body was found. Remember how I told you that morning the police had put out that video of the perpetrator's dark Chevy truck? I also let you know that one of the tips came in from a couple providing the name Jack and an address. On that Wednesday morning, 30-year-old Cameron Miegas and his wife Debbie were watching the news. They had spent the last few days laughing about how their next-door neighbor Jack looks similar to the guy on the target footage. But the guy was harmless. Cameron actually hung out with him on Monday with his son since their kids were similar in age. Cameron's was three and Jack's was four. And they liked to play together. But as the couple watched the video and then they looked outside, their laughter was silent. Outside Jack's house was that dark Chevy pickup truck. They debated what to do and they decided to call in to the tip line. An officer Black who had been taking care of the list of leads and potential suspects had gotten a couple calls about a guy named Jack over the last few days. But they never got a last name or an address. So they weren't able to follow up. But finally, they now had an address. Meanwhile, the police get a call from a local lawyer who explains that his client Edwin, a different name here, was the person in the footage. But that he knows nothing about the incident involving the young girl. But he's willing to come down to the station with this lawyer and they're gonna make their way down there. But around noon, Detective Bog Miller is driving out to this Jack's house. And that's when he sees a family of three packing their bags into the Chevy pickup truck. And Miller just had this bad feeling. He looked at that truck and it looked a lot like the truck in the video. But he couldn't be sure. He introduced himself and he asked the guy named Jack, the father. If it was him and he said, yeah, I'm Jack, but that's just my nickname. When Miller asked him for his real name, the man said it was Edwin Roy Hall. Edwin. Detective Miller was like, wait a minute, I've heard the name Edwin before. Two different calls over the past two days had mentioned a guy named Edwin who fit the description of the man in the video. They already had his driver's license and it matched the description and they try to track him down. But when Miller tried to visit him at the address that they had on file, the address was out of date. He had moved somewhere else. And now there was a guy named Jack and Edwin and they had five tips against him and counting. Speaking of, he did look a lot like the guy in the video, even though who knows? Maybe he was just an innocent bystander. But if he wasn't innocent, why didn't he respond to the interview call for people who had been at Target that day? The investigation was all over the news. He would be pretty suspicious if someone were to hear about it and not try to help with the investigation. And why was he packing, looking like he was leaving? And remember, a lawyer called saying they were Edwin's lawyer. At that moment, police called Detective Miller and relayed that message about the attorney and what he said. That's when Miller was like, I'm standing right in front of Edwin's house, watching him pack his truck. So he was instructed to stop him and take him in for questioning. And that's exactly what he did. Once at the station, 26-year-old Edwin Hall, along with his attorney, insisted he wasn't the guy who did this. He was the guy in the footage, but not the guy who took a girl from Target. His lawyer said he was willing to have Edwin provide fingerprints, photos, and a DNA sample. Because if he was innocent, it's better to roll him out. Let's quickly get it over with. While that was being processed, he agreed to sit down with his attorney for an interview. During the first two hours, it was all about establishing whether he was the man on the footage. And if that Chevy truck was his truck, he acknowledged he had been at them all that day. And so they pressed him about why. He said he was shopping for his wife and that he was the one on the Target surveillance footage. He was the one leaving the store right before Kelsey. But when Miller showed him pictures of Kelsey, he said he had never seen her in his entire life. Meanwhile, Detective Miller was getting paged by his supervisor so he kept stepping out to call him. And the supervisor was giving him a lead every time. And he had one from a woman from the mall. He was there the same day that Kelsey went missing. And this woman identified the man in the footage as a strange guy that kept asking her really weird questions and following her around. OK, that's interesting. But it doesn't prove that he killed anyone. But what was weird to the detective is that if Edwin was the man in the Target video, that meant he was literally following Kelsey around the store. So he had to have seen her. And he had to be hiding something. Detective Miller just had to get him to admit it, to say that he'd seen her and that he had taken her. So he resorted to something kind of gross. It's an interview tactic. He started doing what they refer to as locker room talk. I'm sure you know what I'm getting at. Detective Miller was trying to get him to talk about how pretty Kelsey was, that she was just this attractive young lady. And that she would have definitely called his eye if he was at Target that day. I know, but he had to do what he had to do. And Edwin couldn't help himself. He eventually said, you know what, yeah, you're right. I did see her. Yeah, she had nice legs. But I thought she was 12. So I left and I never saw her again. He thought she was 12 and that she had nice legs. That's something a predator would say right there. An detective Miller knew he was in the presence of a killer. But he just needed to prove it. He asked why Edwin lied at the beginning of the interview and said he had never seen Kelsey. But Edwin didn't have an answer. By 1 p.m. partway through the interview, the department received two calls. The first was that Kelsey's body had been found and that she was a victim of a homicide. And the second was from a waitress at the on the border Mexican restaurant in Oak Park Mall. This waitress was calling in with a tip. She said on the afternoon of June 2, the day Kelsey was murdered. She had been working at that restaurant when a guy matching the same description as the guy in the white shirt on the target footage sat in her section. Not only had he harassed her while he was there, he left without paying petty theft, sure. A detective Miller was relieved because he was getting annoyed with Edwin. Edwin was pissing him off his words because he was so smug, he acted like he knew it all. And this was enough reason to arrest Edwin while police processed those fingerprints. Detective Miller told Edwin he was under arrest for what they called dining and dashing and they read him his Miranda rights. You won't believe this, but maybe will. He laughed and he said, "I'ma be out of jail in 48 hours "'cause he genuinely thought he could get away with this." He thought he was smarter than all the police officers because remember, he poured bleach over Kelsey's body to get rid of the evidence. But of course, just when Detective Miller sent Edwin off to jail for his five finger discount on that meal, the fingerprint results came back. The one fingerprint in Kelsey's car was a match to Edwin Hall. He was outside in handcuffs, he was about to drive away and Miller ran outside to read him as additional charges. I'm trying to imagine this. Officer Miller just running out there waving his arm, saying, "Stop, stop, he did it." Edwin said. thumbprint perfectly matched up with the print that they found on the C-belt clip of Kelsey's car. They got him. And the rest of the day, the police were just wrapping up loose ends. That's why at that press conference, they never revealed to the public who had committed the crime. The perpetrator was arrested on the 6th and charged in Johnson County Court for murder and kidnapping. His release bond was set at $5 million, which is a lot of money, and he faced up to life and present. But the very next day, when the public found out about his arrest, John and Kelsey's family said the grieving process was a little easier. But the investigation wasn't over yet. Police had to find enough evidence to convince a jury. And one fingerprint was not going to suffice. When a couple reported that they had been walking around Longview Lake on the morning of June 3rd, when a guy that matched Edwin's description came walking out of the woods, he was carrying a blue duffle bag and walking towards his pickup truck, which is parked near the trailhead entrance. In the truck bed, they noticed a bunch of bear branches, which they thought were weird. When they asked him what he was up to, which is pretty brave, he said that he was a photographer and had been shooting out in the woods. This seemed like a reasonable answer at the time, but what project required a photographer to collect a bunch of weird branches and actually string them together? They vividly remembered this conversation. The police determined this must have been when he went back there and tried to pour bleach all over the evidence. Kelsey's pink top was almost completely white. And they could tell that it was used to do some scrubbing, and I don't even want to think about how disturbing that is. The Missouri police looked into another disappearance case from May 4th, 2007, 17-year-old Kara Kupetskiy. She had gone missing a month before from Belton, Missouri, only six miles. From the place they had tracked down Kelsey's phone. Chief Douglas said that the cases might be related, but eventually was uncovered that Kara was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, not Edwin. But Edwin did have a history of crime. He was born on October 18th in 1980, making him 26 when he murdered Kelsey Smith. Since Greg and Missy prefer not to use his name, they just don't want to hear it and I understand why they just call him the suspect and their interviews, I'm going to try to use his name as little as possible because it's important to me that when you're done watching, you remember the important names and his is not one of them. The perpetrator grew up outside of Kansas City, Missouri. Only four blocks from the long-view lake where Kelsey's body had been found. He been adopted by a woman named Carol Hall when he was only seven. As a child, he threatened his adoptive sister with a knife. He ran at his next door neighbor with a baseball bat and went to juvenile detention. Carol didn't want to have to send him back to the state, but she felt that she had no choice, so she did. When she found out that this boy, who she had adopted at one point, was involved in Kelsey's murder, she was shocked and sick to her stomach, but it became clear to her after speaking with him that he had done it. The perpetrator moved around a lot after he turned 18 and then started a long history of harassing and attacking women in public. He would give waitresses a really hard time. He would use fake wallet when he went places. He would go up to random women at the mall and say weird things to them. This is actually how he met his wife, Aliza, when he was 19. By 2007, they were married and they had a four-year-old son. Unlooks alone, this is one of those times when looks can really be deceiving. You can never tell how evil someone is from the outside. In July 2004, he had a "consensual sexual relationship" with a 14-year-old girl. She was charged for it but never faced any legal consequences, don't ask me why. Why is it that people who have a history of crime somehow keep getting away with things? It makes me upset. In the weeks before Kelsey was killed, her killer had hit and attacked a woman at both River City Market and Westridge Middle School. Another woman had called the cops on him, he had grabbed her outside of a car door and threatened to kill her with a gun. She hadn't opened her driver's side door yet, so she was able to fight him against the door and get away. After she saw him on the news, she called the police to say that this was the same man who had jumped her. He had spent months premeditating this murder because each time his violence kept escalating, but because he was a stranger to all of these women, police didn't know how to find him. There were also other indications of violence in little innocuous things that he did on his social media account, it was 2007, MySpace was the rage, his MySpace was under the name Jack and linked back to his wife's. In the bio, it said his favorite activities included eating small children and harming small animals. I don't see how that's funny, it's just going a little too far if you ask me. He also had Celtic signs in his basement, and supposedly he named his son a name that meant from the fiery pits of hell. This got a warrant to search his home, and they did think he was part of some kind of satanic cult. This also explained that woven mat of sticks that covered Kelsey's body. They were woven in a shape that looked similar to a pentagram, and it was speculated that her murder was some kind of sacrifice. Was he the suspect of a depraved mind or was this a calculated killer? Did it matter? The police also got a search warrant for his truck. On June 8th, they were able to look through all this stuff he had packed into the bed of that truck. When they opened it up, there was a set of clothes in there, a white shirt, black shorts, and a pair of shoes. And when they sent them in for DNA testing, guess what? They thought they were going to be washed, but they weren't. They had been perfectly preserved. For some reason, he had not destroyed all of the evidence. The other thing the police found in his truck was an air soft gun. Now this gun looked like an actual firearm, but it doesn't do damage, not like a real gun. They took the gun in for testing, and now it started to make sense to me at this point because remember, we couldn't have figured out how he was able to control Kelsey. Investigators then get a hold of Edwin's cell phone, and they found out that the night of June 2nd, he had made a call to a nurse's hotline listen to this. When they requested the medical records to turn out, he had asked a nurse over the phone how to remove a tick from his body, recall the Kelsey's body having covered in ticks. Well, they were the same tick that Edwin had gotten while he was in that tall grass near Longview Lake. He had not managed to get all of them off of his body. Another one was found when he went to jail. Police went through as much oak park mall footage as possible, since the suspect admitted to spending most of the afternoon there shopping for his wife, and they found footage from that restaurant it told you about called on the border where he ate and then didn't pay. It didn't look like he had any money on him because he didn't buy anything from the places he went. He just kept going up to random women and making them feel uncomfortable. After leaving the dillard store at 5.50pm, that's when he went to Target. He was searching for a victim. And apparently, he attempted to attack someone outside of her car, but was not successful. The next time, he waited and he waited for Kelsey to open that driver's side door. And he shoved her inside and he commanded her to drive. He didn't want her to be able to fight back and he wanted to get her out of the public as soon as possible. 16 seconds. That's how long this whole thing took and it scares me so much. Kelsey was your average All-American girl. She was just running an errand. The next time we're at Target, you know we're going to think about this. I know what's going to be in my head. The reason Edwin had been packing to leave with his family was because when he went to work, someone was watching TV in the break room and they saw a Chevy and they said, "Hey, that looks like your car." And Edwin started to panic. He told his boss he was sick and he left. If he had actually managed to get out of town before the police arrested him, who knows how long it would have taken to solve this crime? He even spent the rest of that afternoon at the library, googling lawyers, and he ended up hiring one, the one who called the police saying Edwin was innocent. The next few months were really hard for the Smith family. They were still trying to seek justice in their own way. Within a month of her death, Greg and Missy started the Kelsey Smith Foundation, an organization that serves the community through safety seminars and classes that teach women and men about things like self-defense and protecting yourself when you're on a date with someone you don't know. Greg and Missy got so involved with this foundation in passing actual legislation that they found it hard to be fully present for their younger children, Cody and Zach. Greg said quote, "Our kids were frank enough at times to say, 'Hey, we're here, too. She's not here anymore, but we're here, especially in those early days.' We were so driven to try to do things that we probably did not pay much attention to those that were here." And I think that everyone craves in their own way and it was awesome. hard situation for everyone. The kids too had to deal with such a huge hole in their life. Kelsey had filled the role of older, middle, and youngest kid. She was the center of everything. Stevie and Lindsay had a slightly easier time adjusting to not seeing her every day, but Cody and Zach really struggled. Of course, John also felt like his life had been shattered. He went from spending every single day at the Smiths to not going over there at all, because it was too hard to be there without Kelsey. Missy eventually sat down with him and had a conversation about the relationship. She said it's okay if he wasn't able to have a close relationship with them anymore. The Kelsey would have wanted him to move forward, not move on, but move forward and keep moving. Greg and Missy went to speak with the president of Verizon about the four days that they spent waiting in the dark. They had a meeting with him and three other employees that just happened to all the lawyers. And Missy was pretty upset. She didn't want to sue. She wanted justice for the miscommunication issue and to ensure that something like this never happened again. She explained to the Verizon president everything that happened that she called and that her daughter was missing and to ping her phone. The lawyers explained they should have just said locate and set a ping as if it were that easy. They said it was just human error and denied doing anything wrong. Well, Missy didn't blame the representatives. She wanted a policy change. What if another emergency happened and they refused to ping a phone? Coincidentally, or maybe not, only three weeks later when Missy called back to speak with his president again, they said that he had left the company. Interesting. So Missy and Greg came up with their own legislation to require Verizon and other phone companies to provide information. In this act, if someone is in an emergency or in danger of death, telecommunication companies are required to help the police locate their phone. And now, because phones have GPS, they can actually be pinged. It also stipulates that cellphone companies cannot be sued for providing information in an emergency. A few months after Kelsey's death, all of those DNA results came back from her Buick and from the clothes found in the Chevy. In her car, they found Greg's DNA from the time he had driven around in his daughter's car a few days before her murder. They found John's DNA on a water bottle, but they found Edwin's DNA on the steering wheel and on the driver's side seat belt. And in terms of Kelsey's DNA, some of her DNA was actually found inside the zipper of the unwashed pair of shorts from the perpetrator. There was also blood stain on the perpetrator's shoes. And the Kansas City star said that Kelsey could not be excluded as a match. Lastly, her DNA had also been found on the very tip of the Airsoft gun. Investigators determined that that DNA was probably from saliva. This monster must have shoved the gun in her mouth and threatened to kill her if she'd incorporate that's how we got her under his control. Kelsey had no idea it was not a real gun. She'd never seen one before, and it happened so fast in 16 seconds. For the next year, the prosecution and defense did the usual process of gathering evidence. This case was unique because there was an option to try him in Kansas, in Missouri, or at a federal level. While all of these options had the death penalty for capital murder, it was most likely that if a suspect was tried at the federal level, he would be executed. Right before one of the routine hearings where all the attorneys argued over who got the case, Greg and Missy went to talk to the federal district attorney in Washington, D.C. Edwin's defense Carl Cornwell heard the news, and he was scared that a suspect would be tried at the federal level. So Carl decided that he was going to try to get him a life sentence and have him plead guilty. So on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008, at a standard hearing, two months before the trial was supposed to happen, the perpetrator pleaded guilty to aggravate a kidnapping in her course without consent, criminal saw to me, and premeditated first-degree murder. With this plea, he was required to give a full confession. He admitted he was looking for a victim all day that day. He noticed Kelsey at Target and was aware that she wasn't paying attention as she walked through the store, and he said that evil quote got the better of him, end quote. He called her a crime of opportunity. He had purposely left the store before her, so he could pick up that airsoft gun, and he rushed up behind her with that gun, trying to catch her right before she opened her driver's side door. Then he showed her in her car, and he pulled up the front seat and got behind her, and then he held the gun to the back of her head and threatened to shoot her, if she didn't drive, where he told her to go. All the while, he promised he wouldn't hurt her, and he strung her along, saying that everything was going to be okay. As long as she listened to what he said, he said he was going to let her go, but instead, he instructed her to drive out to that densely wooded area and walk to where her body was eventually found. He bit the gun in her mouth and also held it to the back of her head in order to force her to do what he said to do. That's when she began to put up a fight, but she was no match for him. He eventually rendered her unconscious as he took advantage of her, as she drifted awake from time to time and was again strangled until he was done with her, and he squeezed her last breath out of her body. He actually spoke through tears at this hearing. He said, "I can't find the right words to say today. I'm so sorry for what I've done. That's it. That's all I have to say." End quote. Kelsey's father said, "I don't know how sincere he was, but it really doesn't matter. It doesn't change anything." End quote. Before his sentencing, his charges increased to capital murder. While the charges have aggravated indecent liberties with the 14-year-old were actually dismissed, but he was going to rot in prison anyway. His attorney actually tried to make the judge have some pity on him, saying that he had been repeatedly sexually violated before he turned the age of six more times than you can count on your hands and that it was done by his blood relatives. He went on to explain, "This is not an excuse for what he did to Kelsey, but it's an explanation for how his life spun so terribly out of control by June 2nd, 2007." While Kelsey's mother had a public response to that, as a victim impact statement, she said, "I know what it's like to grow up with alcoholic parents. I know what it's like to grow up in an abuse of home. I know what it's like to grow up in a single parent household that is so poor you receive public assistance and go without electricity. I know what it's like to be, and I'm just going to say forced to do inappropriate things as a child. I think you know what she meant. I know what it's like to be a victim of forced intercourse. I know what it's like to be a teen mother, but I also know that life is about choices. When does one have to take responsibility for their own life?" End quote. The perpetrator was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on September 18th. Greg and Missy, who were at the hearing, were glad that they didn't have to go through an entire trial and see all of those pictures. It was over. Kelsey will live on in their memories. In 2009, Greg and Missy successfully passed the legislation that required phone companies to give phone locations and emergencies. The Kansas Senators called it the Kelsey Smith Act. Since then, 30 states have adopted this act. Dozens of people have been saved including several kidnapped children and people who were injured when they tried to die by taking their own life. Greg and Missy are still fighting to get the Kelsey Smith Act passed at the federal level or at least in every state. They know that Kelsey would have gotten it done by now. She would have got right up in the Senators' faces and said, "Come on, let's get it done." Today, she would be 34 years old. Maybe she'd been married. Maybe she'd be a musician, a veterinarian. We don't know, but I bet she would have been great at whatever she chose to do. She truly was the best role model, sister, girlfriend, friend, and daughter. Remember everything that you've learned about Kelsey. Let that be her legacy. Let that be how she's always remembered and not for what this monster took away from her. I'm so sorry to her family, and I hope you will always remember her. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you in my next video. Bye.