Kansas City, KS: Woman, two men dead in double-murder-suicide

By CHRISTINE VENDEL

The Kansas City Star

A woman, her boyfriend and his brother died in a double-murder-suicide early today inside a Kansas City house, police said.

Police were called to the home in the 5500 block of Jaudon Avenue about 5:20 a.m. A neighbor said he heard at least three gunshots, then a car “squealing its tires” as it pulled away.

Relatives said the shootings occurred in the home’s walkout basement. Other relatives, including a 4-month-old baby, the child of the woman and her boyfriend, were at home but unharmed. The baby was asleep upstairs.

Detectives interviewed several witnesses and said evidence at the scene indicated the 21-year-old boyfriend shot the 18-year-old mother of his child and his older brother before killing himself.

Police did not release the victims’ names today.

The 18-year-old woman was living in the home with her older cousin and at least six others, mostly relatives.

Walter Hill, the father of the two men killed, said his 21-year-old son often stayed at the house with his girlfriend. Hill said his son called his 25-year-old brother last night and asked him to come over because he said he was scared. Hill did not elaborate.

Hill — who said he had 14 children — lost another son in March to homicide. The body of that son was found in a trash can about five blocks from the scene of today’s killings. That case remains unsolved.

The brothers come from a “close-knit family,” said Yolanda Hill, the oldest cousin of two of today’s victims.

“We’re wanting answers,” she said. “Why does this type of situation happen?”

Hill said the family “has been struck three times in seven months now.”

The three deaths marked the second time within 36 hours that Kansas City police had been called to a scene with three bodies. Three men were shot to death in a triple homicide Sunday night inside an apartment at 901 E. Linwood Blvd.

Neighbors said the family that lives in the home on Jaudon usually kept to themselves. They were much younger than most of the residents in the area, who are mostly senior citizens.

One neighbor said several young men at the home were known to throw beer cans from the back yard and shoot guns in the air.