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Kansas Teen's Body Found; No Suspects

Kelsey Smith Abducted From Target Store

POSTED: 4:46 am PDT June 6, 2007
UPDATED: 3:41 pm PDT June 6, 2007

Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said Wednesday that the body of missing teenager Kelsey Smith has been found.

The 18-year-old girl's body was found in a wooded area, Douglass said. There are no suspects in the case and no arrests have been made.

Hillcrest Covenant Church director Don Mapes said two pastors from the Prairie Village, Kan., church went to the Smith home after hearing from police.

Douglass said Smith's family was on its way to the church to gather with well wishers.

The area in which Smith was found is north of the area where more than 200 federal agents, police officers and police academy students focused their search efforts for her.

Earlier, authorities said the search moved to an area around a park south of Kansas City, Mo., after pings from the teen's cell phone were picked up by cell phone towers in the area.

Police on Tuesday night released enhanced surveillance video of a pickup truck that may be connected to Smith's weekend disappearance.

Officers said they need help finding a dark-colored, mid-1970s Chevrolet pickup truck. The pickup was seen in the Target parking lot at the same time Smith was at the store at 95th Street and Quivira Road Overland Park, Kan.

The pickup was also seen at Macy's parking lot, where Smith's car was later found, police said. There was no visible license plate on the pickup, police said.

Smith, who graduated from high school less than two weeks ago, left the store at about 7:10 p.m. Saturday and put packages into her car when someone ran toward her, police said.

About two hours after Smith disappeared, her grandparents found her gray 1987 Buick in a parking lot at a nearby mall in Overland Park with her purse and packages still inside.

"You see two individuals come together, and there is no separation of those two individuals" in the video, Douglass said. "So it is easy to conclude there was some kind of incident at the back of the car. Then the car leaves."

The tape was "just not detailed enough" and was being enhanced at a forensics lab, Douglass said.

"We see activity," Douglass said of the videotape. "We are moving on the assumption -- because the prudent thing to do is to treat this as an abduction -- that there was some kind of force involved."

Anyone with information in the case can call the TIPS Hot Line at 816-474-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.

Police said they were pursuing more than 500 leads in the disappearance of Smith, which is an "extraordinarily high number for a case like this," Douglass said.

Person Of Interest Still Sought

Meanwhile, investigators said they have not identified a man they considered a person of interest in the case. Police earlier released video of Smith walking into and out of Target and of the man who was seen close to the victim.

Body found in Kelsey Smith Case -- scene photo
Police have found a body in the area where they have been looking for Kelsey Smith, who was apparently abducted in a parking lot in suburban Kansas City.

"He walked in shortly after her and left shortly before her, and is obviously parked out somewhere by her," Miller said.

Police were not calling him a suspect, but said he may have information, and they wanted to speak to him.

Reward Increased

The Smith family has increased the reward for information about their daughter's disappearance to $30,000.

Smith's father, Greg Smith, has been in law enforcement for 16 years. He earlier described his daughter as an outgoing young woman who planned to be a veterinarian.

Investigators said they don't know if Smith was picked at random or abducted by someone she knew. But Kelsey Smith's 23-year-old sister, Stevie Hockersmith, said she was sure her sister did not know the man police were seeking for questioning.

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