Cops: Man Killed 2 Women 10 Years Apart

Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions vanished a decade apart
By Josh Rosenblatt,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2017 7:03 PM CDT
Cops: Man Killed 2 Women 10 Years Apart
Kylr Yust   (Kansas City Police Department)

On Thursday a 29-year-old Missouri man was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two women who disappeared nearly a decade apart, People reports. According to a probable cause statement, authorities say Kylr Yust admitted to choking Kara Kopetsky to death in 2007 after she said she wanted to end their relationship. In that same statement, Yust is said to have confessed to killing Jessica Runions in a similar fashion after leaving a party with her in September 2016. Yust has been in jail since September 2016 on charges that he burned Runions' car, per CBS News.

Yust has long been a suspect in both cases. A month before she disappeared, Kopetsky filed a protection order against him, claiming he had kidnapped her and choked her during their relationship. And Yust was the last person ever seen with Runions before she disappeared. Runions was 21 years old when she vanished, Kopetsky just 17. Yust was released from prison last February after serving time on drug charges. He has also been convicted of assault, theft, and animal cruelty after stomping a kitten and tossing it into a river. He is currently being held on $1 million bond. (More murder stories.)

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