KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police are investigating a fifth body found on Kansas City’s trail system. A body was found around 8 in the morning of Memorial Day, off of the Trolley Track Trail. Kansas City police announced on Monday evening that this case is a homicide.
Investigators identified the victim as 31-year-old Chase Hardin. Thus far, they do not believe this case is related to the four white men killed along Indian Creek Trail, which is a few miles south of 86th and Woodland, where the fifth body was found.
Residents who live near 85th and Woodland describe the nearby Trolley Track Trail as peaceful and quiet.
“It’s a vital for people who bring their dogs and children, and we walk,” said Katherine Halbert. “A lot of bicyclists are on that path.”
“I don’t think that particular area is anymore prone to crime than others,” Halbert continued, “except you’re isolated when you’re down there.”
But on Memorial Day, a Kansas CIty Police Department helicopter hovered over the scene. Aside from saying the man’s body was found by someone using the trail, police offered little information about the case.
However, Captain Stacey Graves says investigators do not believe it is related to the deaths of four white men who were killed on or around the Indian Creek Trail.
“The other four had similarities,” she said, “but at this time we do not believe this homicide here shares those similarities.”
The Trolley Trail is a few miles north of the Indian Creek Trail.
Coincidentally, just hours before the man’s body was found, a search party canvassed the same Trolley Trail area looking for a missing 18 year old woman. That search party looking for Desirea Ferris found nothing.
Carol Gonzalez was part of that search party: “To know that we were right there,” she said, gazing into the woods.
Gonzalez said she and about nine others were looking for Ferris, who has been missing since the first of the month.
“We searched this area yesterday,” said Gonzalez, “and a body was found this morning -that’s what’s really nerve wrecking.”
For people who live in the neighborhood, Monday’s discovery served as a reminder that even the quiet places may not always be the safe ones.
“Just so concerned for the safety of everyone in Kansas City,” said Halbert, “and the innocence of lives and the people who are just doing what they do every day.”
As of now, investigators are pointedly and deliberately saying they do not think the man’s body found on the Trolley Track Trail is connected to the four white men killed on Indian Creek Trail.
FBI is now investigating the Indian Creek Trail cases; Kansas City Police say the FBI is not involved in the Trolley Track Trail case.
