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| Artist Drawing of I-70 Killer |
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Suspect Still A Mystery In Raytown, MO Homicide
Thursday, May 7, 1992, was 37-year-old Sarah Blessing’s last
day alive. She had no idea that before
the sun set that evening, she would become the last known victim of a
systematic murderer known as the I-70 serial killer.
The morning started out normal for Blessing when she awoke
at 7:30 a.m., fed her pets, ate a breakfast of fresh fruit, and drove to
ailing friend Karen Winney’s house for a weekly visit.
According to Winney, the two women discussed spirituality,
heaven and people who had recently passed away.
Blessing even gave Winney a tape about a woman who survived a terrifying
kidnapping ordeal by reading to her abductor from the Bible.
Between 11:00 and 11:30 a.m., Blessing arrived home, packed herself
a lunch and then headed to work at The Shop of Many Colors, a store owned and
operated by Blessing and five friends in Raytown, Missouri’s Woodson Village
Shopping Center, on the southern edge of Kansas City.
Only open for about a month, Sarah sold herbs, clean water
machines, and miniature exercise trampolines at the eclectic store along with
other merchandise focused on enhancing physical and spiritual well-being.
At approximately 2:12 p.m., Sarah’s husband, Sonny, called
her, and they had a brief discussion. It
was the last conversation he would ever have with his wife.
By 6:15 p.m., Sarah was in the store alone when a man
wearing a gray sports coat, slacks, and dress shoes strolled across the large
parking lot toward The Shop of Many Colors.
He stood out to witnesses because most people drove to the popular
strip mall and parked their vehicles near the stores they frequented instead of
strolling across the expansive parking lot on foot.
Roughly 15 minutes later, video store owner Tim Hickman, whose
shop was next to Blessing’s, heard a loud pop that sounded like a gunshot. When he went to investigate the disturbing
noise, he found Blessing in a back room of her store, dead from a gunshot wound
to the head. She had not been sexually
assaulted and only a small amount of cash was taken from the register.
Soon after, a grocery store worker gathering carts in the parking
lot observed the same stranger as he turned the corner of the strip mall and
headed northeast in the direction of a large hill that led to Woodson Road.
Witnesses also reported seeing the same suspect walking east
down 59th Street approximately 10 minutes later. At that time, the stranger was about three
miles south of I-70.
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| The murder location in Raytown, MO as it appears today, operating as a hair salon. The hill leading to Woodson Road can be seen in the background. |
Law enforcement eventually linked this shocking crime to the
I-70 serial killer through shell casings left behind at the scene. This cold-blooded assassin was also connected
to the murders of Robin Fuldauer, 26, at a Payless shoe store in
Indianapolis, IN; Patricia Magers, 32, and Patricia Smith, 23, at La Bridal
shop in Wichita, KS; Michael McCown, 40, at Sylvia’s Ceramics in Terra Haute,
IN., and Nancy Kitzmiller, 24, at Boot Village in St. Charles, MO.
The crimes all happened between April and May 1992, occurred
in small shops with only one or two clerks on duty, and within a short distance
of either Interstate I-70 or I-35.
The motive itself has never really been clear since none of
the stores had large amounts of money, and there appeared to be no motive other
than possible “thrill killing.”
The perpetrator left very little physical evidence behind
and the hundreds of once promising leads have long since been exhausted. Twenty years later, all of the crimes remain
unsolved.
Recently, law enforcement shared new evidence with the
public in hopes of reviving the cases and jogging anyone’s memory of the
terrible crimes. They believe, based on
ballistic evidence and witness statements, that the murder weapon could possibly
be an Intratec Scorpion or an Erma Werke Model ET 22. The ammunition used was CCI brand .22-caliber
long rifle, copper clad lead bullets.
Police have also now shared that Corundum, an industrial
abrasive, and rouge, used as an industrial polish, were found on the shell
casings. These substances are often used
on firearms, and it is possible that the killer was living or working at the
time somewhere where grinding, buffing, or polishing of weapons occurred, possibly
with a buffing or grinding wheel.
In 1992, the suspect was described by witnesses as
a white male, in his mid 20s to mid 30s, approximately 5-foot 7-inches tall,
and weighing between 140 to 160 pounds.
He had a slender to medium build, with short light brown to auburn
(reddish) hair, and beard stubble on his face.
After Blessing’s murder, the serial
killer’s crime spree seemed to stop and he vanished into ambiguous infamy. By now, he would now probably be in his
50s. Why he has never been linked to any
more crimes is unknown. He could be
dead, in jail, or still in hiding after all this time.
Twenty years later, the Raytown
homicide and all of the other linked cases remain open, and police are still
waiting for any lead or clue that would finally solve these mysterious
murders.
Information can be called in to the TIPS hotline
at 816-474-TIPS.
