Massive search underway for abducted teen in Iowa Kathlynn Shepard 5/20/13 BODY FOUND

[cw618]

Massive search underway for abducted teen in Iowa
By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ | Associated Press – 5 hrs ago


This photo provided by The Iowa Department of Public Safety shows Kathlynn Shepard, 15

 
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A 15-year-old central Iowa girl who was abducted after getting off her school bus was still missing Tuesday, and authorities said a massive search was underway. Meanwhile, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said the man who is suspected of taking her and another girl committed suicide.
 
Dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement officials are searching by air, land and water for Kathlynn Shepard. She and a 12-year-old girl, who are friends, were taken Monday afternoon shortly after stepping off a school bus in Dayton, about 60 miles north of Des Moines. The younger girl, who was later able to escape, told authorities the girls had accepted a ride from a stranger.

DCI Special Agent Bill Kietzman said Tuesday that the body of 42-year-old suspect Michael Klunder was found Monday night with a red Toyota Tundra pickup at a rural property northeast of Dayton.

more
http://news.yahoo.com/massive-search-underway-abducted-teen-iowa-210027444.html

[cw618]

i think this is the RSO,who committed suicide
http://www.homefacts.com/offender-detail/IA110164058/Michael-James-Klunder.html

his listed addy is in  Stratford, IA 50249,about 100 mile from Evansdale, IA

  from above link 1st post
Klunder is listed on the state's sex offender registry, prison records show. He spent several years in prison after being convicted on kidnapping and assault charges, including the 1991 abduction and assault of a Rudd woman and the kidnapping of two toddlers from an apartment complex in Charles City, according to the Mason City Globe Gazette. The girls, both 3, were found alive inside a dumpster.
 
He was released from a work release program in February 2011.
 
The abduction comes less than a year after the high-profile disappearance of two cousins in Evansdale, about 90 miles east of Dayton. Lyric Cook, 10, and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins disappeared while riding their bikes last July. Hunters found their bodies in a remote, wooded area in December.
 
Evansdale Police Chief Kent Smock said investigators were looking into whether Klunder was involved in Lyric and Elizabeth's kidnappings and deaths. DCI and FBI agents who have been involved in the search for the Evansdale girls have been dispatched to help search for Kathlynn.
 
Smock said investigators were trying to determine whether Klunder had any ties to the area.
more
http://news.yahoo.com/massive-search-underway-abducted-teen-iowa-210027444.html

[cw618]

his listed addy is in  Stratford, IA 50249,about 100 mile from Evansdale, IA
map
http://goo.gl/maps/3wEvs

[Green Eyes]

Why oh why would they accept a ride from a stranger?  I prayer they find Kathlynn safe. It doesn't sound good since the suspect was found dead.

[cw618]

Why oh why would they accept a ride from a stranger?  I prayer they find Kathlynn safe. It doesn't sound good since the suspect was found dead.

i was thinking the same thing,small town trusting?
Dayton is a city in Webster County, Iowa, United States. The population was 837 at the 2010 census. Wikipedia
dayton ia
http://goo.gl/maps/ZIsJg

[cw618]

if Kathlynn, is hurt and cant get around very well, and he left her in here
it could take awhile to find her

near his home
Boones Forks Wildlife Management Area
http://goo.gl/maps/uXzvD
zoomed out big area
http://goo.gl/maps/GGTm1

[Green Eyes]

Why oh why would they accept a ride from a stranger?  I prayer they find Kathlynn safe. It doesn't sound good since the suspect was found dead.

i was thinking the same thing,small town trusting?
Dayton is a city in Webster County, Iowa, United States. The population was 837 at the 2010 census. Wikipedia
dayton ia
http://goo.gl/maps/ZIsJg

Small communities are far more trusting. As everybody knew everybody. But they are also more leery of strangers than bigger communities.  Young people just don't believe it will happen to them. So sad.

[Nut44x4]

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&LanguageCountry=en_US&searchLang=en_US&caseLang=en_US&orgPrefix=NCMC&caseNum=1216295&seqNum=1

[klaasend]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/viewart/20130522/NEWS/130522023/Photo-shows-Kathlynn-Shepard-moments-before-kidnapping



Photo shows Kathlynn Shepard moments before kidnapping
May 22, 2013 12:23 PM   |  

DAYTON, Ia. -- Officers late on Tuesday found two backpacks and a purse belonging to two girls kidnapped this week after they stepped off of a school bus, officials said this afternoon.

Police today also released an image of the missing teen, Kathlynn Shepard, 15, wearing a Cubs baseball cap on the school bus shortly before she was abducted Monday afternoon.

The backpacks and purse were found by officers and search dogs on the 400 block of Kale Road in Fraser, a town along the Des Moines River next to a wooded state park. The town is about 15 miles south of where the girls were taken Monday afternoon, and about 8 miles south of a hog confinement facility where one of the girls escaped.

The 12-year-old girl who escaped remains unidentified by police, who say she slipped away from a hog confinement facility several miles southeast of Dayton, a town of about 800 people in north-central Iowa.

 

[klaasend]

http://www.kwqc.com/story/22314034/15-year-old
   

Update-Statement from the Shepard family 5-22-13:

"We would like to thank everybody who took the time from their busy lives to help search for Kathlynn. To see so much love in our community and the surrounding areas is amazing. Thank you for all of your prayers and we hope to have Kathlynn home soon. "We know that members of the public and media want to talk to us. Please understand, the idea of doing an interview is too overwhelming right now. Until Kathlynn is found, we'll remain focused on our family and ask that any requests for information or comment be directed to the DCI."

-From the family of Kathlynn Shepard

[MuffyBee]

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Iowa-kidnapping-suspect-probed-in-cousins-deaths-4542951.php
Iowa kidnapping suspect probed in cousins' deaths
May, 23, 2013

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The man suspected of kidnapping a still-missing 15-year-old Iowa girl and her friend as they walked home from school is being scrutinized in last year's unsolved kidnapping of two young cousins whose bodies were found 100 miles away.

One reason investigators are interested: It's extremely rare to abduct multiple children at once, and police say Michael J. Klunder has done that at least twice.

Investigators were scouring an area in central Iowa Thursday in their search for Kathlynn Shepard, who along with a 12-year-old friend disappeared Monday. The younger girl was able to escape and told investigators she and Kathlynn had accepted a ride from a stranger.

Authorities say that stranger was Klunder, who spent two decades in prison after kidnapping two 3-year-old girls and a 21-year-old woman in 1991. He committed suicide Monday night.

Police Chief Kent Smock of Evansdale — where cousins Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins vanished while riding their bikes last July — said stranger abductions involving more than one child being taken at the same time are "very, very rare." He said the similarities between the two Iowa cases have captured the attention of local, state and federal agents looking for the cousins' killer.

"They're looking into it and keeping us updated," Tammy Brousseau, the cousins' aunt, said Thursday. "I really hope that it's him. My fear all along was that this person was out there and could harm another child. Now we have another missing little girl, and I really do hope that it's him."

Meanwhile, the 12-year-old who survived Monday's abduction relayed her story to the local newspaper, the Dayton Leader, and Iowa Public Radio. She said she wanted her friend to be found alive.

She said Klunder asked them if they wanted to make money mowing lawns and promised to give them a ride home so they could ask their parents. She said she knew something was wrong when they ended up at a hog confinement.

She said she escaped Klunder's pickup truck when he took Kathlynn to another part of the property, explaining that she ran through the woods and past a cemetery until she found farmers and called for help.

Lyric and Elizabeth, who were 10 and 8 when they disappeared, were found dead in a wooded wildlife area in Bremer County in December, about 25 miles from where they were last seen. Smock acknowledged investigators were aware of Klunder's ties to the county, where Klunder once lived in a home for troubled youth.

"We're looking under every log, every rock, everything that could lead to a connection or disconnection," he said.

Police allege that Klunder, 42, convinced Kathlynn and her friend to get into his pickup truck while they were walking home after exiting a school bus in Dayton, a town about 60 miles north of Des Moines. Klunder took the girls to a hog confinement building where he worked, and the 12-year-old girl escaped through the woods.

Klunder was found dead of self-inflicted injuries hours later, at the site of another agricultural operation where he worked.

Teams of officers were searching for Kathlynn near an area where the girls' backpacks were found Tuesday and other locations, said Lt. Robert Hansen of the Iowa Department of Public Safety. He said 60 volunteers, horses, all-terrain vehicles, boats canvassing the Des Moines River and police dogs were also part of the effort.

Investigators said they would provide new information Thursday afternoon about evidence found during the search.

Klunder was convicted in the 1991 kidnappings of the toddlers in Charles City, who were found alive 50 miles away in a garbage bin, and a 21-year-old girl who he assaulted after forcing her into his car near Mason City. Klunder completed a roughly 20-year prison term in 2011 after being convicted in those cases.

"It seems that he chooses females, but the age range doesn't seem to matter. The little toddlers were only 3. The other woman was 21. These girls were 15 and 12," Brousseau said. "Our girls were 8 and 10."
More...

[grace-land]

http://www.messengernews.net/page/content.detail/id/567253/DCI--Hopes--diminished-.html?nav=5010

DCI: Hopes ‘diminished’
May 24, 2013

DAYTON - Kathlynn Shepard's blood was found inside a hog confinement where she and a 12-year-old girl were being held, authorities revealed Thursday.

Bill Kietzman, of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said DNA results also showed Shepard's blood was inside the tailgate of Michael Klunder's pickup truck.

"I'm not going to go into the quantity of blood that we found," Kietzman said during a press conference Thursday afternoon. "But she probably sustained injuries."

The DCI is also in the process of testing blood that was found on the body of Klunder, who has been identified as the suspect in the case.

"That blood has not yet been tested, but we're going to make the logical assumption that it's not him," Kietzman said.
 
An autopsy concluded Klunder committed suicide by hanging.

Despite the revelation that her blood was found, Kietzman said the DCI is still committed to finding Shepard and bringing her home to her family.

"We are not giving up hope," he said, but added that the new information means their hopes are "diminished."

"Clearly the DNA results, plus the time element, are not in our favor," he said. "But our intent is still to find Kathlynn and bring her home. That's still our goal."

Kietzman also revealed what the 12-year-old told investigators after she escaped.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.woi-tv.com/story/22420910/law-enforcement-switch-gears-in-search-for-kathlynn-shepard

Law Enforcement Switch Gears in Search for Kathlynn Shepard
Posted: May 24, 2013 9:50 PM CDT Updated: May 24, 2013 9:50 PM CDT

Fifteen year old Kathlynn Shepard has been missing since Monday.  Rescuers are still searching, but changing gears.

Searchers scour every nook and cranny of every inch of Webster, Boone and Hamilton counties.  But they aren't having much luck.  They've found the girls' backpacks, traces of Kathlynn's blood, but the 15–year–old is still out there.

So now, they're scaling back the number of volunteers and bringing in specialized skills and equipment, they're ready to cover the areas most difficult to navigate.

"You're all working for the same outcome, the same goal, so it's just a matter of using everybody that you possibly can," Webster County Sheriff said.

Starting Saturday, the area between where the backpacks were found and where the girls were first taken will be searched in detail.

Local authorities say they're thankful for the help they've received from the Department of Criminal Investigation and the FBI, because this is something they've never seen before.
 

[grace-land]

http://www.messengernews.net/page/content.detail/id/567327/Professionals-continue-the-search.html?nav=5010

Professionals continue the search
May 25, 2013

DAYTON - The search for missing 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard came up empty-handed Saturday as law enforcement conducted their first search for the teenager without citizen volunteers.
 
Saturday's search focused mostly between the hog confinement near 3023 400th St. in Pilot Mound and the 400 block of Kale Avenue, where the girls' backpacks were found.

Despite the rain Saturday morning, Dayton Police Chief Nick Dunbar said professional rescuers and law enforcement continued to come to Dayton and help look for Shepard.

"More and more are coming every minute," Dunbar said early Saturday morning.

By 3 p.m., Dunbar said rescuers hadn't found anything related to Shepard's abduction.

However, he added officers are still looking for any leads in the case.

"Even if it's something small, it can become something huge," he said. "All law enforcement agencies are still available, and we'll follow up on any leads and see where they take us."

Dunbar said a team of dogs was set to come in Saturday afternoon to help the search as well.

He added that he wasn't sure if the search was going to continue into today.

"That will greatly depend on the weather," Dunbar said. "The terrain we're searching is very difficult, which is why we only have law enforcement looking for her now. When you add that with the weather, it can affect the searches."

One of the groups searching for Shepard wasn't concerned about the rainy weather Saturday.

That organization was a statewide agency known as the Iowa Task Force. The specific unit that was sent to Dayton was the Iowa Task Force Number 1.
 

[klaasend]

http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/officials-suspend-search-for-missing-iowa-girl/-/9357080/20310336/-/14ghjrg/-/index.html


Officials suspend search for missing Iowa girl
Published  4:25 PM CDT May 26, 2013

DAYTON, Iowa (AP) — Iowa authorities have suspended the search for 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard six days after she and a 12-year-old friend were abducted on Monday.
   
The Des Moines Register reports the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation suspended the search for two days because all the places they expected to find Kathlynn have been searched several times.
   
Police believe 42-year-old Michael Klunder abducted the girls at their school bus stop in Dayton. The younger girl escaped but Kathlynn hasn't been found.
 

[klaasend]

http://whotv.com/2013/05/26/missing-kathlynn-father-thanks-supporters/

MISSING KATHLYNN: Father Thanks Supporters

Posted on: 6:58 pm, May 26, 2013, by Staff Writer

Morning rain made the search for a missing Iowa girl even harder Sunday.

15-year old Kathlynn Shepard was kidnapped Monday afternoon while on her way home from school.

The day’s search efforts involved mostly law enforcement.  They focused on difficult terrain in and around the town of Dayton.

Kathlynn’s father attended a morning breakfast and fundraiser for the family.

According to the Des Moines Register, Michael Shepard told the 100-people in attendance, “we’re going through a lot right now, but I just want to thank you for everything you’ve done for us.”

[grace-land]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20130527/NEWS/130527003/Officials-meet-Tuesday-decide-next-step-Shepard-search-no-new-leads-Sunday-night

Officials to meet Tuesday to decide next step in Shepard search, no new leads as of Sunday night
May 27, 2013 10:31 AM

DAYTON, IA. — Agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation will meet on Tuesday with Webster County and Dayton law enforcement officials to determine how to proceed with the search for missing teen Kathlynn Shepard, an agent said Monday morning.

Officers with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources are continuing to scan the Des Moines River today in their search for Shepard, said Bill Kietzman, the DCI special agent leading the investigation.
 

[Sister]

thank you grace-land for all these updates.
I am afraid it doesn't look good for Kathlynn.  But I have been wrong before and I sure hope I am wrong this time!

[grace-land]

thank you grace-land for all these updates.
I am afraid it doesn't look good for Kathlynn.  But I have been wrong before and I sure hope I am wrong this time!

You're welcome, Sister. 
After so many searches and not finding her, it doesn't look good.  It troubles me that he didn't leave a note with her location before he committed suicide.  That's so cruel to her worried family. 
 

[grace-land]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57586459-504083/kathlynn-shepard-update-investigators-regroup-in-search-for-missing-iowa-teen/

May 28, 2013 2:55 PM
Kathlynn Shepard Update: Investigators regroup in search for missing Iowa teen

 
Dayton Police Chief Nick Dunbar said investigators from several agencies met Tuesday to compare notes on the search for Kathlynn and to discuss how to proceed. He says searchers are planning to recheck some areas that have already been searched, and are also going out to new areas in the region.

Dunbar says analysts are trying to "come up with a definitive path" traveled by Michael Klunder, who authorities say committed suicide hours after kidnapping Kathlynn and a 12-year-old friend. The 12-year-old escaped at a hog confinement where the girls were taken.