Cold Cases in Kansas
ColdCaseIndex documents 4 cases in Kansas, dated 1974 to 2004. 2 are recorded as unsolved. The earliest is Otero Family Murders (1974) and the most recent is Alonzo Brooks (2004).
- Unsolved 2 (50%)
- Solved or convicted 2 (50%)
Homicide clearance in Kansas, 1965 to 2024
A homicide is "cleared" when police make an arrest or close it by exceptional means, so an uncleared case is not always an unsolved one. Source: Murder Accountability Project analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Report data, as published by Project: Cold Case. These are statewide totals and are separate from the ColdCaseIndex entries listed below.
By type
All Kansas cases
Alonzo Brooks
Alonzo Brooks, a 23-year-old man, disappeared after a party at a rural farmhouse near La Cygne, Kansas, in April 2004; his body was found weeks later in a nearby creek.
Randy Leach
Randy Wayne Leach, a 17-year-old high school senior from Linwood, Kansas, disappeared in the early morning hours of April 16, 1988, after attending a pre-graduation party in rural Leavenworth County.
BTK Killer Victims
Dennis Rader, known as BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill), murdered 10 people in and around Wichita, Kansas between 1974 and 1991. He taunted police and media for decades.
Otero Family Murders
Joseph and Julie Otero and two of their children, Josephine, 11, and Joseph II, 9, were killed in their Wichita home on January 15, 1974, the first murders by the offender who called himself BTK.