KC murder mystery: How are Stowers researchers, mother of 5 and dead suspect linked?

As Kansas City police closed the case on an early October double homicide in a Midtown apartment, the official word from authorities continued to leave more questions than answers about the murders of two international research scientists and the man accused of killing them, before dying himself alongside a Kansas City mother of five.

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced Thursday afternoon that KCPD investigators had identified 42-year-old Kevin Ray Moore — who died of a gunshot wound to the forehead two weeks ago — as the person responsible for the killings of Camila Behrensen, 24, of Buenos Aires and Pablo Guzman-Palma, 25, of Santiago, Chile, on Oct. 1.

Prosecutors say Moore was connected to the murders through an extensive KCPD investigation that included reviews of computer data, surveillance video, ballistics reports and DNA testing through the KCPD Crime Lab.

But the precise connection between Moore, who was found shot to death alongside 40-year-old mother Misty Brockman in a remote area on Oct. 16, and the two slain scientists — both of whom were with the Stowers Institute for Medical Research — remains a mystery.

Behrensen and Guzman-Palma were both pre-doctoral medical researchers, described by Stowers as “brilliant, promising scientists.” Behrensen had spent two years studying metabolic changes in fruit flies as part of her postdoctoral research. Palma was researching spinal cord regeneration.

The Stowers Institute said Moore had no ties to the graduate school or institute in a statement Thursday.

Also unclear is Moore’s connection to Brockman, whose friends say they have never heard of Moore and are puzzled as to how they wound up shot to death beside one another in the woods.

Brockman, a mother to five young sons, was described in a GoFundMe page as “a lover, jokester, and loyal friend to the end.” In a note added to the page Thursday, loved ones said they wanted her “to be remembered for her laughter, love and loyalty! Not for the destruction this man left in the wake of his actions.”

In an email Thursday evening, Capt. Leslie Foreman, a police spokeswoman, said the deaths of Moore and Brockman remain under investigation and that case is still open. Both were found dead on Oct. 16 in a remote part of the Northland in what authorities suspect was a murder-suicide, and that falls under the jurisdiction of Clay County.

Meanwhile, court documents filed by homicide detectives seeking authority to search through property for evidence and obtain other records provide the most detailed view of the investigation thus far. ‘

Murder-suicide in Northland

Fifteen days after Kansas City homicide opened their investigation into Guzman-Palma and Behrensen’s killings, police officers were summoned to a reported medical nature unknown in the Northland on Oct. 16.

Officers were called around 2 p.m. to N.E. 48th Street and Randolph Road and flagged down by citizens near the intersection. They were then directed into the woods.

Arriving officers found Moore and Brockman, roughly 100 yards west of Randolph Road, dead of gunshot wounds at a white car with a Missouri license plate that had its engine running.

Moore was in the passenger seat. He was “completely naked and had an apparent gunshot wound to the forehead,” the investigating detective wrote in the court document seeking permission to search the wooded area for evidence. A pistol was in plain view on the floorboard, the detective wrote.

A video recorder was also found inside the vehicle, which was described as “appear(ing) to have the capabilities for an infotainment center with possible GPS.”

Just outside the passenger door was Brockman, also shot in the head, who was naked from the waist down.

According to Clay County Circuit Court records, detectives sought warrants to search the general wooded area and the vehicle. The car was determined to be Moore’s, court documents show.

Two wallets, clothes, a purse, cosmetics, bullet fragments, and four cell phones were among the items logged on the property inventory list. Photographs were taken and swabs for DNA were collected, along with latent fingerprint impressions.

Also collected were three shell casings and a loaded firearm.

Double murder of Stowers researchers

On Oct. 1, the Kansas City Fire Department was called in response to a reported structure fire at 4140 Oak St in Apt. #4. Firefighters extinguished the blaze on the second floor of the apartment and found Behrensen and Guzman-Palma inside.

Kansas City police officers, crime scene personnel and homicide detectives were called out to investigate. In a search warrant application for the residence filed that morning, detectives noted that both victims appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds.

Despite the damage, later confirmed to be caused by arson, investigators collected several items of physical evidence from inside, including clothes, a wallet, a pillowcase and smoke detectors. Swabs for DNA and fingerprint cards were also recorded on a property inventory list filed with the court. A spent projectile was also found.

Detectives also sought recordings and other digital evidence as they sought to identify the suspect. A public call was issued for neighbors to provide any surveillance footage they might have within a several-block radius of the murder scene.

Two other search warrants were publicly available in Jackson County court records as of Thursday.

One, filed under seal on Oct. 6, sought records from T-Mobile/Sprint related to a cell phone known to authorities as Guzman-Palma’s. In an affidavit, a Jackson County assistant prosecutor and Kansas City police detective asked for call log history for the phone between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 as well as its historical location data.

Another sought any digital audio recordings stored or maintained by Amazon, Inc. through an Alexa virtual assistant discovered during a search of the home as investigators believed the suspect likely “spent a considerable amount of time” in the apartment and “there may have been verbal communication between the two victims and the suspect.”