Kansas City police find body in man’s car after towing it

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Family members and a forensic expert wonder why Kansas City police only found a man’s body in the cargo area of ​​his own SUV after towing it to a post Missouri police earlier this month.

Adam “AJ” Blackstock Jr.’s death is being investigated as a homicide, according to the Kansas City Star.

The newspaper reported that police defended their initial handling of the situation because they did not have a search warrant when they had the vehicle towed on January 17 and Blackstock had not yet been officially missing.

A forensic expert told the newspaper that police should have looked inside the vehicle before moving it.

“The idea of ​​taking a vehicle into custody without searching inside a vehicle or opening the trunk is just plain negligent,” said Brent Turvey, a medical examiner and criminologist at the Forensic Criminology Institute in Sitka, Alaska. .

Family members said they wanted answers about what happened to Blackstock, 24, who left behind an 18-month-old son.

“We are really asking for justice,” Danielle Blackstock, her older sister, told the newspaper. “We can’t get him back. But we need justice.

The newspaper quotes Kansas City Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jake Becchina said last week that detectives were making progress toward identifying people of interest in the case, but charges had yet to be filed.

Adam Blackstock Sr. said he called police after he was unable to reach his son when the family returned from a trip to Disneyland. He used GPS to locate what he believed to be his son’s vehicle in a driveway in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Oak Park Southwest neighborhood. The SUV was covered with a gray tarp.

When officers arrived, the owner said the vehicle belonged to her uncle and provided the phone number of a man who said it was his.

Blackstock Sr. convinced police otherwise, in part by using a remote starter to ignite the vehicle. The officers persuaded the woman at home to let them remove her. They noticed what appeared to be a bullet hole in the driver’s seat and blood on the floor, but did not immediately investigate further.

They only saw the lifeless body in the back after towing the SUV.

Becchina said officers used “very creative thinking to convince the owner to allow the vehicle to be towed based on consent at the time, when there was no other legal status to enter the property, let alone deal with the car on the property. ”