Police Arrest Suspect In Death Of Teen Who Was Abducted From Kansas Store Parking Lot

Thursday, June 7th 2007, 7:16 am

By: News On 6

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) _ Police arrested a man in the abduction and death of a teenager whose body was found Wednesday in a Missouri park four days after she disappeared from a Kansas store's parking lot.

Authorities said 18-year-old Kelsey Smith's body was found at a lake in Grandview, Mo., about 20 miles east of where she had disappeared Saturday. They did not say how Smith died.

Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass identified the suspect as Edwin R. Hall, 26, of Olathe. Hall was expected to be charged Thursday with premeditated first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.

Douglass said Hall was interviewed Wednesday after police acted on a tip that matched him to a vehicle seen in surveillance video pulling into the Target parking lot about a minute after Smith parked there.

He declined to comment on the circumstances of Hall's questioning or evidence in the case.

Douglass said Hall appeared to be the same person shown in the video walking into the Target soon after Smith entered the store.

``I want to again express my condolences to the Smith family,'' he said. ``I realize that this is not the preferred conclusion. While we cannot give them their daughter back, we can at least give them justice.''

Johnson County, Kan., prosecutor Phill Kline said charges would be filed Thursday morning.

``This community has lost a vibrant and promising life and a family has sufferered unimaginable tragedy,'' he said.

Kline said his office would ask the state to set bond at $5 million. He declined to specify whether investigators had determined that Smith was killed in Kansas.

Douglass said police had received more than 500 tips in the case and had questioned numerous people Wednesday, including Hall.

Officers had been searching woods at the lake since Tuesday after investigators traced two signals from Smith's cell phone to an area about 15 miles east of the Target store in suburban Kansas City.

Before a church memorial service Wednesday evening, Smith's father thanked everyone involved in the search.

``She could walk into a room full of strangers and walk out with a room full of friends,'' Greg Smith said at Hillcrest Covenant Church in Prairie Village, Kan.

``Her excitement and passion for life was unmatched,'' he said, fighting tears. ``She lived more in 18 years than many people do with a great deal more time.''