Ali Kemp - Man charged in K-State student's death
Lorraine
the headlines for quite a while in this area. It was also featured on
America's Most Wanted as recently as September 11th.
http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=27973
http://www.ali-forever.com/forever.php
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Published Tuesday, November 9, 2004
Man charged in K-State student's death
By MATT SEDNESKY
The Associated Press
LEAWOOD -- Prosecutors today charged a 29-year-old Connecticut man with
the slaying of a teenager whose death captivated the Kansas City area.
Police in Connecticut arrested Benjamin Appleby, of Litchfield, Conn.,
on Monday, and he later confessed to the attempted rape and murder in
June 2002 of Ali Kemp in Leawood, according to an application for an
arrest warrant filed by Connecticut State Police.
On Tuesday, prosecutors in Johnson County charged Appleby with
first-degree murder in the death of Kemp, a 19-year-old student at
Kansas State University who was working at a swimming pool in the Kansas
City suburb.
"I never thought we wouldn't get this predator," said Roger Kemp, Ali's
father. "And we got him. We wanted him and we wanted him bad. We say
this is our guy."
Appleby could face the death penalty, Johnson County District Attorney
Paul Morrison said. Appleby, held on a $1 million bond, waived
extradition to Kansas and is expected to arrive in the next two days,
Morrison said.
State police picked up Appleby on Monday on an unrelated warrant from
1997, when Appleby lived in Connecticut under the alias of Teddy Hoover
II, police said. Those charges include risk of injury, disorderly
conduct and public indecency, state police said.
While in custody, Appleby was questioned about the beating death of
Kemp, who was suffering from a severe head injury when she was found in
June 2002 in the pump room of a neighborhood swimming pool.
"He did provide information and evidence that caused Kansas detectives
to conclude that this accused was to be charged," Connecticut State
Police said in a statement.
Kemp's killing attracted widespread media attention, due in part to the
relentless efforts of her family to keep the case in the public eye. The
Kemp family and others offered a total of $50,000 in reward money for
tips that led to the arrest of her killer.
Leawood police Maj. Craig Hill said he met with Roger Kemp on Monday
night. "I saw a heart filled with sorrow, but it was also filled with
joy," Craig said.
In the application for an arrest warrant, Connecticut police said
detectives from Leawood asked for their assistance getting a DNA sample
from Appleby. Police wanted to test his DNA against blood found at the
scene of Kemp's death, including blood found on her shirt and bra.
Police have that sample, according to the application for the warrant,
but testing was incomplete when it was filed on Tuesday. Morrison
declined to comment about the DNA evidence on Tuesday.