Suddenly Gone by Dan Mitrione

Author:Dan Mitrione
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Addicus Books
Published: 1995-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

On Saturday, July 1, eighteen-year-old Scott Hendricks was on his bike heading south on Metcalf Avenue toward work. He had just started a summer job with the district office for Johnson County Schools, located around Metcalf and 150th Street. Near the intersection of Metcalf and 139th, he noticed some personal items—maybe things that had fallen from a car—scattered about in a ditch.

Upon closer examination, he noticed credit cards, an eyeglasses case, receipts, papers, a checkbook holder and a white T-shirt. Scott studied the scene. He reasoned a car must have swerved off the road for the items to have fallen where they did. A couple of tire tracks through the gravel made him feel his assumption was correct. He reached down and picked up the T-shirt and immediately noticed a yellowish-brown stain on the front. He dropped it back where it had been and did not pick up any other items. He figured that whomever dropped them probably did so earlier that morning and would return for them. If they were still there that afternoon when he passed back, he would pick them up.

That afternoon, Scott retraced his path home from work, having all but forgotten his discovery of that morning. When he approached the intersection at 139th, the items he had seen earlier were still there. He had with him a large envelope containing some papers from work and decided to use it to carry the items from the road. He didn’t take the soiled T-shirt or the eyeglass case, leaving them, instead, where he first spotted them.

At home that evening, Scott showed the items to his parents who instructed him to conduct his own minor investigation to find the owner of the property. Weighted by other distractions of a busy summer schedule, Scott procrastinated. He did not get back around to tracking the woman, whose name was written on the property, until later that week. By Saturday morning, news reports gave him the answers he needed. Scott and his parents noticed the name on many of the discovered items was the same as one of the missing women being talked about on the news. The items belonged to Christine Rusch. They called the police hot line.

Officer Jennifer Watkins, Overland Park Police, responded, listened to Scott’s story and retrieved the items he had found. Watkins asked Scott to ride along in the squad car to show her exactly where he had recovered the articles. Scott directed the officer back to the intersection of 139th and Metcalf. Some items remained where he left them—a few papers, the pink eyeglasses case. The T-shirt, however, was gone.

Deputy Bill Chapin immediately was dispatched to the location. In time, other officers from both Overland Park and Lenexa arrived. Chapin ordered a full search of the area, including both sides of Metcalf Avenue and areas well beyond. In the end, everything from more papers linked to Christine to McDonald’s soda cups were picked up and placed in plastic evidence bags for the crime lab. The articles picked up by young Hendricks also would be taken to the crime lab for processing.

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