Witness in Kylr Yust case says she saw car approach Kopetsky on day she disappeared

A woman called to testify by Kylr Yust’s defense team said on the day that Kara Kopetsky disappeared, she saw a car approach the 17-year-old and heard a scream.

Deborah Heflin lived a couple blocks from Belton High School. On May 4, 2007, Heflin said she noticed Kopetsky walking near her home and saw a sedan with four people in it drive in the teen’s direction. Then Heflin heard a “blood curdling scream.”

The prosecution rested its case on Saturday. Monday was the first day the jury heard from witnesses called by Yust’s defense team, tasked with presenting alternative theories and casting doubt on Yust’s involvement in the deaths of Kopetsky and Jessica Runions, 21.

Prosecutors questioned Heflin’s memory of the day. Heflin said she did not realize the girl she had seen was Kopetsky until three years later when she saw a news story about the case and recognized Kopetsky. Heflin contacted law enforcement after she saw the story.

“I knew it was her,” Heflin told jurors.

Yust faces two counts of first-degree murder in the case, which dates back more than a decade to May 2007, when Kopetsky was reported missing.

Runions disappeared on Sept. 9, 2016.

Witnesses who testified for the state last week said Yust had been in relationships with the young women.

Their cases remained long-running mysteries in the Kansas City area until a mushroom hunter found remains in April 2017 in a wooded area south of Belton.

Yust was charged in their deaths six months later.

Since then, his defense team has raised questions about the the integrity of the investigation.

Last year, Yust’s attorneys said police failed to fully investigate an alternative suspect and alleged that a Kansas City police officer had sex with a witness. His attorney, Sharon Turlington, said Yust is innocent. No physical evidence connected him to the murders, she said.

The trial began April 5 and is expected to last three weeks in Cass County. Jurors were selected from St. Charles County due to publicity surrounding the case.