A Fatal Attraction in Kansas

Most of my readers know that while I will write about damned near anything, my two favorite topics are murders with a psychological angle and missing children. This article was intended as one of the latter, but as I did some last minute research I found out that my subject, 18 year old Keighley Alyea, missing for several days, was found dead in a farm field near Kansas City. In fact, she was as good as dead when she was kidnapped.

Keighley Alyea

Residents searched frantically for the teen, and police suspected foul play when they discovered Alyea’s 1993 green Mazda in her home town of Overland Park, in a business parking lot and evidently abandoned. Her body was found the next day.

What did Alyea do to deserve an execution? Before her kidnapping she had intervened in a fight between 18 year old Dustin Hilt and his sister. 48hoursmystery.com, 10/7/08. Alyea and Holt had a history. For two years, they were involved in an on-and-off relationship, during which he introduced her to drugs. Alyea’s relatives and friends considered Holt a bad actor. Eventually, Alyea got clean, but the two stayed in contact.

Prosecutors said that shortly after the fight, Alyea was lured out of her home at 1:30 AM by an urgent text message from Holt. Then she disappeared forever.

Overland Park

Earlier, on October 5th, officers were observed searching a house in nearby Shawnee.

Shortly thereafter, police spokesman Jim Weaver announced that three men were in custody in connection with the murder. 48hours mystery.com, 10/7/08. But he gave no details about who these men were. You can guess who one of them was; that was confirmed to be Dustin Hilt in zimbio.com, 10/6/09. It was soon after revealed that the three men in custody were Hilt, Gerald Calbeck, 18, and 21 year old Joseph Mattoy. Newpublic.com, 10/6/09. All three have been charged with first degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated robbery.

One of the three must have sung like a bird in the interrogation room, because details of the murder only one of the participants would know are now public. Perhaps he cut a deal to avoid the death penalty, which Kansas has. According to KSHB the men had to attack her twice to make sure she was dead. The station quoted a man, probably a prosecutor, who said: “Somewhere along the drive out east of Harrisonville she regained consciousness and at that time they had the option to do the right thing, and they chose to finish killing her.”crimescenekc.com, 10/709.

In my mind, the only mystery in this case is why a young woman had to lose her life over something so trivial.