Mo. 17-Year-Old Vanishes

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Kara's cell phone has not been touched in more than a month.

On May 4, 2007, Kara Kopetsky disappeared from Belton High School, in Belton, Mo.  At first glance, it wasn't that alarming: cops say Kara had runaway in the past. Usually, she'd leave and come back within a few days. This time was different. She never returned.

All the usually trappings of a teenage girl took the investigation nowhere.  She hadn't used her cell phone or her bank card. She hadn't accessed her MySpace page.  After a few days, the family and cops realized this was most likely not a typical runaway.

A Sighting?

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This is the composite sketch of a man seen in Louisburg, Kansas on May 17, 2007 with a girl that looked like Kara Kopetsky.

For a few weeks the case was cold. But on May 17th, the investigation received a jumpstart when someone recognized Kara in Louisburg, Kansas. She was there in the afternoon and she wasn't alone.

Witnesses spotted her with a man. They'd eventually develop a composite sketch of the man.  It is important to note that cops are not convinced that the girl spotted in Louisburg is actually Kara, but would like to know for sure.

Connection To High Profile Abduction?

The Kara Kopetsky case took another turn on June 2, 2007. That's when 17-year-old Kelsey Smith went missing from a Target in Overland Park, Kansas.  Four days later, Kelsey was found murdered.  The cases seemed to have a number of similarities.

Both girls were pretty, brown-haired girls.  Both disappeared from the suburbs of Kansas City.  And in the Kelsey Smith case, cops found some videotape of a man they want to identify.  While cops on the Smith case are reluctant to call that man a suspect in Kelsey's disappearance, that man looks similar to the composite sketch drawn in Louisburg. Again, cops have theories and ideas, but they are looking for proof.

Since Kara disappeared, investigators have fielded look-alike tips from coast to coast. A Captain with the Belton Police Department says tips have sent investigators west to California, back east to Florida, as well as Chicago, Illinois and Florida. Unfortunately, none of them have panned out.