© The Kansas City StarFredrick Demond Scott
The fifth and final killing came shortly after noon on Aug. 13, when 22-year-old Fredrick Demond Scott allegedly followed a man from a city bus, crept up behind him on the street and shot him in the head - before turning and getting right back on a bus.
Like the other four victims Scott is either charged with killing or is suspected of killing, Steven Gibbons was a stranger but fit a specific profile: they were all white men between ages 54 and 67.
All five victims were shot. Four were shot in the head - three in the back of the head. One was shot in the back.
"They didn't see it coming," Scott said under his breath while being questioned by detectives.
Jackson County prosecutors on Tuesday announced murder charges against Scott in two of the killings and named him as a suspect in three other homicides of middle-aged men along south Kansas City trails.
The killings drew increased attention with the May 18 killing of Mike Darby, 61, co-owner of Coach's Bar & Grill at 103rd Street and Wornall Road.
Scott, of Kansas City, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the deaths of Gibbons, 57, and John Palmer, 54. Court records detail how detectives cracked the case using surveillance video, and how DNA evidence linked Scott to those two victims.
Gibbons survived on life support for more than a day after he was found shot in the 1100 block of East 67th Street. His death came months after police linked four killings near popular trails along Indian Creek, Minor Park and Blue River that showed "obvious similarities."
Palmer had been found killed nearly a year earlier on Aug. 19, 2016, in a wooded area near East Bannister Road and Lydia Avenue. His death, near the Indian Creek trail, was the first of four that police connected.
The profiles of the victims made them relatively rare among Kansas City homicide victims. Some of the men were killed while walking their dogs. In at least two cases, the dogs remained beside their slain owners until police arrived.
The unsolved killings mystified Kansas City residents and spread fears of a serial killer.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced the charges Tuesday at a press conference at the Kansas City Police Department's South Patrol station at 8701 Marion Park Drive. Baker's office charged Scott in the murders on Aug. 18 but the court documents were under seal until Tuesday's announcement.
The break in the case had come with the Gibbons killing, according to court documents. Police found surveillance video showing Scott follow Gibbons off of a KCATA bus before Gibbons was shot.
Detectives later linked Scott to the scene from DNA from a iced tea bottle and a cigarette butt, and linked him to the Palmer killing with DNA from a t-shirt left at that scene.
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