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Jeremy Gaston/Herald-Chronicle
Police responded
to multiple shootings Saturday evening at the home of Dorothy Wight,
905 S. Topeka, Burlingame. The incident resulted in the death of
three visiting relatives. Investigation at the scene continued this
week.
Family murdered in Burlingame home
Update: Fourth shooting victim
dies
Updated 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2
Wayne White & Gabe Faimon
BURLINGAME—A former Columbia, Mo., city official is being
held in the Osage County Jail on $10 million cash bond after being
charged with killing his estranged wife and two teenage daughters
in Burlingame.
James Kraig Kahler, 46, of Columbia, was arrested Sunday morning
following an almost 12-hour manhunt in the area of Auburn Road on
both sides of the Osage and Shawnee county line.
The Osage County Sheriff’s Office began the search after responding
to a call at 6:11 p.m. Saturday at 905 S. Topeka Ave. in Burlingame,
where four people were found shot. The sheriff’s office reported
that one person was found dead at the scene, while three others
were transported to Stormont-Vail in Topeka. Two of the victims
died at the hospital and the third was in critical condition.
Sunday, a press release from the Kansas Attorney General’s
Office said the victims who died were Karen Kahler, 44, and her
daughters, Emily, 18, and Lauren, 16. Dorothy Wight, 89, of Burlingame,
remained in critical condition as of Tuesday. Wight is Karen Kahler’s
grandmother, said Ashley Anstaett, spokesperson for the attorney
general’s office.
“It was my understanding they were visiting for the holiday,”
Anstaett said Monday. She confirmed the Kahler’s son, Sean,
10, was also at Wight’s home at the time of the shootings.
“Sean was in the house and escaped safely,” Anstaett
said.
Anstaett said a 911 call about a suspicious vehicle first came in,
with a neighbor providing a vehicle license tag number. The suspicious
vehicle call was updated after another call about the shooting was
received.
“The follow up call came from a neighbor when the son ran
to the house,” Anstaett said.
Law enforcement from across the area converged on an area along
Auburn Road in southern Shawnee County, where a vehicle the suspect
was driving was located at a farmstead. Roadblocks were set up on
Auburn Road at 109th Street and 103rd Street, detouring traffic
from the area.
Contacted Monday, Jim Barnes, whose residence is in southern Shawnee
County, said at approximately 6:45 p.m. on Nov. 28, he noticed a
red vehicle slowing in front of his residence, turning into the
driveway of a neighbor across Auburn Road.
He said his neighbors had been away, but the car headed down the
driveway and parked where the neighbors often parked.
“I never thought anything about it,” Barnes said. “A
little later, I noticed that another car turned into the driveway
and shut off its lights.”
Throughout the night, the Osage County Sheriff’s Office issued
several press releases about the shooting, requesting the public’s
assistance in locating Kahler.
“Kahler should be considered armed and dangerous,” the
release said. “If located, contact 911 immediately.”
Monday, Osage County Sheriff Laurie Dunn referred all questions
about the incident and search to the attorney general’s office.
Anstaett said Shawnee County residents in the area where the vehicle
was found were notified of the search by that county’s automatic
calling system.
In Osage County, sheriff’s deputies notified some residents
by going to their homes, Anstaett said.
Shirley Barnes said about 30 minutes after her husband saw the car
pull into the neighbor’s driveway, a call came from the Shawnee
County Sheriff’s office and the caller asked to confirm the
couple’s address.
“A guy that’s armed and dangerous is out of the vehicle
across from where you live. Lock your doors and stay inside,”
the caller said, according to Shirley Barnes.
Barnes said the caller also warned that a roadblock had been set
up on 103rd Street and Auburn Road.
Several residents on the Osage County side of the county line complained
Monday that they were not notified of the reasons for the search
activity in their area.
Less than an hour after the first call, Jim Barnes said another
call was received from the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office,
advising that a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team would be
arriving shortly to search Barnes’ outbuildings. Soon after,
five SWAT team officers and an armored vehicle arrived to conduct
the search.
The manhunt continued through the night with assistance from numerous
law enforcement agencies, a law enforcement helicopter, and dogs.
At approximately 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Kahler was located in a ditch
beside Auburn Road, between 109th Street and 117th Street. Anstaett
declined to comment on Kahler’s capture, saying only he was
caught without incident.
“The first person to spot him was an off-duty Shawnee County
deputy, who called 911,” Anstaett said.
Shawnee County deputies then arrived and arrested Kahler at gunpoint,
according to Auburn Road resident Ray Winrick, who witnessed the
arrest.
“We were up early Sunday morning, for the kids were planning
to leave,” Winrick said Monday. “I noticed an object
near our property, down in the road ditch. It looked like a big
dog curled up. In a few moments, a deputy came by, with gun drawn.
He circled what I thought was a dog. Quickly, several more deputies
arrived. A man stood up. It looked like he was being searched. The
deputies led him to a vehicle.”
Later Sunday, Winrick approached a deputy who appeared to be searching
for something in the ditch. Winrick said the deputy told him footprints
had been found under the bridge approximately one-fourth mile north
of Winrick’s residence, “along with an indication that
someone had sat there.”
Anstaett declined to comment on the suspected murder weapon, and
would not say whether Kahler was armed when found and whether a
weapon had been recovered.
Monday, several Auburn Road residents said deputies had notified
them of a continued search for weapons. Monday and Tuesday, law
enforcement officers could be seen walking and searching in the
area.
Kahler was booked into the Osage County Jail Sunday, where he remains
on $10 million cash bond. He was formally charged in Osage County
District Court Monday with capital murder for the killings of his
wife and daughters. See related story, Page 1.
Kahler had recently resigned from his position as director of Columbia
Water and Light. In a press release issued in September, Columbia
City Manager Bill Watkins said he had asked for Kahler’s resignation
due to “some difficult family issues” that had “affected
his focus on the department.”
Fourth shooting victim dies
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office announced Wednesday morning
that Dorothy Wight, one of the victims of the Saturday shooting
at Burlingame, died at 4:13 p.m. Tuesday. The Attorney General’s
Office is quoted in other media as saying the charges against James
Kraig Kahler would be amended to charge |
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