LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — Police in Lee’s Summit cannot say for certain that the body found burned in a backyard earlier this week is a missing Leawood man, but they do say that nothing in their investigation suggests that it’s not him.
Christopher McQueen, 27, was reported missing last Sunday after he did not return to his Leawood home after work on Saturday night. His black Jeep Cherokee was found by Kansas City Missouri Police at a south Kansas City apartment complex on Thursday. Police are now processing the vehicle as a crime scene.
Police: Burned Body Case Connected to Missing Man
On Monday, police in Lee’s Summit found the charred remains of a man in the backyard of a home on Strother Road. They are waiting for confirmation from the Jackson County Coroner’s Office, along with an exact cause of death, but they say that McQueen is the likely victim, especially after the discovery of his vehicle.
“We’re 100 percent sure we have the right vehicle,” said Sgt. Chris Depue of the LSPD. “It matches the plate and via the vin, and we know that was his vehicle the missing man from Leawood. The piece we are still waiting to put together is that positive medical identification on the victim to 100 percent match the two cases.”
Police say that they have been able to establish a timeline of McQueen’s whereabouts. They say that they know McQueen was at work late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, but never made it home. He was reported missing to Leawood Police later on Sunday.
“It allows us to focus our investigation on motives, allows us to interview persons close to that party, trying to establish where timelines were, where people were and things that preceded him going missing,” said Depue.
Depue says that police have talked to McQueen’s family.
“We’ve been in touch with the family to prepare them that we were possibly making a connection in the case, and to prepare them for exactly what we found,” said Depue.
Police are still officially calling this a death investigation until final word comes back from the coroner. That process could take four to six weeks.
If you have any information in the case, please call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS.