A suspected Kansas City serial killer, already accused of murdering five middle-aged white men, was charged Friday in connection with the death of a woman.
Fredrick Scott, 22, faces a first-degree murder charge for allegedly killing Karen Harmeyer, KCTV reports.
Friends of Harmeyer found her shot to death in July in a tent, which she had set up in a wooded area. They then called police.
“Her feet were outside of the tent,” said Christopher Black, one of Harmeyer’s friends. “I’m glad I didn’t look in that tent.”
He added “I knew something bad happened when they brought out that yellow tape.”
Prosecutors believe Scott shot and killed at least five men over the past year. Most of the victims – John Palmer, Timothy Rice, David Lenox and Mike Darby – were killed on the same trail. The other victim, Steven Gibbons, was on a city street when he was shot.
Public court documents so far don’t identify evidence linking Scott to Harmeyer’s death or a motive for the killing. The charges against Scott confuse Black and Harmeyer’s other friends. They said they don’t know why someone accused of killing white men would target a woman.
“Why would he go up to her tent and just shoot her?” Black said.
One possible motive could be the fact that Harmeyer was white. Scott allegedly said that he wanted to “kill all white people” and threatened to shoot people at an alternative school in 2014.
DNA evidence links Scott to the deaths of Palmer and Gibbons. One of the men Scott is accused of shooting had been homeless at the time.
Harmeyer’s friends have attempted to locate her family, but they have yet to be successful.
Her body still had not been claimed as of Friday, according to the medical examiner’s office.
[Feature Photo: Surveillance Screenshot]