For Immediate Release

Nov. 30, 2017

A Kansas City man has been charged in the murder of his wife whose body was found Wednesday in a residence in the 2400 block of College, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.

Benjamin H. Byers, dob: 11/26/1972, faces Murder 2nd Degree, Armed Criminal Action, Abandonment of a Corpse and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.*

According to court records, Kansas City Police officers were dispatched to a Kansas City public school where a child had told a counselor that she has seen a dead body in her home. Officers then responded to the home in the 2400 block of College and  encountered the defendant, the father of the child who reported the body. Officers noticed drops of blood throughout the house and found a tarp with carpet on it and blood all around it in the basement. The child told a forensic interviewer at the Child Protection Center that she last saw her mother on Monday when she was picked up at school. Her father picked her up on Tuesday. She said he was acting weird and drinking. She also stated she had gone to the basement and observed a dead body that had been stabbed in the back. The clothing on the body belonged to her mother, she stated. When a family acquaintance told her he was coming over,  her father told her not to open the door and stay out of the basement.  

Prosecutors requested a bond of $500,000.

For more information, contact:

Michael Mansur

Director of Communication

Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office

Jean Peters Baker, Prosecutor

Work   : (816) 881-3812

Mobile: (816) 674-3954

mmansur@jacksongov.org

http://jacksoncountyprosecutor.com

*Charges are only accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the defendant is either found guilty or has pleaded.