In Raymore woman’s disappearance, echoes of Kara Kopetsky case

Jessica Runions, a 21-year-old woman who lives Raymore, has been missing since meeting friends on Thursday night. Early Saturday, police found her SUV, unoccupied and burned, off a road that runs through the Blue River greenway.

It has been reported that Runions left the gathering on Thursday with Kylr Yust, the ex-boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky, who vanished in 2007. Kopetsky, then 17, had filed a restraining order against Yust just days before her disappearance. Kopetsky claimed that she was choked, kidnapped and threatened by Yust, who pleaded guilty to an unrelated domestic-violence charge in 2011.

Yust, 28, was taken into custody on Sunday and charged with “knowingly burning” Runions’ Chevy Equinox. A search of the area did not turn up anything.

Online court records indicate that Yust was recently released from federal prison.

In 2012, Yust pleaded guilty in federal court to possession with intent to distribute the club drug methylethcathinone. He was sentenced to 45 months in 2013.

Yust was released on August 5, according to the Bureau of Prisons website. Earlier this month, he was ordered to spend a weekend in jail as part of the conditions of his supervised release.

Anyone with information on Runions’ whereabouts should call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-8477 (TIPS).