Police looking to identify women who were secretly recorded; teen suspect in custody
'We think there are victims out there that don't know they are victims,' said Sgt. Keegan Hughes
BLUE SPRINGS, Missouri -- Blue Springs police are conducting an invasion of privacy investigation that involves more than a dozen victims. Detectives believe the same 17-year-old suspect is also involved in other lewd crimes against women in the Woods Chapel corridor, KCTV reported.
The area has several convenience stores, restaurants and shopping options.
Police say the suspect secretly recorded women who used the restroom at a QuikTrip near in the area near Woods Chapel Road and I-70. They are still trying to identify seven women who were unknowingly recorded at that location.
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The investigation began when an alert community member noticed the suspect acting suspiciously. They called police who took the suspect into custody. Police searched the 17-year-old suspect's cell phone. "We were able to recover images from a cell phone where he recorded them using the restroom," Blue Springs Police Department Sgt. Keegan Hughes said. "This is a very intimate deal; we want to handle this with care."
Sgt. Hughes says the video shows the women were unknowingly recorded from up above as they used the restroom. "We have 18 victims that we know of but every time we turn over a new stone, we find more victims," Hughes said. Police used QuikTrip surveillance to identify all but seven of the women who were recorded using the restroom.
They reviewed other similar lewd unsolved crimes in the area. Investigators say surveillance video and witness interviews helped them discover a pattern. "Adult females' privacy was invaded, or a deviant sexual act could have been committed behind them without their knowledge," Hughes said.
Investigators say they found evidence the suspect committed lewd crimes between March and April of this year at businesses in the Woods Chapel corridor in between I-70 and Valley View Road. "We think there are victims out there that don't know they are victims," Hughes said.
Police are asking women who used the restroom at the QuikTrip off Woods Chapel Road on March 25th in the afternoon hours to contact Detective Kate Tipton at 816-622-4196.
The 17-year-old suspect is in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center in Jackson County, Mo.
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