KS KS - Theresa Brown, 22, & Christine Rusch, 22, Lenexa, 26 June 1989

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http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1234dfks.html


Theresa Brown
Missing since June 26, 1989 from Lenexa, Kansas
Classification: Involuntary


Vital Statistics
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 22 years old
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'6"
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair (frequently frosted/tinted); brown eyes.
Circumstances of Disappearance
Theresa Brown and her roommate, Christine Rusch vanished on June 26, 1989. They were last seen in their apartment in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, June 25. On the morning of June 26, a Monday, Christine called into both her's and Theresa's employer to indicate they would be out from work, as they were not feeling well. No one had actually spoken to Theresa since June 25.

Two days later, while looking for a suspect in the disappearance of another local girl, Joan Butler, the car of Richard Grissom, packed with all of his belongings, was found parked outside a Grandview apartment. Credit cards and jewelry belonging to Rusch and Brown were found in Grissom's abandoned car, along with keys to the apartments of the roommates and Butler. Grissom operated a painting company and had master keys to apartment complexes across the area.

On July 7, Richard Grissom was apprehended in Dallas, Texas, by the FBI. Detectives spent thousands of hours collecting evidence, among which was a security camera photograph of Rusch standing in front of an ATM machine on the night of June 26. Oversized sunglasses cover her eyes, but what appears to be a large bruise is visible on her forehead. It is the last photograph of any of the women.

In 1990, Grissom was convicted of the murders of Joan Butler, Christine Rusch, and Theresa Brown. In 1990, Kansas did not have the death penalty, a fact of which Grissom seemed to be very much aware. During the investigation, he alluded that the women's remains would not be located in Missouri because Missouri had the death penalty. Despite intensive searching both locally and across the country, the women have never been located.
 
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1384dfks.html


Christine Rusch
Missing since June 26, 1989 from Lenexa, Kansas
Classification: Involuntary


Vital Statistics
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 22 years old
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; brown eyes.
Circumstances of Disappearance
Christine Rusch and her roommate, Theresa Brown, vanished on June 26, 1989. They were last seen in their apartment in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, June 25. On the morning of June 26, Christine called into both her's and Theresa's employer to indicate they would be out from work, as they were not feeling well. No one had actually spoken to Theresa since June 25.
Two days later, while looking for a suspect in the disappearance of another local girl, Joan Butler, the car of Richard Grissom, packed with all of his belongings, was found parked outside a Grandview apartment. Credit cards and jewelry belonging to Rusch and Brown were found in Grissom's abandoned car, along with keys to the apartments of the roommates and Butler. Grissom operated a painting company and had master keys to apartment complexes across the area.
On July 7, Richard Grissom was apprehended in Dallas, Texas, by the FBI. Detectives spent thousands of hours collecting evidence, among which was a security camera photograph of Rusch standing in front of an ATM machine on the night of June 26. Oversized sunglasses cover her eyes, but what appears to be a large bruise is visible on her forehead. It is the last photograph of any of the women.
In 1990, Grissom was convicted of the murders of Joan Butler, Christine Rusch, and Theresa Brown. In 1990, Kansas did not have the death penalty, a fact of which Grissom seemed to be very much aware. During the investigation, he alluded that the women's remains would not be located in Missouri because Missouri had the death penalty. Despite intensive searching both locally and across the country, the women have never been located.
 
Related case:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1342dfks.html


Joan Marie Butler
Missing since June 18, 1989 from Overland Park, Kansas
Classification: Involuntary


Vital Statistics
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 23 or 24 years old
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female.
Circumstances of Disappearance
Joan Butler was last seen during the early morning hours of Sunday, June 18, 1989. She lived alone in Overland Park and was a buyer at a Kansas City advertising agency. She had spent Saturday evening in the company of friends. Evidence at her apartment indicates she made it home and was interrupted; the clothes she was wearing Saturday evening were there, along with a 1/2 eaten piece of toast, a 1/2 smoked cigarette, and one contact lens. She and her red Corsica rental car were missing, along with the $900 in her bank account. A neighbor reported hearing a loud thud at approximately 4:30 a.m. on the morning of Miss Butler's disappearance.

On June 25, the rental car was located in a Lenexa, KS, apartment complex. As law enforcement arrived and waited, a man approached the vehicle and opened the trunk. As he was approached by the police, he abruptly closed the trunk and was able to flee and escape apprehension. The car was preliminarily processed at the scene, and then further processed on June 26. Evidence from the interior of the car included fingerprints, belonging to Richard Grissom, as well as a wallet containing identification for Grissom and his many aliases. The glove compartment contained an air pistol, pellets and CO2 cartridges. In the trunk, a drop of blood, later linked to Miss Butler was found. Evidence from exterior of the car included scratches similar to those made by thick brush and small tree limbs, as well as a fine light dust and loose gravel on the underside. According to testimony during the 1990 trial, a close associate said he had first noticed Grissom driving the rental car on Tuesday morning, June 20.

On June 26, Christine Rusch and Theresa Brown, roommates, vanished from their apartment in Lenexa, KS. They were last seen on June 25, and Christine was last spoken to by phone on June 26. Two days later, Grissom's car, packed with all of his belongings, was found parked outside a Grandview apartment. Credit cards and jewelry belonging to Rusch and Brown were found in Grissom's abandoned car, along with keys to the apartments of the roommates and Butler. Grissom operated a painting company and had master keys to apartment complexes across the area.
On July 7, Richard Grissom was apprehended in Dallas, Texas, by the FBI. Detectives spent thousands of hours collecting evidence, among which was a security camera photograph of Rusch standing in front of an ATM machine on the night of June 26. Oversized sunglasses cover her eyes, but what appears to be a large bruise is visible on her forehead. It is the last photograph of any of the women.
In 1990, Grissom was convicted of the murders of Joan Butler, Christine Rusch, and Theresa Brown. In 1990, Kansas did not have the death penalty, a fact of which Grissom seemed to be very much aware. During the investigation, he alluded that the women's remains would not be located in Missouri because Missouri had the death penalty. Despite intensive searching both locally and across the country, the women have never been located.
 
Richard Grissom, the man convicted of these murders, placed an ad in the Wichita paper over the weekend congratulating himself on his 50th birthday celebration! At this time, it is not known whether he placed the ad himself from prison or had someone do it for him.... here is the "retraction" article from the paper, I will check, but doubt that the ad itself is available to be viewed. Normally I could scan it in, but someone stole my Sunday paper this weekend!!!!

http://www.kansas.com/2010/11/09/1579972/celebrations-ad-for-serial-killer.html
 
I wonder why federal charges were never filed against Grissom, especially in the cases of Brown and Rusch. Both women were kidnapped and forcibly taken across state lines. They were also last seen alive in Missouri. Brown at the storage facility (Raytown) and Rusch withdrawing cash from an ATM (Belton). It could be assumed they were killed in Missouri, although Grissom claims everything happened in Kansas, but he's a sociopath so you can't believe anything he says. If federal charges were filed I wonder would he reveal the TRUTH about what happened to these women? The families deserve it.
 
Richard Grissom’s Victims Are Still Missing 29 Years Later
The Kansas killer has never revealed their location.

"For a few weeks during the summer of 1989 in the Kansas City area, things were tense. Very tense. Three young women were missing, and a 28-year-old man named Richard Grissom was on the run from the law....

...on July 7, Grissom was arrested in Texas at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. He was supposed to meet a young woman from his past at the airport that day, but she tipped off police, leading to Grissom’s capture. People in the Kansas City area breathed a collective sigh of relief, but one huge question remained: Where were Joan Butler, Theresa Brown, and Christine Rusch?

Grissom offered vague answers about the women during his interrogation. He told officers “they’re not dead,” and then later said, “well, they probably are by now.” Grissom also told interrogators, “you will dig them up.” He added, “Everything happened in Kansas and nothing would be found in Missouri.” Grissom knew that Missouri had the death penalty, while, at the time, Kansas did not. Paul Morrison, the man who ended up prosecuting Grissom, called the killer extremely intelligent, “the type who could sell ice to Eskimos.” In the end, Grissom admitted to no specifics.

Authorities searched farmland and woods, even draining ponds all over Kansas City in hopes of finding the missing women. No trace of Butler, Brown, or Rusch ever turned up.

In the fall of 1990, Richard Grissom was tried for the women's murders: the first murder trial in the history of Johnson County to take place without a body. Despite the missing bodies, the mountain of evidence resulted in a guilty verdict and a life sentence for Grissom. Today, he is 55 years old and will remain in prison for the rest of his days.

“The Grissom shack” is long gone, torn down and replaced by new apartment complexes, but the memory of Richard Grissom and his victims, Joan Butler, Theresa Brown, and Christine Rusch, still looms large for the people who lived in Kansas City in 1989."

https://the-line-up.com/richard-gri...day Newsletter 2018-05-16&utm_term=The Lineup

lg_66d9a1fd3a0b-richard-grissom_victims.jpg


(Joan Butler
, Theresa Brown [middle], and Christine Rusch
)
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