In a couple of weeks, it will be seven years since Kara Kopetsky disappeared from her high school in Belton, Missouri (May 4, 2007). You can find out about the case here, but essentially she went missing from her high school — about a week after filing a restraining order against her then-boyfriend, Kylr Yust, who had apparently forcibly abducted her from her job at Popeye’s on April 30, 2007. Yust appeared in the news in 2011 again — because he battered his then-girlfriend, who was pregnant, and…

“I’ve killed people before, even ex-girlfriends out of sheer jealousy,” Yust allegedly told the victim. “I will kill you.” Yust allegedly added that he knew “where there were pigs that would eat anything including bones, that he had seen arms ripped off people while they were still alive, and he had seen people dropped in barrels of acid to destroy evidence.”

OK. Then in 2013, Yust got sent away for a drug-related conviction, apparently telling the judge to “eat a steak for me” at his sentencing. There’s a little bit more on Yust and Kopetsky here and here, but he certainly seems connected to Kopetsky’s disappearance in some way. I can’t actually find him in the Missouri and/or Kansas inmate search functions, but he does appear to currently be in prison. (Correction: he’s in federal prison in Oklahoma, with a release date of July 2016.)

The Kopetsky case has been big news in true crime/disappearance/48 Hours/Dateline circles, and the timeline has been bungled by local police (people were unclear whether she disappeared on May 2, 2007 or May 4, 2007, for example), confessions have been logged and possibly ignored, and there’s this report around a confession that also notes someone involved was using drugs (again, a tie back to Yust, who is now ultimately in federal prison on drug charges). There have been “secret sleuth groups” in the area dedicated to finding out what happened — and apparently getting cadaver dogs to register something in an abandoned house — and a box of her possessions was turned over to police two years after her disappearance. In short, the whole thing’s a mess. (At the time of initial disappearance, it should be noted that Kara had run away from home a few times, so that could have delayed the beginnings of the investigation.)

It definitely seems like Yust is involved, and even Kara Kopetsky’s mom believes that:

The “pig farm” allegation is literally straight out of an episode of Criminal Minds, but it would explain the lack of a body seven years hence — as you probably know from most TV crime shows, it’s much harder to prosecute without a body, which is why Yust has only been popped for abusing another girlfriend and drugs (things that are easier to prove).

Here are some more ideas around Kara Kopetsky’s disappearance — take them with a grain of salt, as these are not law enforcement professionals — including some text messages with Yust’s friends claiming he’s a good guy (and others claiming he’s a total disaster and likely did it). There’s this sequence, which — if true — could showcase Yust as not a suspect, but someone whose run of bad luck possibly started with his girlfriend disappearing:

“You want something for your story, check this out,” Yust said Friday as he rolled up his sleeve and showed a large, healing scar across his forearm *(sounds more like a struggle to me). “I tried to kill myself twice. There you go. That’s the night I did it ’cause I wanted her to leave the room so I could do that,” Yust said as he ended the interview and walked into a no-alcohol bar where his band was performing Friday night. Police say there was no evidence to support kidnapping charges in connection to the night Yust would not let Kara out of his truck. He does, however, face misdemeanor disorderly conduct and assault charges.

Yust had an alibi for May 4, 2007, but has apparently taken three lie detector tests which were ultimately inconclusive.

There’s also a lot on the Internet from people in Belton, MO around the possibility of drugs/drug dealers being involved. There’s some logic to this, especially if her and Yust were dating for around 8-9 months (he seemed to be into drugs, even then). The name “Waffles” comes up a lot as the drug dealer, i.e. here. You also see it here:

that was a comment you got from someone which reminded me of the story kylr told his katest gf when he threatened to kill her he said he knew a place with pigs who would eat anything… Also lots of rumours go aorund that say kara went to a drug dealer who was named waffles and she od’d and died and was buried in that house.

This is purportedly the address of said “Waffles:”

Again, I think it’s most likely that Kylr Yust is involved — although again, I’m not any kind of law-enforcement professional or anything. Kara Kopetsky’s mom even said that at his drug conviction (the one that sent him to federal prison), she was hoping he would confide in a cellmate about what happened to Kara, etc. Clearly the focus is on him and should be there — he’s definitely a bit of a “bad egg,” if not significantly worse than that. Problem is, it’s been seven years and there’s still all these theories, so we may never conclusively solve this. (To make it more confusing, some believe there could be a police cover-up.) There is a seven-year walk scheduled, as there has been every year since the disappearance.

Hopefully this case is ultimately conclusively solved. There’s too much intrigue out there about it for it not to be.

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