WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man who helped kidnap a 9-year-old girl in Wichita and assisted her killer is up for parole for the fifth time.

Bo Shoemaker told members of the Prisoner Review Board on Wednesday that 56-year-old Donald Wacker should remain behind bars for failing to help his daughter, Nancy Shoemaker.

Wacker has a parole hearing next month. He’s already spent 27 years in prison for helping Doil Lane kidnap Nancy near her south Wichita home in 1990. After the abduction, the men drove Nancy to a Sumner County field where Lane raped her and strangled her with a belt as Wacker watched. Her body was found more than six months later.

The Shoemaker family now lives in Florida but traveled to Derby for the latest Kansas Department of Corrections public comments session.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation

TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) on Thursday announced findings and recommendations resulting from a five-year collaborative effort to identify, inventory, and test previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits in Kansas. Achievements of the Kansas Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) were detailed, and a new statewide public awareness campaign to confront social biases related to sexual assault was launched.

In 2014, the KBI formed the Kansas SAKI project. In 2017, Kansas became the first state in the country to complete the statewide inventory with 100 percent voluntary law enforcement participation. As a result, 2,200 previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits were identified. Local law enforcement agencies submitted the majority of those kits to a forensic laboratory for analysis. Testing has been completed on nearly 2,000 kits. Testing on the remaining kits is expected to be completed by the end of October.

“Because of our leadership role in public safety, it was important for us to initiate this project and collaborate with key stakeholders to implement a statewide strategy that we believe will help solve crimes and prevent additional victimization of our citizens,” KBI Director Kirk Thompson said. “Having substantially completed testing on so many kits using in-state laboratories was a significant undertaking, and a noteworthy accomplishment. As a result, we have identified serial sexual offenders and solved cases.”

To date, forensic testing enabled 373 biological profiles from evidence to be entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and resulted in 234 CODIS hits, each of which may be considered a new investigative lead in a criminal case. As a result of the SAKI project, two cases were successfully prosecuted and one other resulted in an acquittal. Several criminal cases are still pending review by local law enforcement and prosecutors.

“Since the KBI proactively initiated these efforts more than five years ago, a great amount of work has been done to test the backlog of kits and to address the underlying issues that led to the backlog,” Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said. “I am grateful to the remarkable group of experts who came together to make this happen, and I’m confident that we will continue to experience SAKI’s positive impact on victims and investigations of sexual assault in Kansas moving forward.”

Evaluating the kits associated with this Initiative also provided valuable information about the link between sexual assault and other violent crimes – something the KBI researched extensively. They found that 93% of the suspects named in the SAKI cases had criminal histories that included other violent offenses. Collectively, these same individuals committed over 7,000 additional crimes. The multidisciplinary working group felt strongly that these staggering numbers demanded more proactive attention and action.

Beyond generating new investigative leads in criminal cases, they kindled efforts to reform law enforcement practices, increase laboratory resources, increase victims’ access to services and support, and improve the outcome of criminal cases. Through the SAKI project, over 1,300 Kansas professionals were trained on trauma-informed sexual assault investigation and the importance of a multidisciplinary response to sexual assault.

“Responses to sexual assault have historically been fragmented. Victims often have to navigate difficult systems with limited support,” said Joyce Grover, executive director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. “This project has addressed work that was long overdue in Kansas. By coordinating our efforts and recognizing the importance of advocacy and a trauma-informed response, I am hopeful we have made and will continue to make big changes in Kansas.”

The KBI used SAKI project funding to commission the development of a unique statewide public awareness campaign focused on educating Kansans about the prevalence and realities of sexual assault. The campaign also seeks to overcome the normalization of sexual violence, and other common biases surrounding sexual assault.

The campaign, titled “Yes, This Room,” includes broadcast TV and digital messages directing viewers to a website that includes conversation guides for the general public, parents, medical providers, and university students. To view the website and conversation guides, visit https://YesThisRoom.com.

“Through SAKI, we became keenly aware of how infrequently sexual perpetrators are held accountable for the crimes they commit and how often they go on to commit other acts of violence. This demanded our immediate attention,” said Katie Whisman, KBI executive officer and Kansas SAKI project director. “We quickly realized that increasing offender accountability also required involvement of the public, and the idea for a statewide public awareness campaign was born.”

The “Yes, This Room” campaign calls on Kansans to become familiar with the facts, myths, and biases about sexual assault, and to use that information to shift the current narratives surrounding sexual assault. It encourages Kansas to focus on the offender’s role in sexual violence so our communities will be safer places to learn, work, and live.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Women are now legally allowed to go topless in Manhattan, with some restrictions.

The Manhattan City Commission on Tuesday unanimously decided to amend the city code to allow females to go topless. Watch the board meeting here.

However, property owners and businesses may still require all patrons to wear shirts.

City Attorney Katie Jackson recommended the change to avoid potential lawsuits. She said the code could be changed again later.

Jackson cited a federal ruling in February 2017 that blocked Fort Collins, Colorado, from enforcing a law against women going topless. Fort Collins is in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, as is Kansas.

She said the government could still prosecute a topless woman who is acting in a lewd manner, which is against state law.

ATCHISON COUNTY — Two people died in an accident Wednesday in Atchison County.

Deputies responded just before midnight to the intersection of River Road and 244th in rural Atchison County, according to a media release from the sheriff’s department.

A train traveling approximately 45 miles per hour struck a 2015 Hyundai Elanta that was stopped on the tracks.

First responders found Jeremy W. McAfee, 34, Savanah, Mo., outside the vehicle and Allison L. Richardson, 34, Platte City, Mo. inside, according to the release.

Richardson was pronounced dead at the scene. EMS transported McAfee to the hospital in Atchison where he died.

KANSAS CITY(AP) — A 37-year-old man who had been missing for a week is hospitalized after being found in a wrecked car at the bottom of a ravine.

Lee’s Summit police say a dirt bike rider found Ryan Linneman, of Lee’s Summit, Wednesday evening in the wreckage along Interstate 470 in Kansas City.

Linneman was taken to a hospital with critical injuries. Lee’s Summit police spokesman Sgt. Chris Depue says he did not have an updated condition report Thursday.

Police asked the public for help finding Linneman after he was last seen driving his car on Oct. 9.

The crash investigators determined Linneman’s car ran off of Interstate 470 and went down a 50-foot incline. The vehicle landed in a gully that was obscured from the view of passing motorists.

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Salina Post

SALINE COUNTY —Numerous locations across the United States have received checks purported to be from Frisbie Construction.

The problem is that Frisbie Construction, 7793 East Kansas Highway 4, didn’t send the checks.

Those who received the checks were told to send a text a number confirming they had received the checks, according toSaline County Sheriff’s Captain Jim Hughes.

The number was not a Salina phone number or a Frisbie Construction phone number.

Persons who texted then received a text back asking which check it was and for what amount, according to Hughes and it was not clear how the check forgers actually made money off the scam.

Frisbie Construction officials told Salina Post that so far, counterfeit Frisbie checks had been received in 19 states and the District of Columbia between Sept. 9 and Monday.

Twenty-eight checks totaling $99,956.40 were actually presented to recipients’ banks, however, Frisbie Construction’s bank, UMB, declined payment on the checks, according to Frisbie Construction officials.

Additionally, Frisbie Construction received 49 phone calls during that period from people wondering why they were receiving the checks.

In fact, the first phone call the company received was the first notification that anything was amiss and allowed Frisbie Construction to notify UMB about the situation before any checks were presented for payment, thus allowing the company to avoid losing any money, the company told Salina Post. The checks associated with those 49 phone calls totaled $176,928.53, Frisbie Construction officials told Salina Post.

The company said that some of the checks looked more professional than others, but all had the same clear signature. Additionally, checks were all different colors, the company noted.

Hughes said that some sort of data breach is suspected, but officials have yet to determine where that breach happened.

FORD COUNTY — Authorities are investigating the cause of an explosion that injured employees at the Cargill plant in Dodge City early Thursday.

The explosion was in a small stand-alone building at the protein facility and two employees are being treated for burns, according to a statement from Cargill.

As a precaution, production at the plant was suspended for the day. Cargill authorities released no additional details.

OSAGE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect for alleged animal cruelty.

Last weekend, the Osage County Sheriff’s office issued a public warning about dogs that were reported loose west of Lyndon, according to Sheriff Laurie Dunn.

She said the Alaskan Tundra Shepherds in question had been moved and authorities did not know where. All the dogs were moved from the property, according to the owner’s attorney.

On Wednesday, deputies arrested Christi Lynne Shaffer, 53, of Lyndon, Kansas, who is the owner of the emaciated dogs, according to Dunn. Shaffer remains in custody on 20 counts of cruelty to animals and 3 counts of permitting a dangerous animal to be at large.

The sheriff’s office released no additional details early Thursday.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors say police seized 144 pounds of methamphetamine in tires stored at a shed at a Kansas City man’s home.

The man, 38-year-old Jorge Rodriquez-Gonzalez, was charged this week in U.S. District Court with drug trafficking.

Charging documents allege a confidential source bought a minimum of one kilogram of meth from Rodriguez-Gonzalez at least five days a week.

Prosecutors said that on Oct. 10, Rodriguez-Gonzalez was arrested after showing up for a drug buy with his wife and two young children. Police confiscated weapons, vehicles and drugs, including the methamphetamine inside four tires in a shed near Rodriquez-Gonzales’s home.

Court records show Rodriguez-Gonzalez told authorities he lived where the drugs were found but didn’t know how the tires got into his shed.