SMITH COUNTY—Authorities are investigating the cause of a fatal fire in Smith County.

Just after 5a.m. Tuesday, first responders were alerted to a fire at the Home on the Rang Lodging Motel on East Highway 36 in Smith Center, according to Sheriff Travis Conway.

First responders pulled a unresponsive person from the structure who was pronounced dead at the scene. The Smith County Sheriff’f office, investigators from the Kansas State Fire Marshal and a K9 from Sedgwick County Fire are working together to investigate.  No foul play is suspected.  Authorities have not released the name of the victim or a damage estimate.

LIBERTY, Mo. — Schools in Kansas and Missouri differ in more ways than just the state line dividing them.

Kansas has never had a state law restricting certain sex offenders from being on school property.

In addition, Kansas doesn’t have residency restrictions.

Lawmakers in Kansas want that to change.

Senate Sub for HB 2164 passed the Kansas Senate by a vote of 37-3 on Thursday.

The bill was proposed by Kansas Sen. Kellie Warren after parents in the Blue Valley School District made complaints about a registered sex offender being allowed to attend an elementary school dance in a chaperone role.

If the bill becomes law, it would be a felony offense for registered adult sex offenders convicted of crimes against minors to enter school property or attend certain school activities.

In Missouri, a registered sex offender convicted of certain crimes against a minor can’t be within 500 feet of school property and can’t live within 1,000 feet of a school.

The offenses include:

– Incest
– Endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree
– Use of a child in a sexual performance
– Promoting a sexual performance by a child
– Sexual exploitation of a minor
– Possession of child pornography
– Promoting child pornography
– Furnishing pornographic material to minors

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office Sex Offender Registration and Enforcement Unit oversees around 460 registered sex offenders.

Sarah Boyd, public relations manager for the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, said there are some special circumstances in their law that the Kansas House could consider while debating the bill.

​”Missouri law does give the possibility for the school districts to grant exceptions, because, you know, everything is case-by-case, and everything that you see on a court paper may not represent the real circumstances of an incident. Not to say that we should just let all the sex offenders in the schools, but you know, there may be a chance someone’s child is really struggling, and we find a way to meet off-site to talk about it,” Boyd said.

Like most law enforcement agencies, Clay County Sheriff’s deputies conduct address verification checks, investigate complaints, and follow up with offenders who haven’t registered.

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The sheriff’s office also maintains strong partnerships with schools.

“Most of the schools in Clay County, when you come into the building, you have to present your driver’s license and they run that and it will show up if you are a sex offender,” Boyd said. “They contact us, we confirm that we’re then in touch with that sex offender. Say, ‘Hey, you cannot be at that school’”. Boyd said.

Boyd said their main challenge can be offenders without a home.

“One of the most difficult issues for the sex offender registration and enforcement unit is transients, so we have a lot of people on the registry who are homeless,” Boyd said. “That is hard to keep track of…of where they are. They have difficulty, you know, getting here to register. They can say they will live one place, but maybe that’s just for a couple weeks, and then they’re somewhere else.”

Kansas and Missouri could soon have laws that are common to both states.

“If there’s no enforcement, then there’s not a lot of incentive to comply,” Boyd said. “I think this legislation is a helpful tool for schools and for families to feel safer where they are. While the risk is low, it’s not zero.”

The bill had significant bipartisan support in the Senate and is in the House conference committee for a vote.

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KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including Overland Park, Prairie Village and Leawood. Share your story idea with Alyssa.

A 6-year-old girl, who was kidnapped over a month ago, has been found safe after a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper stopped two men on the road for a traffic violation.

The Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) shared in a Facebook post on Saturday, March 22, that a trooper with their criminal interdiction unit conducted a traffic stop on an SUV finding two men in their 60s inside along with a little girl in the backseat.

KHP said that the driver of the car was discovered to have had a criminal history that included “homicide and numerous weapons violations over the years” and the passenger “had a warrant for his arrest from another state for kidnapping a 6-year-old girl just over a month prior.”

“After the trooper and a deputy from a local sheriff’s office quickly secured both the driver and passenger, the trooper safely removed the little girl from the vehicle,” KHP said in their post.

They shared that the 6-year-old — who was not identified — had been “coached” by one of the men to give “a false name and date of birth” in order to “keep the adult out of jail,” KHP said. Eventually, troopers were able to calm her down and get her to “tell him her real name.”

“She was the kidnapping victim, who had been with this suspect for over a month on the run,” KHP said. “Thankfully the girl was unharmed, and the men were taken into custody.”

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KHP provided two photos of the black SUV stopped on the side of a highway, including one that showed a man putting his hands above his head next to the vehicle. In a second photo, a little girl could be seen talking to a man right outside the car.

In an update on their initial post, the KHP thanked people “for the outpouring of support” for their division and for the trooper involved.” They wrote, “This is an incredible story that highlights the unpredictable nature of a trooper’s job and the real impact they can have on people’s lives.”

KHP also noted that it “received many requests for more details of the stop,” but were unable to “release any further details” in order to “protect the identity of the child and integrity of open cases.” 

Authorities shared that they are continuing their investigation into the incident.

According to the Child Crime Prevention & Safety Center (CCPSC), a child goes missing or is abducted in the U.S. “every 40 seconds.” The CCPSC said that “approximately 840,000 children are reported missing each year.”

The AMBER Alert system is a notification system which alerts citizens in all 50 states in the U.S. of a missing child. According to its website, “1,221 children were successfully recovered through the AMBER Alert system” and “at least 195 children were rescued because of wireless emergency alerts,” as of December 6, 2024.