A Missouri man was arrested Sunday for burning the SUV of a 21-year-old woman who vanished on Thursday night, police said.
Kylr Yust, 27, was seen leaving a party on Thursday with Jessica Runions, of Raymore, south of Kansas City. On Friday night at 10:30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. ET), Runions was reported missing, and nearly four hours later, her black Chevy Equinox was found burned and unoccupied in South Kansas City.
Yust was arrested at 8:30 a.m. in Edwards, about two hours southeast of Kansas City, and charged with knowingly burning Runions’ vehicle, Kansas City police said.
It was not immediately clear if Yust had a lawyer.
Runions remains missing. Authorities said in a statement that Missouri Search and Rescue had twice searched for her in two large, unspecified areas, yielding nothing.
Investigators were continuing to follow up on leads and were continuing their search, the statement said.
Yust’s former girlfriend disappeared in 2007 after she filed a restraining order against him.
Kara Kopetsky, then 17, has never been found, and Yust was never charged with a crime in connection with her disappearance.
In a separate case in 2011, Yust pleaded guilty to a domestic violence charge after a girlfriend said he’d choked her until she fainted.
