Body found in Topeka as authorities continue investigating Cari Allen’s disappearance
TOPEKA, Kan. (WOWT) - The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that a body has been found — but not yet identified — as their investigation into the disappearance of Cari Allen continues.
The body was found at a “location of interest” in Topeka, the DCSO release states. Local authorities are assisting with the investigation at the request of DCSO.
Authorities were sent to a residence there off Highway 75 and 57th Street. According to our sister station WIBW 13 News, the location is about 12 blocks from a site searched by Topeka Police, two weeks ago.
“The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office and the Topeka Police Department went to the area and discovered a deceased human body,” the DCSO release state.
WIBW reports that the farm property has a house and barn where authorities had put up two white tents and posted crime tape all over the area. Shawnee County Sheriffs’ spokesperson Abigail Christian said some heavy equipment would be moving in Thursday morning. She would not say whether this would be digging equipment.
Allen has been missing since the Saturday night before Thanksgiving. She was last seen at her home near 168th and Blondo streets. Searches around her home, the landfill, and places off the beaten path have turned up no leads on her whereabouts.
Authorities have said that her cell phone and social media accounts were all turned off on Nov. 20, and that her mobile phone and laptop are still missing.
Adrick Scott, 47, has been charged with kidnapping Allen.
Last week, a Douglas County Court judge allowed bond Scott after he was transported back to Nebraska. Scott had fled to Central America and was spotted in Belize earlier this month, then transported to Houston before being brought back to Omaha.
If convicted on the kidnapping charge, he could be looking at a life sentence. He is also facing an accessory to a felony charge, which has a maximum punishment of two years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Scott asked for a public defender and is scheduled to appear in court again on Jan. 3.
According to information made public in court earlier this month, a friend told investigators that Allen and Scott had broken up about two weeks before she was last seen. She had apparently gone to The Good Life Bar near 180th and Pacific streets on Nov. 19, then went home. Her son’s last text from her was at 11:30 p.m. that night.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office was notified that she was missing the following evening, at 5:32 p.m. When deputies went to her home to investigate, they found what appeared to be bullet holes in the bedroom door and walls that had been covered up with some sort of “gray compound.”
Deputies contacted Scott, who told them he was in Topeka all that weekend and that he and Allen were still dating. But DCSO said that cell phone tower data from Scott’s phone pinged at The Good Life bar in Omaha the evening that Allen went missing — and that he left the bar at 10:30 p.m. that night heading northeast, which is in the direction of Allen’s home.
Investigators said the bar’s surveillance video showed Scott’s Chevy Equinox driving in the parking lot, and that surveillance images from the home showed a person matching Scott’s physical description walking toward Allen’s home.
DCSO said they recovered a handgun from Scott’s vehicle, along with gloves, a crowbar, and a sledgehammer.
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