Man accused in death of Overland Park teen former Emporian
10:20 p.m. Friday, June 8, 2007
Behind the doors at a home, just west of Emporia is where Carol and Don Hall attempted to iron out the troubled life of 7-year-old Edwin.
49 News' media partner, The Emporia Gazette, spoke with the members of the Hall family Thursday.
"Basically, it was he was just real defiant," adoptive mother Carol Hall told the paper.
One picture shows Edwin at Emporia Middle School in 1995. Now 12 years later, a mug shot is Edwin’s latest picture.
The 26-year-old is accused of aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith.
“You think you can give them love and all those things they didn't get, like support," Carol told the Gazette. “It works with some but with him it didn't."
Edwin made his first court appearance Thursday in Johnson County District Court, just one day after Smith's body was found in a wooded area in Missouri.
Police believe Hall kidnapped the teen from a Target store parking lot in Overland Park last Saturday.
And news that the suspect was once a part of these downtown streets and quiet neighborhoods is shocking to the Emporia community.
“It makes it more scary. It makes it more real, like it could happen anywhere,” said student Mary McKee. “It could happen to you even.”
“It's just sad to hear that somebody like that, something like that would happen in any community,” said student Jonathan Dailey.
“It's very, very shocking,” said student Erin Colby. “Emporia's such a small town, you never think of anything, people like that coming from a small town.”
The family did not want to comment on camera, but say they're very sorry for what happened to 18-year-old Kelsey Smith, and that their thoughts and prayers are with the family.
Carol Hall also told The Emporia Gazette that at age 15 the family placed Edwin back in state custody after he did something that made the couple feel he was a danger to the family.
She wouldn't say more. But court records show Edwin Hall was convicted of threatening his sister with a knife.
Kansas Juvenile Justice records show he was confined in four facilities from 1996 to 1999.
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