Terry Blair Charged With Murder as Kansas City Police Investigate the Deaths of Six Women
Semen found on the body of Sheliah McKinzie matched Blair's DNA. He had been freed seven months earlier after serving 21 years for a 1982 murder.
Published
When six women's bodies turned up in a poor Kansas City neighborhood, residents kept telling police to look at one man. On September 14, 2004, prosecutors charged Terry Blair with murder.
Blair was charged with one count of first-degree murder in the death of Sheliah McKinzie, 38, after police determined that semen found on her body was his. The bodies of six women had been found in an 18-block area east of downtown, and police had said they believed one killer was responsible. They asked prosecutors to charge Blair in the deaths of the five other women as well, and in three assault and rape cases. Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders said Blair was eligible for the death penalty because of his 1982 conviction for murdering Angela Monroe, the mother of two of his children.
Blair had been released about seven months earlier, after serving 21 years of a 25-year sentence for that killing. On September 10, after his picture was shown on a newscast as a person of interest in the killings along the Prospect corridor, police found him hiding in a friend's garage. He was arrested on a parole violation. After his arrest he denied having contact with any of the victims.
In December 2004 Blair was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder. Under a pretrial agreement, the state dismissed two of them and did not seek the death penalty. On March 27, 2008, after a bench trial, a judge found him guilty of murdering McKinzie, Patricia Wilson, Carmen Hunt, Anna Ewing, Darci Williams and Claudette Juniel, and in April 2008 he was sentenced to six consecutive terms of life without parole.
News reports in 2004 spelled the victim's name Sheliah McKinzie, while the Missouri Court of Appeals spelled it McKenzie.
Sources
- State v. Blair, 298 S.W.3d 38 (Mo. Ct. App. W.D. 2009), No. WD 69602, Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District (via Caselaw Access Project)
- Terry Blair: K.C. killings suspect, Lawrence Journal-World
Related News
- March 27, 2008: Judge Convicts Terry Blair of Murdering Six Women Whose Bodies Were Found in Kansas City in 2004