This Matter is CLOSED, no further investigation

This Matter is CLOSED

“The case is finished”, the sheriff told the family.

Klysta Lanell Breshears

Stunned by the blatant disregard of solid evidence offered by the mother of the victim, indicated that the death was questionable, if not homicide.  The pleading by parents for the case to be re-opened was ignored; the coroner obstinately refused their request.

“The case will not be re-opened or investigated”, the family was told.  That was and still is the decision of the elected coroner and local district attorney.

Lyn Williams Carver:

In search of justice for Klysta LaNell Breshears. Part One

Len Williams Carver was notified by telephone that her daughter was dead.  The caller, a long time male friend of her daughter Klysta, Ralph Chapman tearfully told Klysta’s mother, “She’s gone.  Klysta is dead”.

With few details, Len and her husband Robert quickly packed essentials for the trip from their home in Kansas to Versailles, Missouri thinking there would be more information once they arrived.

The three-hour trip seemed like forever, all the while thoughts of recent conversations with her daughter Klysta were running through her mind.  Was there something I should have heard some urgency in her voice that indicated I should have gone to her and not waited for her to come home for a recently planned visit?

Len and Robert discussed these thoughts and many more on the way to Missouri.

One factor was worrying Len more than any other.  She explains in her own words:

Late January of 2011, Klysta called and said “Momma I want to come home I need my momma time” so I purchased a train ticket for her. She would arrive Sunday, February 20. Three pm was the expected arrival time in Kansas City.

She called me that Wednesday, the 16^th of February, in the early afternoon. She said she wanted to tell me something. So she did.

Seems she had a black eye and she had gotten it falling off a ladder. When I questioned her she said in a whisper” momma Ralph did it. (I’m her momma I could tell she was not telling the truth)  “When I get home you and Daddy or somebody needs  to come get the rest of my stuff because I’m not coming back”, Klysta told her momma.

 Ok, so that was it. She would be home in four days and they would talk more then.

The phone call no mother should ever receive.

On Saturday Morning, the day before Klysta was to arrive in Kansas City, at 8:35 the phone rings and Ralph (Klysta’s companion of 11 plus years) is crying really hard.

I thought he was saying Demetrius (Klysta’s son) was gone. Then, a man came on the telephone and identified himself as Dr. Bill Jones Morgan County Corner.  Dr. Jones asked if I was the mother of Klysta Lanell Breshears.

My heart stopped, my mouth opened screaming, and screaming, my husband was in the bathroom he came out when he heard my screams. I had thrown the phone.  I looked at him and very calmly said, “Klysta is dead.”

The three-hour drive to Versailles Missouri, seemed as if it was forever, Len remembered.

“Robert and I talked during the drive, I cried telling him to hurry she needed me! I had to see for myself and whatever other babble came about from my feeling of urgency”, Lyn wrote in her memoir of Klysta’s story.

Somewhere along the way to the home Klysta had shared with her companion Ralph Chapman they met up with Lyn’s other two daughters and Lyn’s sister.

“We arrived at the home Klysta shared with Chapman.  His sister Gwen lives next door with her family.  They invited us into their home, and that is where I walked upon Ralph, he cried out “Mom she’s gone” and collapsed in my arms”.

We went to funeral home in Versailles where they had taken Klysta.

“I collapsed at funeral home door.  Someone took my cane and put me in a wheel chair. My sister wheeled me into the building.  We were directed to a room where my baby, my beautiful baby was covered with a blue blanket.  It appeared they were in the process of draining her; some blood was on her lips. One whole side of her face was a massive bruise; bruises up and down her arms, her eyes, her neck her lips, all covered with bruises”, Lyn tearfully recounted.

They finally made me go to the family room to make arrangements.

While we were all seated around the table talking about the autopsy and cremation, etc. my daughter Dusti walked in and looked directly at Ralph and said, “What happened to my sisters face”?

I told her the time for that was later.

I finished the arrangements for Klysta’s service and we returned to Chapman’s sister Gwynn’s house where family and friends had begun to gather. Then, the stories of Klysta’s final moments began to emerge.

First story:

Klysta had gone to a bar Wednesday night, got into a fight with some girl then she and Ralph fought when he went to get her. (This was later proved a falsehood she did not go to any bar any night, or that week)

Second story:

As they were going down the road she jumped out of the truck and fell into a ditch he punched her to get her back in truck.

Third story:

Klysta and Ralph got into an argument out in the middle of the lane and went to fisticuffs with each other. “This story I might believe”, was Lyn’s reaction.

“So we have these three stories, then another version of how Klysta could have died came into the conversation”, Lyn said.

Fourth story:

Chapman says she was sick on Friday felt like she had flu and was very tired.

(All of these stories within a couple of hours of one another)

Klysta’s son Demetrius’s story:

At 7:30 Friday morning, Klysta’s son Demetrius was to be in court for a speeding ticket that day. His mother promised to drive him.  She was still in her bedroom.

As he approached his mother’s room, Ralph closed the door and wouldn’t let him in.  He claimed she had hit the bottle pretty hard and was not able to get up.

Demetrius says he saw her for just a minute before Chapman closed the door.  She was propped up against the head-board; her chin was on her chest, drool flowing from her mouth.  There was a towel or sheet over the top of her head and her eyes were closed.

Demetrius said his mother looked really sick and when he tried harder to get in her room, Ralph told him he would take him to court.

Lyn note: “Another twist, he never took the boys anywhere”.

Ralph said he came home from work at noon gave her a couple of spoons full of chicken soup.  Klysta said she was too tired to eat and laid back down in the bed. He left again, when he came home that evening she was asleep. He ate, and then checked on her; she was sleeping.

Chapman claims he laid on the sofa to watch TV and fell asleep. When he awakened the next morning and went in to check on her, she was gone (dead).

He went next door to sister’s house to get her to come over.  She is a social worker (used to be head nurse at a senior center where she is now social worker) She came over checked Klysta and called 911.  The paramedics worked on Klysta for a while then called coroner, then took her directly to the funeral home.

I made little or no comments about the many variations of how Klysta died and the events leading up to her death. I wanted time to sort out all the information I had gathered, talk to the investigator from the Morgan County Sheriff’s office and see the results from the autopsy.

The arrangements for the autopsy, cremation and choosing the urns for the cremated remains was completed. There was little more I could do there, so my husband and I decided to go back home to Kansas City.

Prior to leaving the Ozarks I asked Ralph to come outside with me and we sat on a bench in his sister Gwen’s yard.  I looked him straight in the eyes and faced him asking Ralph to tell me the truth. “Tell me what happened to my daughter”.

His story this time

She got drunk, they fought, he punched her in the eye and that was it.  He was so damn sincere but I knew in my heart something more happened.  I knew, but what was I to do? The coroner had not finished his report; the sheriff had not taken an active interest in the case.  At that moment I was in shock; my husband was just as lost as I was.

Continued:  Part 2, Klysta LaNell Breshears;  the autopsy report, police report and more.

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