COLD CASE KANSAS

Cold case stirs controversy in Hutch:

Childhood friend, uncle, and writer seek justice
for Kelly Lynn Albright
By PAUL FECTEAU
Amid a whirl of autumn leaves and doors. After that, Rona was no longer
cold sunshine, two twelve-year-old girls allowed to stay overnight at Kelly’s. It
walk home from school on the streets didn’t matter that much. They continued
of Hutchinson, Kansas. The taller of to be in each other’s company almost
the two wears a sleeveless, plaid dress constantly.
and cradles a stack of books in her When they part, Rona, heading
arms. She has short, brown hair, high south to her home on 4th Street, says,
cheek bones, and sharp blue eyes. Her “See you tomorrow.”
name is Kelly, and she is usually so shy
and soft spoken that her voice is just a Kelly smiles, revealing a chipped
whisper, but when she talks to her friend front tooth.
Rona after school, After a minute or Don Wilson placed this memorial placard down the road from the field where the body of Kelly
Lynn Albright was discovered.
her voice rings. two, Rona looks back.
Their chatter Kelly, a block away A friend of Kelly’s mother answered and had occasionally visited Kelly’s
focuses on Central down the leaf-strewn and told Rona that Kelly had been home. Davis was seen washing his
Junior High. Despite sidewalk, is slowly found. Rona elatedly asked, “Where is car at 2 a.m. on the night of Kelly’s
the bond she shares making her way home she?” disappearance. In a 2005 interview
with Rona, Kelly through the bright “She’s dead. They found her in a with The Hutchinson News, Kelly’s
keeps her home but chilly September field. She had been raped and stabbed stepfather stated that information about
life private. She did afternoon. to death.” Davis’s behavior had been immediately
once tell Rona that Rona Smith reported. According to that same
Rona blacked out. article, however, Reno County Sheriff’s
she wanted to go still cherishes her
live with her father memories of walking She found herself crying in the detectives did not receive it until “nearly
in Virginia. Kelly did home from school with principal’s office an hour later. She does twenty years later.” Davis then became
not say why, but Kelly Lynn Albright, not know what she did in the intervening the prime suspect. He went to prison
Rona can imagine. usually accompanied time. in 1995 for two Sedgwick County
Kelly has to share by Bonnie and Bonnie’s After the funeral, Roberta offered convictions for indecent liberties with a
a bedroom with her best friend Carla Kelly’s clothes--the plaid dress, the child. Detectives made arrangements
14-year-old brother Goertzen. Rona had white knit top with a navy ring which to talk to him, but on March 24, 1997,
and 5-year-old met Kelly in the fifth Kelly had worn in their class photo--to he died of heart failure in the Lansing
sister in the family’s grade at McCandless Rona. Rona could not take them. For a Correctional Facility, having never been
little house at 1111 Elementary School and long time, she couldn’t bear to look at informed of the interview that was to
East 10th Street. by the time they began anything that reminded her of the friend have taken place two days later.
Kelly doesn’t have junior high in the fall of she had lost. Rona Smith was in her twenties,
that many clothes, 1970, they had become As the years passed, the pain of her time devoted to singing in a country
and the ones she best friends. Rona has that September lessened only slightly. band in Wichita, when she first learned
has don’t always tried to forget how that In part, it was replaced by rage--rage at that Davis may not have been guilty
fit well on her lanky friendship was to be the man she was told had killed Kelly. of Kelly’s murder or at least not solely
frame--Rona’s big cut short that awful His name was Glenn Davis. That was all responsible. She was shocked to
sister Bonnie calls September. she knew about him. discover that some members of the
her “Kell-bones” On Friday, family suspected Kelly’s stepfather.
because she is so Though Smith had never met him, Kelly’s murder remained too difficult
September 18, Davis was a friend of Kelly’s stepfather
thin. Rona does 1970, Rona got
like Kelly’s mother Kelly Lynn Albright, highlighted at top in startling news at the
Roberta, whom
everyone calls
this close-up from her class photo, and
Rona Smith, also highlighted, met at breakfast table. Her New Beginning
McCandless Elementary School. mother told her that
Bert, but her Kelly’s mother and Your purchase through
stepfather scares stepfather had come KansasStateCars.com helps
Rona--she once saw him with a bloody by early that morning. They said that create a brighter future for
bandage on his head from a fight. Kelly was missing. your little Wildcat.
Rona, nevertheless, loved to spend At school that day, Rona looked for
the night at Kelly’s house. The girls Kelly, peering into her classroom each
Visit our website for more
would do each other’s hair and nails information and to shop
hour only to see an empty desk. She our huge inventory of new
while listening to the Jackson 5. A few used a phone available to students to and pre-owned vehicles.
weeks ago, however, Rona’s mother call Kelly’s house and was told there
had come to pick her up and found was no news. The process repeated
the doors unlocked and the girls there on Monday, but the phone call ended
alone. The family never locked the differently.
(785) 565-5250 | [email protected]
8 tmi . DECEMBER 4 - DECEMBER 18, 2008
COLD CASE KANSAS
for her to think about, but she didn’t ultimately settling in Florida, but talk of
seem to have a choice. It continued to her brutal slaying has always haunted
come up in chance encounters with him. Three years ago, he decided to
old acquaintances, several of whom devote his time to researching her
had information that Smith thought murder. He has since amassed enough
the authorities ought to have. Drawing documents to fill two filing cabinets
upon her grief instead of hiding it, she and spoken to nearly everyone involved
contacted the Reno County Sheriff’s with the murder.
Department and the Kansas Bureau of After comparing notes, Wilson
Investigation and shared what she had and Smith feel they have at least a
learned. In 2002, she went to the media. fundamental understanding of the basic
KSN Television devoted a segment on facts of the case.
their nightly news to Kelly’s unsolved
News articles report that Kelly
murder. The report noted the suspicions
vanished from her house between
regarding Kelly’s stepfather but stated
10:30 p.m., September 17, and 12:15
that the police had cleared him.
a.m., September 18, 1970. There
After thirty-eight years, the case were no signs of struggle. She was
remains cold, but Rona Smith has not sleeping in the room she shared with
quit. And she is not alone. her brother and sister, neither of whom
Wichita language arts teacher and heard anything. Wilson indicates that Wichita playwright Sara Jenlink, at work on a book about the murder of Kelly Lynn Albright,
playwright Sara Jenlink is at work on a accounts of the whereabouts of Kelly’s confers with Rona Smith on their research trip to Hutchinson over the Thanksgiving holiday.
book about Kelly’s murder. Jenlink met mother and stepfather that night have
Detectives from the Sheriff’s After the murder, Rona could not
Smith in Wichita in 1999, and they grew varied. In the 2005 Hutchinson News
Department responded to the scene look at Kelly’s picture without crying.
close, starting a prayer group together. article, Kelly’s stepfather states that
which Wilson reconstructs as follows. Now she talks openly about the horrific
In the context of a discussion of faith he and Roberta were playing cards at
Tire tracks indicated that a vehicle had details of her friend’s killing. She does
and hope, Smith talked about how his father’s home a few miles away.
driven down the lane and stopped. From not do so with ease, occasionally
losing Kelly impacted her life. Jenlink The next day was Glenn Davis’s
there, barefoot prints followed by those still tearing up, but she feels the best
was so moved by the story that she birthday, and some accounts have
with size 11 shoes led into the sorghum antidote to her grief and anger would
wrote a novel based on it. Jenlink plans him out celebrating on the night Kelly
to a spot where Kelly’s red pajamas were be justice.
to publish the manuscript, titled Killing disappeared.
discovered. The shoe prints, moving “When I pray about Kelly,” Rona
Angels. In the novel, the killer gets On Monday, September 21, farmer in long strides, led back to the vehicle says, “I am praying for one thing--the
caught. Such has not been the fate of Calvin Troyer arrived to disc a field near which then drove erratically, knocking truth.”
Kelly’s killer, and that has made Jenlink
down sorghum, as it returned to the
main road. The barefoot prints led out of Captain Steve Lutz of the Reno
the field to the north and up the lane to County Sheriff’s Department confirms
where Kelly was found. Sometime later, that Kelly’s murder is still considered
another vehicle had driven down the lane an open case. Anyone who has
toward the body and then backed out. information can phone Lutz at 620-
694-2735 or the Kansas Bureau of
An autopsy revealed that Kelly Investigation at 1-800-KS-CRIME.
had been sexually assaulted and then
stabbed eighteen times with a five-
inch long knife. Kelly’s killer or killers
had evidently believed her dead in the
sorghum field, but she had gotten up,
To contact Paul Fecteau or to
despite her stab wounds, and walked suggest a cold case for this
toward the light of a construction site to column, e-mail him at
the north. She made it a short way up [email protected].
the lane before her lungs collapsed. She
died clutching a white pillowcase.
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The two women have now joined entered an access road that the local Three Convenient Locations: www.about-pci.com Gladia
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Wilson was Kelly’s paternal uncle. He upon Kelly’s naked body face down in Branch campus of Pinnacle Career Institute Kansas City South
never got to meet her, having joined the sandy dirt. • 1601 W. 23rd Street, Suite 200 • Lawrence, KS 66046
*According to www.acinet.org
the Air Force before she was born and
tmi . DECEMBER 4 - DECEMBER 18, 2008 9