The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A rash of slayings across Kansas since Monday has been almost more than the state’s depleted investigative agency can handle.
“Seven dead bodies in the first three days of this week. We’re really stretched thin now,” said Kyle Smith, spokesman for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. “If you want to have a murder or rape, you need to do it early in the fiscal year, the way it’s going.”
Smith said the KBI is about 17 investigators - or 20 percent of the bureau’s agent force - short of being fully staffed and expects to lose two more agents next year to budget cuts.
“I don’t think anyone at the bureau thinks we’re doing everything we should be doing,” he said.
Monday night, one Fort Riley soldier was killed and another critically wounded during an altercation in Clay County. Tuesday morning, four people were found dead in a Parsons apartment, and that same day in southwest Kansas, an 81-year-old was found shot to death in his room at an Elkhart assisted living facility.
Wednesday morning, a woman was found dead in her Topeka home and her daughter was abducted, prompting the attorney general’s office to issue an Amber Alert. The girl was later found in Wyoming.
“I’ve been here since 1987, and I don’t remember a week like this,” Smith said.
Two of the agency’s 64 investigators have been assigned full time to the BTK serial murders in Wichita, and others deal primarily with homeland security issues. Smith said the KBI routinely investigates most killings in smaller communities, and sometimes helps with murder investigations in larger cities when asked.
Republican Attorney General Phill Kline, whose office oversees the KBI, blames most of the funding problems in the agency on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat.
“It’s a serious concern,” Kline said. “We have several vacancies over there we need to fill. My budget has gone from $6 million from the state general fund when I came into office to $3.8 million. We have people working harder, and we’re spending less on travel and furniture, being more efficient.
“I’m rowing the boat when it comes to tough economic times.”
Kline criticized Sebelius’ veto of funding to create a white-collar crime division in his office, while the governor’s office budget skyrocketed.
“The KBI over a period of years has not been a budget priority, and we need to change that,” Kline said.
Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said the governor believes the KBI is adequately funded.
“Gov. Sebelius believes keeping Kansans safe is the highest priority of government at every level,” Corcoran said. “So she’s enhanced funding for the Kansas Highway Patrol, the state’s first line of defense, she’s providing millions of dollars for homeland security, and she’s increased state funds each year to support the KBI’s investigative units.”