On the night of December 27, 2019, neighbors in the North Jefferson Court area of Kansas City, Missouri, reported hearing a woman’s cries for help and gunfire. Police arrived just before 11 p.m. and found 51-year-old Lisa Powell outside, suffering multiple gunshot wounds; she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Powell was a wife, mother, grandmother, a United States Postal Service employee, and a greeter at Harvest Church International. Investigators recovered shell casings and bullets at the scene and later found ammunition in the room of her 20-year-old son Joshua Thompson that matched the crime-scene evidence. A handgun loaded with the same type of ammunition was located in nearby woods.

Authorities took Joshua Thompson into custody and charged him with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with Lisa Powell’s death. Community members continue to mourn; anyone with information about that night is asked to come forward.