On August 19, 2016, the body of 54-year-old John W. Palmer was found by a pedestrian in a wooded area along a walking trail at Bannister Road and Lydia Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. Police quickly determined Palmer’s death was a homicide. Palmer, a short-order cook, was survived by his wife and children.

Investigators linked Palmer’s killing to a series of seemingly random fatal shootings on or near south Kansas City walking trails, including Indian Creek Trail; the victims were all white men and many were shot from behind in surprise attacks. In August 2017 authorities arrested Fredrick Scott and charged him in Palmer’s murder and that of Steven Gibbons, later naming him a suspect in four additional deaths. Court records cite a prior 2014 threat and Scott’s mother reported he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Legal proceedings since the arrest have focused heavily on questions of Scott’s mental competency to stand trial.

Did anyone in the community know Palmer’s routines or ever see him on the Bannister Road–Lydia Avenue trail?