Sheliah McKinzie, 38, a Black woman, was found dead on September 2, 2004, in Kansas City, Missouri, after a police officer followed a foul odor to the area near 26th and Montgall. Inside a detached garage at 2609 Montgall, her body was discovered under a tarp, placed on top of another woman’s remains. She was partially unclothed, with clothing bunched up around her neck and shoulders, and investigators documented signs that her neck had been broken and that she had been strangled.
As the scene came into focus, forensic testing began to knit together what had happened in that sweltering late-summer window. Detectives found blood evidence tied to McKinzie inside a nearby house under renovation at 2617 Montgall, and lab work on biological samples taken from her body identified semen and swabs containing Terry A. Blair’s DNA. The court record also describes additional testing that indicated ejaculation occurred within a day of her body being found, tightening the timeline around her last hours.
In the days that followed, a chilling element entered the investigation: anonymous 911 calls from a deactivated cell phone. In one call, the unidentified man told the dispatcher he had placed bodies and, when pressed, said, “Because I put the two on 25th and Montgall,” referring to McKinzie and the woman beneath her. The same caller gave directions to other hidden victims and spoke with contempt about why he targeted them. Evidence at trial included testimony placing those calls in the vicinity of addresses associated with Blair, along with background sounds and other details investigators argued were consistent with where he was staying.
By early September, people close to Blair were warning police about what he was saying and how he was acting. One woman flagged down officers and reported that Blair talked about killing sex workers “one by one,” and that he had been stalking her; not long after, Blair’s photo appeared in a news report as a person of interest. According to the appellate opinion, when police closed in, he tried to hide in a garage, wedged behind a car, but was found and arrested; after receiving Miranda warnings, he spoke with detectives while denying involvement and denying that he had contact with the victims.
Prosecutors moved forward with homicide charges, with early reporting noting that semen found on McKinzie linked back to Blair and became the basis for filing a murder count as investigators urged additional charges in other attacks and deaths. The case ultimately expanded: Blair was charged in Jackson County with multiple murders from the Prospect corridor area, along with other violent counts, before reaching an agreement that dropped two murder charges and dismissed assault and rape charges in exchange for conditions that included waiving a jury trial and proceeding before a judge. After a bench trial, he was found guilty on March 27, 2008, of six first-degree murders, including McKinzie’s, and on April 24, 2008, he received six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
