In the winter of 2013, the life of 31-year-old Brandis R. Ruetz, a woman who had moved to the Kansas City area from Sycamore, Illinois, came to a tragic end. On Wednesday, December 4, 2013, her body was discovered by city workers who were cleaning debris behind a vacant house in the 3300 block of Oakley Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. The area was known as a spot for illegal dumping, a desolate place for a life to be so cruelly discarded. At the time of the discovery, homicide detectives noted that her body did not appear to have been there for a significant amount of time.
Brandis, a mother of four, had faced a difficult path in life, battling both bipolar disorder, with which she was diagnosed as a child, and a drug addiction that took hold in her teenage years. Her family acknowledged her struggles, with her father, David Ruetz, stating that it was easier for her to cope with life while on drugs. Despite her challenges, she had been in contact with her parents in the months leading up to her death. They had last spoken to her in October of 2013, as she was being released from jail. Her life in the Kansas City area had been spent living with her brother and, later, a boyfriend. She had a minor brush with the law in September 2013, when she was arrested for drug possession. After being released on bond the following month, she failed to appear in court in November, leading to a warrant for her arrest.
In the wake of the discovery of her body, the Kansas City Police Department launched a homicide investigation. However, details about the cause of her death were not publicly released. Detectives worked to piece together the final moments of her life, reaching out to friends and family to determine when she was last seen. As of early 2014, her case was among the roughly half of the 106 homicides in Kansas City from the previous year that remained unsolved. There have been no subsequent announcements regarding any arrests or the identification of any suspects in the death of Brandis R. Ruetz. Her case, a quiet tragedy amidst a violent year in the city, remains unresolved.
