On the afternoon of Monday, August 12, 2013, police in Kansas City, Missouri, were dispatched to a property near 59th Street and Swope Parkway following the discovery of a deceased individual. The victim was identified as Manuel E. Lars, a 32-year-old Black male who lived in the surrounding neighborhood. His body was located in a small wooded area behind a gas station, resting against a residential fence, where a local resident had spotted him around 12:35 p.m. and alerted authorities.
Investigators determined that the events leading to Lars' death likely occurred the previous night. Police records indicated that officers had received multiple calls reporting gunfire in the vicinity starting around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday and continuing until shortly after 1:00 a.m. on Monday. Detectives surmised that Lars was killed around midnight during an altercation outside the gas station, a location where he was known to spend time. While reports surfaced of two men exchanging gunfire at the station earlier that night, authorities believed Lars fell victim to a separate volley of shots that occurred later in the evening.
Despite the initial investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting, detectives did not immediately release information regarding a motive or specific suspects. The case eventually became listed among the Kansas City Police Department's unsolved homicides. Years later, online crime databases and cold case registries continued to list the death of Manuel E. Lars as an open case, seeking information from the public and offering rewards for details that could lead to an arrest. To date, no specific individuals have been publicly charged or convicted in connection with his death.
