On September 12, 1987, the body of 19-year-old Angela Mayhew was discovered in the 2600 block of Genessee Street in Kansas City, Missouri. Unlike other victims found during a similar timeframe in the area, Mayhew was discovered fully clothed on the side of the road. She had been strangled, but an autopsy revealed no evidence of sexual assault, a detail that later became a pivotal point in the judicial proceedings regarding her death.
For nearly two decades, her case remained unsolved as investigators struggled to find a definitive link to a perpetrator, leaving her death as one of many cold cases in the region.
The investigation took a dramatic turn in 2004 when the Kansas City Police Department, utilizing a federal grant to re-examine cold cases with advanced DNA technology, identified a suspect. Lorenzo Gilyard, a 54-year-old trash company supervisor who became known as the Kansas City Strangler, was arrested after his DNA was matched to evidence from multiple crime scenes. Authorities charged Gilyard with twelve counts of first-degree murder, alleging he was responsible for a spree of killings involving women and girls in Kansas City between 1977 and 1993. Mayhew was named as one of the victims in the indictment, with prosecutors building their case on the patterns observed across the murders and specific forensic evidence.
In March 2007, Gilyard faced a bench trial where prosecutors presented their case without a jury. During the proceedings, the court examined the specific evidence tying Gilyard to Mayhew. While a hair belonging to Gilyard was found on Mayhew's sweater, the physical evidence differed significantly from the other victims, as there was no semen or biological fluid linking him to her body. The defense argued that the presence of a hair was insufficient to prove murder beyond a reasonable doubt, especially given the lack of sexual assault which was a hallmark of the other crimes Gilyard was accused of committing.
The presiding judge delivered a mixed verdict following the conclusion of the trial. Lorenzo Gilyard was convicted of six counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, regarding the death of Angela Mayhew, the judge issued an acquittal. The court noted that while the discovery of Gilyard's hair on her clothing was suspicious, it did not meet the burden of proof required for a murder conviction, particularly in the absence of the DNA evidence that had conclusively tied him to the other six victims. Gilyard maintained his innocence throughout the trial and subsequent years of his imprisonment.
