In the late hours of April 19, 2017, 34-year-old Casey Marie Eaton was found shot to death inside a vehicle in Kansas City, Kansas. The grim discovery was made in the 900 block of Kansas Avenue, a location poignantly close to a park dedicated to her younger sister, Pamela Butler, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1999. This tragic event marked the second time Casey's mother, Cherri West, had to endure the horror of losing a daughter to a violent crime.
Casey, a mother of four and a
recent grandmother, had been working at a Subway and was reportedly turning her life around. On the night of her death, she had been with her boyfriend, 41-year-old Enemencio Lansdown. According to testimony, the two were seen having a physical altercation in a vehicle shortly before the shooting. Lansdown later claimed to a friend that Casey had shot herself, but he fled the scene before police arrived. An autopsy later ruled her death a homicide, noting injuries to her face and arms that were not present earlier that day.
Following the incident, authorities identified Lansdown as the primary suspect and issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of second-degree murder. A few days later, after a five-hour standoff with police and U.S. Marshals at a home on Kansas Avenue, Lansdown surrendered and was taken into custody. During the standoff, he had barricaded himself inside the residence and exchanged gunfire with law enforcement, though no one was injured. Lansdown was subsequently charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm. The case against him was ordered to proceed to trial after a judge determined there was sufficient evidence.
