On October 17, 2022, a concerning accumulation of mail and packages at the doorstep of an apartment in the 8700 block of Chestnut Circle prompted a call to the Kansas City Police Department. Neighbors in the Santa Fe Hills community had grown worried about the welfare of the residents inside, leading officers to conduct a check on the property around 1:00 p.m. Upon entering the unit with the assistance of a building manager, authorities discovered a tragic scene.
Inside separate bedrooms, they found the bodies of 33-year-old Chantell Gipson and her 26-year-old cousin, Austin Scott. Both victims had suffered fatal gunshot wounds, and emergency responders declared them dead at the scene.
Investigators quickly turned their attention to those closest to the victims. Witness statements revealed that Chantell Gipson had been in a relationship since July 2021 with a man named Glenn A. Pulluaim II. Witnesses also indicated to detectives that Pulluaim, 28, suffered from schizophrenia. Forensic evidence collected from the apartment played a pivotal role in the case; DNA recovered from spent shell casings found near the victims’ bodies matched Pulluaim’s profile. Furthermore, it was determined that after the shootings, the suspect had fled the scene in a vehicle belonging to one of the victims. The stolen vehicle was later recovered by police, but Pulluaim remained at large for over two months following the discovery of the bodies.
The search for the suspect intensified as details of his criminal history emerged. Court records showed that nearly a decade prior, in 2013, Pulluaim had been involved in a double homicide in northeast Kansas City where two men were shot during a drug transaction. He had pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in that case and served a seven-year prison sentence, having been released in 2020. In December 2022, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office officially charged Pulluaim with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action in connection with the deaths of Gipson and Scott. After weeks of being sought by law enforcement as an armed and dangerous fugitive, Pulluaim surrendered to authorities on December 29, 2022.
