FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Memorial and Balloon Release to Honor Chris Bartholomew
Organizers hope memorial will bring new information for this unsolved case.

North Kansas City, MO – Chris Bartholomew was an ambitious young man who dreamed of becoming a police officer. On May 20, 2007, a senseless act not only cut Chris’ hopes and dreams short — it cut his life short. Five years later his family is still looking for justice.

After five years, investigators are still unclear as to what happened the night of Chris’ murder.  Chris and his friends had been out a local night spot in the Kansas City area.  It is believed that Chris was caught in the cross fire during a gunfight that Chris had nothing to do with.  Unfortunately, there are few clues to help police identify the shooters, and even worse, Chris died as a result of his injuries.

On Monday May 28th, Chris will be honored with a memorial service and balloon release.  The service will be held at 1:00pm at the Children’s Fountain located at North Oak Trafficway and 9 Highway (32nd Street).  Organizers are providing balloons, but ask that the community also bring balloons to the event.  For more details on how you can help with the event, please contact Misty Kirwan 816-305-6893.

Police say there were four cars involved in the shooting.  The first one was a Dodge Charger, whose occupants have been identified. Investigators now want to know who was inside the other three cars: a 2003 Isuzu Rodeo, a 2007 Pontiac G6 and a brown car, which police believes was filled with people aligned with the passengers of the Dodge Charger.

Unfortunately, because so many people were involved in the fight and so many guns were being fired, it has been difficult for investigators to prosecute this case. Organizers are hoping that Chris’ memorial will revive an interest in his case and bring forth new information from the public.

If anyone has information please contact the CUE Center for Missing Persons directly at (910) 343- 1131, at the 24 hour tip line (910) 232-1687, visit http://www.ncmissingpersons.org, or contact
Detective Danny Phillips of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department at (816) 234-5362.
or the Tips Hot Line 816-474-TIPS

About CUE
CUE Founder Monica Caison, who has dedicated her life to the plight of missing people and their loved ones; Mrs. Caison became a tireless advocate for the missing after being exposed to the families of missing persons at least three times before she was 25 years old. In 1994, she founded the non-profit (Community United Effort), known as the CUE Center, which is focused on finding the missing, advocating for their causes, and supporting their families. Since its inception, CUE has helped more than 9,000 families in what is often the most confusing and desperate times of their lives. The non-profit CUE Center is funded entirely by donations, and staffed by dedicated volunteers.

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Public Event.

NEWS MEDIA WELCOME!

Monday, May 28, 2012
1:00pm

Children’s Fountain–North Oak Trafficway & 9 Highway (32nd Street), North Kansas City, MO 64116

Unfortunately its that time of year again. We will have the Memorial for the 5 yr anniversary of Chris’s death. Since the case is still unsolved I need to do this to keep his name and story out in the public. We will do a balloon release so please bring balloons if you can, we will have some also. This is Memorial Day but what better day to have it? Hope you can make it!

Event Page on Facebook

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POMC DICE RUN

*all vehicles welcome*

SATURDAY JUNE 9, 2012

Starts and ends at Stables Grill–Kearney, MO
627 W State Route 92, Kearney, MO 64060; 816-903-3000

REGISTRATION STARTS @ 10 AM
START YOUR ENGINES AT NOON SHARP!

$20 per person-includes patch
$10 each additional player on bike or in car

Prizes for high and low rolls. Lot’s of great raffle prizes and a 50/50 drawing!

A dice run is an event where participants pay their entry fee and are given a card. We start out on @ a 70 mile drive through the country and stop at 3 different locations. At each location you will roll the dice and your total will be recorded on your card. At the end your rolls will be totaled and prizes will be given for the highest and lowest total rolls score. At the end we will do raffles for some great prizes that have been donated and do a 50/50 drawing. A 50/50 drawing is where tickets are sold and 1 ticket is drawn out and the winner gets half the total of the ticket sales and POMC gets the other half.

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Chris Bartholomew Memorial Scholarship Softball Tournament

More details coming soon!

Would you like to sponsor Chris’s softball tournament? Sponsorships available!

Please contact chris.softball@yahoo.com

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -

Both nationally and in the Kansas City area, public officials and family members are remembering victims of violent crimes.

National Crime Victims’ Rights Week aims to help change the way victims are treated in the criminal justice system and remember those killed. Locally, those who work to protect children from exploitation are also remembered.

Almost 15,000 were murdered in the United States in 2010 with 106 killed in Kansas City. Thus far in 2012, Kansas City has seen 39 homicides compared to 22 at the same period of time in 2011.

“There is no way anyone knows what that feels like unless you have been there,” said Greg Smith whose teen daughter Kelsey Smith was abducted from the Target near Oak Park Mall.

Her body was later found near Longview Lake and her killer has been sentenced to life in prison.

Smith and his wife created a charitable foundation, pushed to make it easier for law enforcement officials to get cell phone records and Smith successfully ran for the Kansas Legislature.

“It’s because the rights of the accused were more important than the rights of Kelsey,” Smith said. “The right to a speedy trial was more important than my daughter who was kidnapped, raped, sodomized and strangled and left to lay in the woods.”

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker joined Smith in the ceremony honoring crime victims.

“It’s a week where we honor the victims of crimes, but it’s also a week to put focus back on the victims and try to balance the rights of the defendant against the rights of the crime victim,” Baker said.

The hope is to find ways to quell violence and find justice for homicide victims so that their killers don’t roam free.

For more on aid to crime victims, click here.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City man who killed two people and shot a police officer during a 2007 crime spree was sentenced to 79 years in prison on Friday.

December 16, 2011

Frederick Darrington, Jr., 23, was sentenced to 79 years in prison, which will run concurrent with a 35 year sentence he’s already serving. Prior to these charges, Darrington had a violent criminal record ranging from armed car robberies, armed car-jackings and a hit and run that nearly killed two people.

Retired Kansas City Missouri Police officer Lee Malek, who was forced from the force because of the injuries he sustained when he was shot by Darrington, says that the shooting has left him in pain every day, and it has nearly destroyed him both mentally and physically.

“Clearly his intent was to kill me,” said Malek. “Four bullets went through the door, I don’t know how they missed me. I don’t know how a lot of the bullets missed me. I’m lucky, I’m blessed.”

Malek says that he was upset that Darrington wouldn’t look at him, or any of his victims, in court on Friday.

“I would have liked to have looked at him and have him see what we’ve went through, what it’s done to us and our families, to pay respect for the ones he did kill and families who lost their loved ones,” said Malek.

Murder victims like Andre Taylor, gunned down by Darrington in a case of mistaken identity. His fiance heard him yelling, “It’s not me” right before the shots that killed him rang out. Darrington’s other murder victim, Kevin Sherrils, was shot and killed while walking to his sister’s house.

“We finally have justice for his killer, hopefully it brings some people peace,” said Ronnesha Smith, Sherrils’ sister. “It doesn’t bring me peace because he still has his life and my brother doesn’t have his.”

Mylincia Williams was crossing the street after a Bible study class when Darrington hit her with a stolen car and fled the scene. When Darrington confessed to police that he knew he had hit Williams, he made a crass comment about her figure.

“The hardest thing for me to hear was that he just wanted to take me out on a date,” said Williams. “He didn’t care that I almost died and he left me for dead.”

“I think he got what he deserved, more than we expected, and I think that’s awesome. It’s where he belongs,” said Malek.

Misty Kirwan, whose son Chris Bartholomew was gunned down in a Westport parking lot in 2007, says that she attended the sentencing on Friday because she had heard rumors that Darrington had been involved in her son’s death.

“Listening to the testimony in there, of all the people he hurt, he doesn’t deserve to be in the streets,” said Kirwan. “We want to solve Chris’ case, we want justice like some of the families got here today.”

The Chris Bartholomew case is still considered unsolved, and there is a $30,000 reward for information that can help police close that case.

http://chrisrbartholomew.com

Chris Bartholomew Killed Outside Drug Store 4 Years Ago

http://www.kmbc.com/news/27900912/detail.html#ixzz1NWcIyrWv

Misty Kirwin & Chris Bartholomew

https://www.cyberstationlive.com/JonLeiberman

The Show:

TRUEFACTS is a truly interactive show that digs deeper. You’ve seen me on “America’s Most Wanted” – now you will hear me on www.CyberStationUSA.com

I have been in the trenches as an investigative reporter for the past 15 years. I was at the Pentagon moments after the plane hit on 9/11 – broadcasting live from that tragic location for weeks. I was in Iraq in 2004 – reporting from the front lines of the war. And, I have been in the trenches with homicide detectives throughout the world hunting down fugitives.

TRUEFACTS will cover the crime stories you haven’t heard about. We will search for answers. We will offer solutions. Most of all, we will listen to you.

What issues are most important to you? We will talk about them. Government waste? Corruption? Failures and successes – this is the place you will get it all. You’ll also get a healthy dose of TRUEFACTS.

Oh-and don’t forget about our TRUEFACTS TAKE 2 -

Jon Leiberman

Professional Bio

Jon Leiberman is an Emmy award-winning investigative correspondent and producer who has filed hundreds of reports on fugitives across the country and abroad for the FOX TV show “America’s Most Wanted.” An expert in all things crime, he has appeared on national shows including “TODAY”, “Shepard Smith’s Fox Report”, “Nancy Grace,” and “The Maury Povich Show,” and is quoted extensively on crime stories in newspapers throughout the country. In January 2011, Jon started up LeibermanMedia, Inc. – a full service media content producing company whose clients include Webcast TV. Through LeibermanMedia, Jon hosts TrueFacts on CyberStationUSA.com and serves as managing editor for investigative projects at www.track180.com.

The company mantra is to give voice to the voiceless and help advocate for those in need. Jon also runs SonicLeibs,Inc. a company that provides compassionate and credible non-medical home care for seniors and others in need. Just as LeibermanMedia fights for the voiceless, SonicLeibs,Inc. helps those in their greatest time of need. Jon previously reported from Iraq, Cuba, and from the floor of the 2004 presidential political conventions for 62 stations nationwide as Washington Bureau Chief for Sinclair Broadcast Group. His journalistic actions during this time earned him a 2005 Payne Special Citation for Ethics in Journalism.

As Albuquerque capital bureau chief for KOAT from 1997-2000, Leiberman earned an Emmy for Live Reporting when he remained on the air for 24-hours straight during a fast-moving wildfire that engulfed thousands of acres. He reported from the ground, and then from a helicopter when the flames came too close. Leiberman has served as a professor in residence at the University of Iowa School of Journalism, and has lectured at the University of Maryland and McDaniel College. He also teaches journalism classes online for www.mediabistro.com, and does media relations seminars. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Time & Date: Sunday, May 15 · 2:00pm – 5:00pm

More Info
Memorial marking the 4 year anniversary of Chris’s murder. Going to try to get the detective to come out and hopefully release some more info. We will do a balloon release also. Also hoping the media will come out so we can keep Chris’s name and face out in the public

Chris Bartholomew was a young man with many goals. And one of them was to someday work as a police officer. However, on May 20, 2007, a senseless act not only cut Chris’ hopes and dreams short — it cut his life short. Now the 21-year-old’s family is looking for justice.

KANSAS CITY, MO. —
Kansas City Missouri Police and the family of a man killed in a 2007 Midtown shooting are hoping that a website will help to bring his killers to justice.

Chris Bartholomew was shot on May 20, 2007, near 39th and Broadway when he apparently got caught in the crossfire of a gun battle between rival street gang members while he and some friends were walking to his car. He died the next day.

Batholomew’s mother, Misty Kirwan, is hoping that a new website will help bring justice and closure in the case.

“This time of year is very hard,” said Kirwan. “I didn’t get to see him get married, have kids, I missed all that.”

Since his death nearly four years ago, Kirwan has worked to keep his memory alive. Shortly after the homicide, flyers went up all over 39th and Broadway urging witnesses to come forward. Now, anyone with a computer can help to solve this and other cold-cases and unsolved homicides.

“The website is huge,” said Det. Danny Phillips with the KCPD. He is the cold case detective assigned to Bartholomew’s case, and he says that the case is solvable.

“Being cold doesn’t mean that there’s no idea in the world who’s involved, their just not close enough, and sometimes having time to work those cases you can develop what you need to get it done,” said Phillips, who says that just a few minutes on the website could lead to a recalled memory that could bring justice and closure to a grieving family.

“I know people know something, there are people out there that know what happened that night and know who did it and won’t come forward,” said Kirwan.

Phillips says that he understands Kirwan’s frustration.

“If somebody was with the person they believe was responsible for taking Chris’ life, I wanna hear about it,” said Phillips. “I’m not interested in hurting them, I need their help, I want that person that pulled the trigger.”

For more information on KCPD Cold Cases, click here: http://www.kcpd.org

For more information on the Chris Bartholomew case, click here: http://www.chrisrbartholomew.com