I’ve had hundreds of “views” in recent days on my Sept. 2 post about the rape and murder last month of 46-year-old Julianna Pappas of Overland Park — allegedly killed by 23-year-old Korrey Rinke of Ottawa.
The level of interest in that post confirms at least one thing: sex sells.
But I’m not trying to sell sex here, or this blog would look a whole lot different…As most of you know, my abiding interest is how The Star and other local news outlets cover the news and what prompts them to delve deeply into some stories and pay lip service to others.
My motivation for writing about the Pappas case was to express my frustration at The Star’s decision to not aggressively pursue details of the Pappas case early on.
Today, readers got a better picture of why The Star decided to proceed slowly when the back story was a muddle. It appears now that Pappas demonstrated extremely poor judgment and that her character might not have been, shall we say, at the saintly level.
As for Korrey Rinke, he’s a cold-blooded killer who took advantage of a woman’s ill-placed trust, and he could end up getting the death sentence.
But briefly, let’s go back to the beginning…Here you had what appeared to be — from a grainy photo, anyway — an attractive woman possibly hooking up with a creepy-looking, tattooed guy who was young enough to be her son. Then her body turns up near Indian Creek Trail in south Overland Park.
Obvious questions included: If these two knew each other, where did they make contact? How long had they known each other? If they were “dating,” why would Pappas be going out with a man of such an age difference? It seemed to have the makings of an intriguing story.
Nevertheless, The Star stuck to bare-bones facts, such as names, ages, when and where the body was found, and the filing of charges.
I faulted The Star for not delving into the case more deeply to try to satisfy reader curiosity. I also applauded Fox 4 News for putting on the full-court press, at least initially.
Citing sources, Fox 4 reporters provided at least two key insights:
— Rinke and Pappas went out “on a date” around Aug. 22, the last day Pappas was seen alive.
— After Pappas disappeared, Rinke was caught on video surveillance at work “going through Pappas’ belongings.” Questioned by police, he broke down and said “he did something bad and told investigators where they should look for Pappas’ body.”
KMBC-TV Channel 9 reported another valuable fact: Pappas had recently moved to Overland Park from Texas.
**
One point that puzzled me about The Star’s kid-glove approach was the fact that the lead reporter on the story was Tony Rizzo. Rizzo is The Star’s lead police reporter and a Star veteran of about 30 years. If anybody could get the back story on the Pappas case, it is Rizzo. (He was in the Johnson County bureau when I headed that bureau for parts of 2014 and 2015.)
In my Sept. 2 blog post, I surmised that the editors had decided, for whatever reason, not to devote a lot of time and effort to the story. Court documents released today — and reported by The Star, Fox 4 and maybe other TV stations — shed light on why The Star chose to handle the case delicately.
In a nutshell, the court documents say Rinke told police he forced Pappas to have sex and then beat her and dumped her body.
Apparently, she had agreed to have sex (and may have done so with him earlier in the day) but changed her mind because Rinke didn’t have a condom. Video taken the morning of the crime shows Pappas arriving at Quintiles, a clinical research company, in a vehicle resembling one that Rinke owned. The video also shows her leaving in the same vehicle a few hours later.
It is unclear if they met at Quintiles, although a person who simply went by the initial “S” posted a comment on my Sept. 2 post saying that Pappas “did not know this man, other than meeting him informally while doing a medical study in Quintiles (not far from the crime scene).”
You have to take that for what it’s worth, of course — an anonymous comment from someone who claims to know something — but it sounded credible to me.
**
From my own experience in the news business — just short of 36 years as a reporter and editor at The Star — I believe The Star’s handling of the story may have evolved like this:
From his police sources, Rizzo culls the essential facts of the story, including that Pappas willingly accompanied Rinke that fateful morning. He presents them to his supervisor; the editors mull it over and ultimately decide, “Let’s sit tight.”
I haven’t spoken with Rizzo or anyone at The Star — and rarely do so. (Management doesn’t like reporters and others talking with bloggers.) I’m just speculating and offering an educated guess, based on personal experience. If this had been a case of stranger abduction, or even if Pappas had simply been a longtime Kansas City area resident with deep family roots, The Star would have gone on the offensive, I feel sure.
Yet, it continues to bother me that KC Star readers had to wait a week before getting the back story. In retrospect, I wish the editors would have charged Rizzo with verifying enough facts to give readers a good idea of what was going on, without going into great depth. In my view, the paper could have answered, early on, most readers’ basic curiosity without delving into the very unseemly elements that emerged today.
**
There’s one other thing about this case that raised questions about Pappas and her background. It’s that grainy photo. I wondered about it the day I saw it. But its poor quality really struck a chord with a good friend of mine, Kate Corwin, a fellow blogger.
Just a few minutes after I hit “publish” on Sept. 2, Kate sent me an email. Here’s what it said…
“I just saw your latest blog. I actually thought it was odd in this day and age that the only picture of a 46-year-old was grainy. Which leads me to think she might not have family, was a bit of a drifter, not from this area, maybe even living on the fringes — because it looks like a picture where someone just pulled her out of the background at a company picnic or concert. Not a picture the family would provide. So she might have come from the same type of background as the guy. Who knows? It’s just a gut reaction.”
…Ah, Kate, you would have been a great reporter!
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Maybe I’m just a self-righteous prude, but if you’re 46 and willing to have quickie sex with a creepy looking dude young enough to be your son, you are definitely living on the fringes.
A commenter on the Sept. 2 post told me “stop victim blaming,” but some victims almost set themselves up for trouble. This, unfortunately, seems like such a case…I agree with you 100 percent, Mike, and thanks for the comment.
I understand the point, but, by the same token, if the genders were reversed here and a 46 year-old male had gone off the rails to have a quickie with a 23 year-old female, would we consider it odd?
That said, maybe if she’d been a little more of a self-righteous prude, she’d be alive today. There’s a reason societies embrace some of those old-fashioned norms.
“Rizzo…was in the Johnson County bureau when I headed that bureau for parts of 2014 and 2015”
attention copy desk: I believe the johnson county bureau and james fitzpatrick were long gone from the kc star by 2014.
“As you were,” as they say in the military. Make that 2004-2005. I lose my decades once in a while…
Thanks, Mike.
Jim, your commentary doesn’t support your headline. The Star’s decision to sit back on the story isn’t any clearer than Pappas’ photo. And likely never will be as we know how editorial decisions can be murky and questionable at times. Yet, the elements of the crime reports on this story, so far, have the makings of good, even prize-winning, social commentary, albeit about a segment the media doesn’t find very sexy (other than their support of Trump). What white, educated middle-class whites like to call “living on the fringes’ of society (particularly if the victim and suspect are white) has become basic survival for many. There is an underground economy (The KC Fed did a very under-reported white paper on how it operates about 15 years ago, though it was focused on urban, African-American neighborhoods) that has grown exponentially since the start of The Great Recession. The underground economy (Pay Day loans, transient employment, giganomics, healthcare, temporary housing, cash/barter transactions, etc.) now reaches across all racial barriers, including the white, blue-collar/lower-middle class sector. The Star did touch on this–probably unknowingly–on its story last week on folks lining up in the dark of the night at a 7-11 ATM to get their monthly subsistence money.
Big Pharma has figured this out, too. Human lab rats, FDA approved. Thus, clinical medical research operations like Quintiles have become the modern equivalent of winos giving blood for a quick buck back in the day. Just look where they advertise on TV; the same place Pad Day loans, Title Loan car dealers, and ambulance chasing attorneys do.
What we consider sketchy is survival for many. Pappas appears to fit into this segment.
On its surface, this is a cut and dry murder story. But it has much deeper roots. That Korrey Rinke, according to court records, broke down and confessed as quickly as he did suggests his defense will investigate some form of mental illness, and he is, perhaps, not as “cold-blooded” as first thought. Still, murder is murder.
What is clear, at least to me, is that Pappas’ brutal death is just the opening chapter of a bigger story that affects a large population in this country. It would be nice to think The Star would attempt to give us a high definition image of Pappas and Rinke’s story.
“Yes.” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?
A good friend who has a Quintiles connection said some of these trials — ones that last several weeks — pay up to $4,500. I had no idea…It’s a lot more than a “quick buck,” and it further bolsters your rally cry about the increasing number of people “living on the fringes” and the need to address them and their plight.
Excellent points, Keenan!
Keenan, you are right on.
What is this, high school, 1967? The STAR votes on whether or not women are “loose” and only covers prudes and innocents? Regarding consensual sex, iIn 2016, doesn’t No mean NO yet???????????
Like the despicable thing Trump said about rape and women in the military…”What did you expect when you put men and women together?”
Well, Donald, and the KC STAR morning news committee, I don’t expect rape to be tolerated. Or the news to be so slanted as to victim shaming.
Yet another reason NOT to subscribe to the Star. Question for you, Fitz. When the Star shuts down, then what will you blog about? I did love your admission that “sometimes you lose a decade” in your recollections!
You know I’ve got plenty to say, Tracy, with or without a print product to hold in my hands. And, gratefully, I’ve got plenty of readers like you who seem to be interested in what’s on my mind. I’ve said all along this is the column I was always afraid to write at The Star. (In addition, I can get mad and call people turds, bums and worthless drunks — as I do in my latest post — and nobody winces.)
And my personal favorite in your cranky days: fat f♡♡k.
So long, has not been good t’know ya, Rog.
oh yeah, by the way she was an attractive gal in the grainy photo. Some of you boys made an inference that she might not have been as cute this year. As if there is a sliding scale of Rape-Ability and F^%$ability. Rape is not a crime of passion, goofballs. Read up. It’s domination.
I can’t find anything in the text or comments to support your assertion that “some of you boys made an inference that she might not have been as cute this year.” I suggested the grainy photo could be misleading…But let’s face it, when an attractive person is murdered — woman or man — it grabs people’s attention more than the death of a street person.
Gayle — Did you ever watch Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm?” One of the main characters is Larry’s good friend and manager Jeff Greene. Jeff’s wife Susie has a filthy mouth and often enthusiastically refers to Jeff, her husband, as “you fat fuck.”
It is hilarious. I think her words were running through my head when I wrote that about Roger Ailes.
Nice. Guess that’s the 21st century version of Debra Barone calling Ray an idiot.
No, the closest I’ve been to a Larry David production is “Seinfeld.”