JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

For several months, at least, 34-year-old Casey Eaton had gotten out of Armourdale.

She had moved to Mound City, KS — about 75 miles south, down U.S. 69 — where her mother, Cherri West, had bought a home within the last year.

About two months ago, however, Casey (pronounced Cassie) returned to this area and took a job at a Subway store on Shawnee Mission Parkway in Shawnee. One of her daughters, Angelica Eaton, also works there.

Casey hooked up with a 41-year-old man named Enemencio Lansdown, and they lived in a rental house at 911 Kansas Avenue, in the heart of Armourdale.

The house at 911 Kansas Ave. where Casey Eaton lived with Emenencio Lansdown, who is charged with murdering her

Lansdown

Angelica worked the day shift and Casey worked at night. On Wednesday night, Casey worked until 10 p.m. and headed home. Less than two hours later she was found shot to death in a truck parked outside the home. On Friday, the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office issued a warrant charging Lansdown with second-degree murder. Authorities continued searching for him today.

This is the second time in 18 years that Cherri West has lost an offspring to violent crime. In October 1999, Cherri, Casey (then 16 or 17) and other family members were living near 11th Street and Kansas Avenue when another of Cherri’s daughters, 10-year-old Pamela Butler, was abducted outside their family home by a violent pervert named Keith D. Nelson. Nelson took Pamela to a secluded area in Grain Valley, where he raped and strangled her. He was later convicted of murder and is now on death row in a federal prison in Terre Haute, IN.

That fateful Indian summer afternoon, Casey Eaton witnessed her half-sister’s abduction and yelled futilely at Nelson to stop. Partly because of her yelling, a man who was in a nearby truck pursued Nelson’s truck for a few miles, but Nelson eluded him near Rosedale Park and got on I-70.

After the murder, Cherri moved to a house in west-central KCK, near 63rd and State Avenue. She was able to buy it with money that hundreds of strangers contributed to help her out. I believe she continued living there until moving to Mound City.

**

Today, I attended a memorial gathering in honor of Casey at a park and playground that is dedicated to Pamela. The park is at 10th and Kansas, equidistant from the scenes of Pamela’s abduction and Casey’s murder.

A large crowd was on hand, perhaps 100 people. The only excitement occurred when a tow truck showed up across the street and lowered its slide, threatening to haul away the first of several cars owned by people attending the memorial gathering. I’ve never seen a parking area cleared so fast, as people ran across Kansas Avenue to move their cars.

Cherri West (left) being comforted today by a longtime friend, Leah Collins of Shawnee

I had not seen Cherri since Keith Nelson’s trial at the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown KCMO. She looks about the same as she did back then — long, blond hair pulled back tightly from her temples and braided down her back — except for having put on a few pounds. She told me she had not met Lansdown and hadn’t known much about him. Interviewed by a TV reporter she said, “I want him off the streets before he hurts somebody else.”

Others on hand included Angelica Eaton, who told me about helping her mother get the job at Subway, and Angelica’s four-month-old son Ramileo (pronounced Rah-me-lee-o). Ramileo was Casey’s only grandchild.

I left that gathering today with a forward-looking wish and a retrospective one.

Like Cherri, I hope Lansdown is apprehended soon, and before he injures or kills someone else. My retrospective wish was that Casey Eaton had not come back to Armourdale. There are a lot of good people and a lot of good, small businesses in Armourdale, but it’s not been a good place for Cherri West and her family. Cherri is right to keep moving farther away from it.

Part of the crowd attending a memorial gathering today at 10th and Kansas Ave. for Casey Eaton