Man Guilty of Murder in Death of Fleeing Victim

In August 2017, Kansas City woman Shannon Keithley fled her home and died when her SUV slammed into a concrete pillar as she was calling 911. Police found Orlando Taylor hiding under the back deck of her home and charged him with rape and burglary. On Wednesday, a jury found the 35-year-old guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated burglary, the Kansas City Star reports. He was acquitted of rape. Family members pushed for the murder charge to be added after Taylor's 2017 arrest. Relatives believe Keithley managed to escape the house around 5am following a struggle after Taylor broke into her home and attacked her. A knife was found in her driveway.

The 39-year-old, who crashed the vehicle less than a mile from her home, had made an earlier 911 call from inside the home, saying she had been attacked and raped, but police were unable to trace it because it had been made from a cell phone. She was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, which friends and relatives say was extremely unusual and a sign she fled the home in a panic. The case sparked updates to the 911 system in the area, KCTV5 reports. Keithley's relatives pushed for the changes, saying it was outrageous that games like Pokemon Go had more accurate location information than emergency services. (More Kansas City stories.)