As police continue searching for a missing Raymore, Missouri, woman, they have arrested a man with ties to her case and that of another unsolved disappearance that dates back to 2007. 
 
 
 
 Jessica Runions was last seen at a party Thursday night in Grandview. Her burned car was found in an area near 95th Street and Blue River Road in south Kansas City over the weekend. 
 
 
 
 "She's super-sweet, has such a kind heart," said friend Elizabeth Humphrey. "She works at a retirement home and so she was server there and got moved up to cook. It's crazy to think that it could happen to her." 
 
 The last man Runions was known to be with, Kylr Yust, 28, was arrested without incident Sunday in Benton County. He’s charged with burning Runions’ car. 
 
 
 
 Yust is also the former boyfriend of missing Belton teenager Kara Kopetsky, who vanished in 2007 while trying to sever ties with him. 
 
 
 
 Rhonda Beckford, Kopetsky’s mother, said a week before her daughter disappeared, she had a terrifying incident with Yust. 
 
 
 
 “She actually had to jump out of his moving vehicle,” Beckford said. “Her phone saved her that time because people were starting to call her and she was able to answer the phone, and then people knew that he had her, so he turned around and headed back to Belton. She jumped out of his car and she made the choice to call the police that night.” 
 
 
 
 A few days later, Kopetsky was seeing leaving Belton High School after talking on the phone with Yust. She has not been seen since. 
 
 
 
 Yust has since spent time in prison for drug sales and was just released in February. 
 
 Beckford said she's confident Yust is the key to both cases. 
 
 "More than suspicions," she said. "I mean, we knew when she went missing that he was responsible." 
 
 She said she felt that Yust would probably do something else upon his release. 
 
 "Kylr isn't going to change," she said. 
 
 Beckford said she’s focused on the Jessica Runions case and hopes that police will be able to find answers for her family soon. She said she knows someone out there can provide those answers. 
 
 "Please call in and tell what you know," she said. "You may not think it's important, but it could be the missing piece of the puzzle in finding her." 
 
 Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. 
 
 
 
 ||||| RAYMORE, Mo. - Kylr Yust, the man arrested in connection to the disappearance of Jessica Runions, was transferred to the Jackson County Jail from Benton County. 
 
 Kylr Yust now in custody of KCPD. 
 
 Headed back to KCMO.@41ActionNews pic.twitter.com/LOkle8XVgC — Richard Sharp (@RichardKSHB) September 14, 2016 
 
 KSHB reporter Richard Sharp was able to question Yust as he was escorted out of the Benton County Jail but he declined to comment on Runion's disappearance. 
 
 Previous story: Kylr Yust, man questioned in Jessica Runions' disappearance, has violent past 
 
 Yust arrested in Benton County 
 
 Benton County Sheriff deputies arrested Yust Sunday morning in southeast Benton County. He was held on a $50,000 cash only bond. 
 
 According to police, Yust was taken into custody on an arrest warrant on charges for knowingly burning in relation to Jessica Runions's vehicle. Missouri Search and Rescue has searched two large areas twice with negative results. 
 
 Days before police arrested Yust, a Kansas City, Kansas tattoo parlor considered hiring him for a piercing apprenticeship. However, red flags caused some of the owners to rethink the decision. 
 
 
 
 “I didn’t resonate with this guy. I did not like his presence, I felt uncomfortable,” said Jeff Ollerich, a co-owner of Tried and True Tattoo. 
 
 
 
 Ollerich told 41 Action News he and other owners sat down and decided not to hire Yust. The next day, he was arrested in Benton County in connection to burning Runions’ car. 
 
 
 
 “I didn’t want to believe this was going on. I thought I was dreaming or something,” said Cordis Woods, another co-owner of Tried and True Tattoo. 
 
 Police search for missing Jessica Runions 
 
 Police are looking for 21-year-old Jessica Runions. 
 
 She is a white female and was last seen on September 8 at 9:30 p.m. driving a 2012 black Chevy Equinox with license plate number MN2-C8B. 
 
 Just before 2 a.m. on Saturday, Runions's vehicle was located in the area of 95th Street and Blue River Road. 
 
 Her vehicle was found unoccupied and burned. The vehicle was towed to a KCPD vehicle processing facility where it is being processed. 
 
 Her aunt Michele Runions is simply distraught. 
 
 "She's loving, caring, she helped raise her sisters. She's strong, independent," her aunt said. 
 
 Runions's family told 41 Action News that Jessica Runions went to a house party with her boyfriend Thursday night. This was the last time she spoke with her mother. 
 
 "She had constant contact it's not like her to not return phone calls maybe a long period of time but she would eventually get back with you," Michele Runions said. 
 
 She added at the party was also Jessica Runions's boyfriend's childhood buddy - Kylr Yust. 
 
 Yust is the same man who was the boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky. The young woman vanished in 2007; her case remains unsolved. 
 
 He's also the same man who was convicted of assaulting another woman, stealing from a tattoo shop and of animal cruelty for stomping a kitten and tossing it into a river. 
 
 Runions's aunt said Jessica's boyfriend left early, leaving Yust and the 21-year-old woman behind. 
 
 "We just know that they left the party together," Michele Runions said. 
 
 Runions’s mother called police Friday around 10:30 p.m. 
 
 Just before 2 a.m. police found Jessica’s car burned near an underpass. 
 
 "Just locating her vehicle in that condition that just that's just suspicious in nature and we're just concerned for her welfare," Captain Stacey Graves, a spokesperson with KCPD said. 
 
 So is her family. 
 
 "We just want her to come home safe," Michele Runions said. 
 
 Please call KCPD Missing Persons at 816-234-5136, TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477(TIPS) or 911 if you have any information. 
 
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 Like 41 Action News on Facebook: ||||| Family members of a young Raymore woman missing since Thursday see an ominous parallel to a girl who disappeared in 2007. 
 
 The family has been told by her friends that Kylr Yust — the off-and-on boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky, then 17, before she disappeared nine years ago — was the last person seen last week with 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. 
 
 He was taken into custody Sunday and was being held in Missouri’s Benton County jail. 
 
 Multiple Kansas City police sources confirmed that Yust, 27, was a person of interest in the Runions case but wasn’t the only person being sought for questioning. Authorities arrested Yust at 8:30 a.m. Sunday on charges of “knowingly burning” Runion’s 2012 black Chevy Equinox, which police found about 2 a.m. Saturday near 95th Street and Blue River Road. 
 
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 “Right now I have positive news that my daughter wasn’t in the car when they found it,” Jamie S. Runions told The Star on Sunday. “And that’s what’s going to keep me going right now. There’s hope.” 
 
 Missouri Search and Rescue scoured two large areas twice looking for Runions, without results, according to a Kansas City police news release. 
 
 Yust’s grandfather said Sunday night that he doesn’t know what’s going on with his grandson. 
 
 “I don’t know what they’re saying. I don’t know what all went on,” said the grandfather, who asked that his name not be used. “He hasn’t been around for a while.” 
 
 The Raymore woman was at a gathering of friends Thursday evening with Yust, against whom Kopetsky had filed for an order of protection days before she vanished in May 2007. Since that gathering, no one has reported seeing Runions. She failed to meet her mother at a doctor’s office on Friday for a critical follow-up to an appendectomy. 
 
 Jessica’s mother doesn’t know Yust and said she only knew he was a longtime friend of her daughter’s boyfriend. On Sunday, Jamie S. Runions spoke with Kopetsky’s mother, Rhonda Beckford, and leaned on her for support. 
 
 “People say they understand what you’re going through, but they don’t really understand. She does,” Runions told The Star. “She knows this numbness I’m feeling, this anger I’m feeling because I can’t do anything.” 
 
 Beckford said when she first learned of the missing Raymore woman, and that Jessica Runions had last been seen with Yust, her heart sank. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Rhonda Beckford of Belton, Mo., mother of Kara Kopetsky, 17, whose has been missing for nine years, expressed her concerns for family members of missing 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. Runions has been missing since Thursday. 
 
 Anxious waiting 
 
 The last text Runions received from Jessica was Wednesday evening. Jessica wrote: “Sweet dreams.” And her mom responded by sharing a selfie of herself with Jessica’s little sister. 
 
 Jessica then sent back a picture of her with her cat, Tig. 
 
 On Thursday around 2 p.m., Jessica responded to a post on Facebook. From there, her mother heard nothing. 
 
 Jessica works in the restaurant at the Foxwood Springs senior living community in Raymore. A family member said she’s moved up to baker. 
 
 A text message Runions sent Jessica around 8 p.m. Thursday wasn’t read. After that, calls to her phone went straight to voicemail, as if the device was turned off. 
 
 “This girl can never be without her phone on,” Runions said. “Her phone will be on silent, but it’s never turned off.” 
 
 On Friday, Runions went to the doctor’s office to meet Jessica there. She never showed. But her mother knew how important the appointment was. Jessica needed clearance after her surgery to go back to work. Runions reported her daughter missing Friday night. 
 
 Detectives spent Saturday night interviewing everyone they could find who may have seen Runions in the past few days. 
 
 Family and friends wait by the phone. 
 
 “She’s just the sweetest girl,” said Linda Runions, Jessica’s grandmother. “She never hardly gets mad. She’s a loving sister. She’s loving to everyone. 
 
 “We’re all praying every single minute,” Linda Runions said. “Just to hear that she’s OK.” 
 
 Jamie Runions doesn’t want to focus her attention on Yust. The police will do that, she said. 
 
 She wants to make sure everyone sees Jessica’s face and knows she needs help. 
 
 “If she’s trying to get away and runs, I want someone to find her,” she said. “That is my hope. … If she’s seen, I want someone to say, ‘That’s Jessica Runions, I saw her on Facebook.’ 
 
 “I just want her home.” 
 
 Long missing 
 
 On April 24, 2007, Kara wrote on her Myspace page: “So life hasn’t been the greatest for me lately, over the last 9 months of my life iv dedicated my life to kylr ... I made no other time for any of my friends nor my family. over those 9 months i forgot the person that I was. im trying to find that person again.” 
 
 Police said then that a few days before she disappeared, Yust and Kara had a conflict that resulted in an order of protection requiring Yust to stay away from her. 
 
 Kara hasn’t been heard from since. 
 
 Yust was never charged in the case, although he did serve time in Jackson County for stealing, according to online court records. 
 
 Earlier this month, Yust was ordered by the federal Bureau of Prisons to serve a weekend in confinement for an undisclosed probation violation. He had been sentenced to 45 months in federal prison in 2013 on a drug trafficking charge and was placed on three years’ supervised probation. 
 
 A security camera showed Kara leaving Belton High School just before 10:30 a.m on May 4, 2007. That was about the same time as the last call on her cellphone. Law enforcement officers have searched various locations over the years, but the mystery continues. 
 
 Kara decided to walk to school on that Friday morning. She did not come home, and she did not show up for work after school. Kara’s mother and her stepfather, Jim Beckford, reported her missing that evening. 
 
 More than 50 people turned out in May for an annual walk on Missouri 58 in Belton to remember Kara. The walk takes place on the closest Sunday to May 4 each year. 
 
 A website, searchingforkara.com, has more information. Signs along the highway read “Still searching. Nine years is too long” and “Kara is loved. We won’t give up.” 
 
 Now, Rhonda Beckford’s focus is on supporting Jessica’s mom. When the two talked she could understand Jamie Runions’ need to concentrate on the positive. 
 
 “When you’re going through something like this, you have to hold on to hope,” Beckford said. “If you don’t, you end up in a very dark place. That’s what helps you go on, that sliver of hope you have to hold on to, because you just don’t know.” 
 
 She clung to that for years, she said. But admits, after nine years without her daughter, that’s harder to do. 
 
 “As time goes by and coming up on 10 years, if there was any way she could come home or contact us, she would have,” Beckford said. 
 
 With Yust in custody, she hoped her family will learn more about Kara. 
 
 “That is what we pray for every day,” Beckford told The Star. “To get resolution to this, to find Kara’s remains and put her to rest.” 
 
 Anyone with information should call the Kansas City Police Department’s missing persons hotline at 816-234-5136, or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (816-474-8477).
– After 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky disappeared without a trace in 2007, ex-boyfriend Kylr Yust was considered a person of interest but was never charged. Now Yust, said to be 27 or 28, is a suspect in another disappearance—and the circumstances are chilling. Witnesses say Yust was the last person seen with 21-year-old Jessica Runions, who disappeared Thursday evening and whose burnt-out car was discovered early Saturday in Raymore in suburban Kansas City, Mo., the Kansas City Star reports. Yust was arrested early Sunday on charges of "knowingly burning" the vehicle and is being held in the Benton County jail. “Right now I have positive news that my daughter wasn’t in the car when they found it,” says Runions' mother. "There’s hope.” Family members tell KSHB that Runions was at a party Thursday with her boyfriend, who has been Yust's friend since childhood. The boyfriend reportedly left the party early, leaving Yust with Runions. KMBC reports that Yust was released in February from prison, where he was serving time on a drug conviction; his other convictions include assault, theft, and animal cruelty for stomping a kitten and throwing it in a river. Runions' mother says she has received support from Kopetsky's mother. "People say they understand what you're going through, but they don't really understand," she tells the Star. "She does." (Cops are digging for the remains of a Cal Poly student who disappeared 20 years ago.)