KC police were called for help six hours before woman’s body found: Court documents

By Nathan Pilling – The Kansas City Star (TNS)

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details of violence.

Newly filed court documents detail the gruesome scene investigators discovered when a Kansas City woman was found dead in her Martin City apartment the day after Christmas, hours after her 16-year-old daughter reported she heard sounds of a confrontation between the woman and her boyfriend.

Eddie Jerome Covington Jr., of Kansas City, faces charges in the killing of Tiffany Chrisman. The probable cause statement laying out an initial case against Covington also raises questions about the response by Kansas City police, who failed to enter Chrisman’s apartment in their initial stop there about six hours before her body was found.

Prosecutors charged Covington with second-degree murder and armed criminal action Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court. A judge ordered that he remain in custody without bond. On Thursday, he was also charged in Clay County with aggravated fleeing a stop or detention and first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle.

Late Wednesday, on Christmas Day, Kansas City police responded to the initial report from Chrisman’s daughter. She said there had been a disturbance in the apartment that had become physical and that her mother told her to run from the residence in the 900 block of East 134th Street.

Police did not enter the apartment after attempts to contact someone there were unsuccessful, according to court documents.

Chrisman’s boyfriend, Covington, was first arrested Thursday on less serious charges and released from police custody on a promise to appear in court. Shortly after his release, he was found at a bus stop early Thursday next to the Kansas City Police Department’s Metro Patrol Division, police said. He was then booked on an investigative hold for the murder, according to court documents.

Court records don’t list a defense attorney assigned to Covington’s cases.

In an email Monday, Sgt. Phil DiMartino, a KCPD spokesman, declined to answer questions from The Star seeking clarity about why officers did not enter Chrisman’s apartment based on the initial call. He also would not comment on why Covington was briefly released from custody, saying police were still investigating.

An argument allegedly leads to violence

In a news release about the homicide Thursday, Kansas City police only noted their follow-up visit to the woman’s apartment early that morning, after a friend went to her home to check on her and found blood. Police responded to the apartment again and found Chrisman’s body.

But police first responded to the apartment the night before — around 10:40 p.m. Wednesday — after Chrisman’s teenage daughter ran from the apartment when she heard sounds of a confrontation coming from a bedroom and heard her mother telling her to run, according to court documents.

She told police later that she was staying at the apartment with her mother and Covington for Christmas. One person told police Chrisman was a property manager at the site.

The teen said the two adults had been in an argument and went into a back bedroom where she heard sounds indicating the confrontation had “become physical,” a police detective wrote in court documents. After being told by her mom to run, the girl said she fled the apartment and called someone in Iowa for help. The identity of that person is redacted in court documents.

Officers responded to the apartment but said no one answered the door or responded by phone. The detective wrote that officers didn’t enter the apartment at that point, saying the door was secured.

“Officers were unable to determine a crime had occurred or sounds of a disturbance,” the detective wrote.

Several hours later, early Thursday morning, Chrisman’s body was found inside the apartment, according to court documents.

A friend who had prior permission to be in the apartment responded with a key to check on Chrisman, the detective wrote. The friend found blood inside and called police, who arrived around 4:30 a.m. and found Chrisman’s body with a severe laceration. Police said her neck was “mostly severed.” A kitchen knife covered in blood was also found in the apartment.

A few hours later during an interview with police, Chrisman’s daughter said she had spent Christmas with her mother and Covington, and at one point that afternoon, the adults had argued and Covington was told he needed to leave. The girl heard the sounds of a commotion coming from a bedroom and could hear her mother yelling and pleading, a detective wrote.

When the girl went to the room to check on her mother, she saw Covington look back at her from inside the room before he shut and locked the door, court documents said. She said she then heard her mother tell her to run, the detective wrote.

Vehicle tracked, suspect arrested and released

Before Chrisman’s body was found, an apartment manager contacted police and told them a vehicle associated with Chrisman’s apartment and equipped with a GPS tracking system had been missing, but was located in Dearborn, north of Kansas City, according to the detective in court documents.

Police responded and attempted to stop the vehicle in Platte County, but the driver refused to stop. Police pursued the vehicle, but eventually stopped the pursuit. They then found it in Clay County with the assistance of the tracking system.

Covington was found near the vehicle hiding behind a dumpster and was taken to the Kansas City Police Department’s Metro Patrol Division, police said.

Initially, he was arrested on charges of tampering with a stolen vehicle and felony eluding and for a pair of city warrants, a detective wrote, noting that the tampering and eluding charges were “rescinded,” and he was booked on the city warrants. He was released on a signature bond.

When officers discovered Covington, who was now a suspect in Chrisman’s killing, had been allowed to walk free, police began canvassing the area around the patrol division. Covington was found nearby at a bus stop at the intersection of 75th Street and Prospect Avenue around 4:45 a.m., police said. He was then booked on an investigative hold for a murder charge.

Covington did not give a statement to police and requested an attorney, according to court documents.

‘An amazing human’

A GoFundMe established by a friend raising money for Chrisman’s children had drawn more than $5,000 in contributions as of mid-day Tuesday.

“Never did I think I would ever be the one to start a GoFundMe but here I am,” Cat Smith, who described herself as a close friend, wrote on the page.

“Today my best friend’s life was taken, stolen from her children, her family, and her friends. Tiffany was an amazing human who would do anything to help someone in need. Now she is the one in need.”

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