Bodies found in search for 2 Missouri sisters

[July 16, 2012]  EDGERTON, Mo. (AP) -- Authorities in Platte County, Mo., say officials have found the bodies of two women in a field after officials interrogated "a suspect in the disappearance of Britny Haarup and Ashley Key."

The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/Nsrx8S) late Sunday that the bodies were found near Trimble, Mo., in Clinton County. Platte County Sheriff's Capt. Erik Holland told the newspaper the bodies were those of white women but he could not immediately confirm the victims' identities or how they had died.

Holland said authorities "were led" to the area where the bodies were found by talking to the suspect in case, whom he did not identify.

"That individual is under arrest and in custody," he said.

Haarup, 19, and Key, 22, were reported missing Friday from after Haarup's fiance, Matt Meyers, came home to find his 6- and 18-month-old daughters alone and in the same crib. Relatives of the women said there was blood on the couch in the Edgerton residence, located about 35 miles north of Kansas City.

"The truck was gone, the girls were gone and Matt has some personal guns that had been missing as well. That is all he had to tell me, and I knew something was wrong at that point," the mother of the missing women, Taresa Haarup, told KCTV.

The Platte County Sheriff's Department said Sunday that authorities were speaking with a person of interest in the case and have executed two search warrants.

The missing truck was found parked on a gravel road Saturday, prompting authorities to search the surrounding fields. Although there were no signs of foul play, the truck was towed to the Kansas City crime laboratory to check for evidence.

The sisters' father, Paul Haarup, begged for his daughters' safe return during a candlelight vigil Saturday night that drew a crowd of about 70 people.

"Whoever has them, give them a phone, have them call us, put an end to this," Haarup told KSHB.

Family members fear the sisters were abducted. They said Key, the mother of a 4-year-old girl, had been running with a bad crowd and sought her sister's help turning her life around.

"That's why she came to Britny and Matt's house; to get help, to get out of that lifestyle. She was very serious about getting help," Cassandra Meyers, sister-in-law of Matt Meyers, told KSHB.

Haarup's fiance said his daughters need their mother back home.

"Your babies love you and they miss you," he told The Kansas City Star.

[Associated Press]

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