Friday, April 30, 2004
Police search for trio in North Side slayings

Police are searching for three suspects believed to be involved with the double slaying of a St. Joseph couple and the gang rape of a St. Joseph teen late last week. "We believe that the suspects are connected (with both incidents)," said Cmdr. Jim Connors, a spokesman for the St. Joseph Police Department.

The suspects, whose names weren't released Thursday, are described as being black males in their late teens or early 20s, and are considered armed and dangerous, Mr. Connors said.

Mr. Connors said the three suspects are believed to be from the Kansas City area, but at least one of them was in St. Joseph Thursday.

No warrants had been issued Thursday night, but a public notification was dispatched to alert St. Joseph officers of the situation, Mr. Connors said.

The suspects are wanted for killing Dawn D. Thornton, 28, and Danny Watson Jr., 31, sometime between 11 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday in the couple's North Side home at 1504 N. Third St.

"They (the suspects) were coming up here to look for someone who previously was a tenant of that home. They came to kill that person," Mr. Connors said. "But when they got here, they killed what they found."

Mr. Watson and Ms. Thornton had moved into the home just six weeks before they were killed. Their two adolescent sons found their bodies Sunday morning after they returned from spending the night with their grandparents.

Autopsy reports revealed the couple had been shot. The back door of the home appeared to have been kicked in by the killer or killers in order to gain entry into the residence, police said.

The three suspects also are believed to have been involved in the gang rape of a 17-year-old St. Joseph girl shortly after the time frame of the killings. The gang rape happened in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Police Department is investigating the rape. A police report indicated that 15 gang members forcibly raped the teenage victim during a three- or four-hour period early Sunday in a vacant house near 51st Street and Wabash Avenue.

Reports stated that the teenage girl left St. Joseph with two male friends Saturday evening to meet an acquaintance of one of the males in Kansas City.

At about midnight, while waiting at 51st and Wabash for a man called "T," four black males forced the three out of their car at gunpoint, a Kansas City Police Department spokesman said.

The victim and her two male friends were taken to an abandoned house, where the rape occurred, police reports said.

The gang left the victims at about 5 a.m. Sunday and took the trio's car. The victims' vehicle was later recovered.

Officers from Kansas City have arrested one 16-year-old and are searching for 14 more suspects involved in the forcible gang rape. Kansas City police said they think the suspects involved in the rape were part of a neighborhood gang.

The teenage victim was taken Sunday to North Kansas City Hospital for medical treatment.

During its investigation of the rape, the Kansas City Police Department contacted St. Joseph investigators to gain more information into the incident.

"They (the Kansas City Police Department) came to us for information, and we ended up looking into both incidents," Mr. Connors said. "That information led to this. And we have been able to begin slowly piecing together what happened."

He said there didn't appear to be any direct connection between the rape victim and the slain couple. The police also don't believe the three suspects had any prior connection with Mr. Watson, Ms. Thornton or the rape victim before Saturday evening.