By Dan Verbeck
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-976863.mp3
Harrisonville, MO – A retired Grandview, Missouri police officer is in jail and charged with rape and two murders, one from 2008. The arrests came after an alleged DNA match.
Jeffrey Moreland is 52, a former school resource officer and candidate for Harrisonville school board. He was arrested earlier this month, charged with raping a woman at his home.
Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley says Moreland's DNA matched evidence from the unsolved 2008 Shooting of Cara Roberts. Her widower, Jeff Roberts was with prosecutors announcing charges, choking back tears as he said,"obviously this is what we've been going after the past 32 months."
Roberts had found his wife dead in the bathtub at their home.
Roberts praised the courage of the rape victim to accuse a former policeman.
Moreland is also charged with murdering 75 year old Nina Whitney at her South Kansas City home last year. Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Baker charges Moreland with stabbing and strangling Ms. Whitney on October 29, 2010.
Moreland is held on a one million dollar, cash only bond in Cass County, another half million in Jackson.
The rape victim told police Moreland had offered her a ride as she was on foot on June 30th and took her to his home in Harrisonville. Charging documents say she begged him not to kill her. She was allegedly raped, sodomized and documents say Moreland gave her a hundred dollars. And that she called police next day when she saw Moreland sitting in his Jeep in front of her home. He was arrested in Iowa.
Grandview police say he was a patrolman for more than 20 years, retiring in 2005.