KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A woman escaped a brutal attack only to die in a violent crash as she called for help. The man accused of raping her in August is now being charged in her death.
Those closest to Shannon Keithley are expressing their gratitude to the Wyandotte County District Attorney who on Thursday afternoon charged Orlando Taylor with the murder of the 39-year-old woman.
Dana Savorelli, a family friend, first met Keithley when she was 14.
"Shannon was running from one side of the United States to the other with me and my sister playing with animals, handling exotic animals. She was extremely kind--Shannon to my knowledge never had an enemy because everyone was good to her," Savorelli told 41 Action News Friday.
A year-and-a-half ago, Keithley moved from St. Louis to a KCK house on Lathrop Avenue that belongs to her grandmother, Sally Keithley-McCulley.
"At first she said, ‘Can I move in with you?’ I said, ‘Well you're used to living alone and I have a house that you know well because you used to spend a lot of time with us,’ when she was a child," Keithley-McCulley said.
In the early hours of Aug. 18, police said Orlando Taylor broke into the home as Keithley slept.
Her family said police told them Taylor raped Keithley over several hours.
Around 5 a.m. she escaped her attacker and called 911. But Keithley crashed her SUV into a bridge pillar blocks away.
"It should have never had happened," Keithley-McCulley said.
Instead of running after the attack, officers found Taylor, 35, hidden underneath Keithley's deck.
Initially, the district attorney's office charged Taylor with aggravated burglary and rape in the case. Now they're adding murder in the first degree.
"We can't bring her back. We do feel that that was the best decision to be made by the district attorney’s office," Brian Isbell, Keithley's brother-in-law, said.
Taylor made his first court appearance in regards to the murder charge Friday. His next court date according to court records is set for Oct. 3.
