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Report: Officer saw 'dark fluid' coming from truck where man's body was found at KCI after 8 months

Posted at 4:33 PM, Sep 20, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-20 20:23:10-04

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – More details are being revealed in the case of the body of a Lenexa man found decomposing in a KCI parking lot for eight months.

Randy Potter’s family said he had been missing since Jan. 17. On Sept. 12, KCI Airport Police found him dead inside his Dodge Ram 1500 truck in Economy Lot B. They said the 53-year-old died by suicide with a gunshot to the head.

When Potter vanished without a trace in January his family turned to John Underhill, a private investigator, for help.

For months they looked for Potter at area parks and distributed flyers with pictures of Potter's pick-up truck.

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41 Action News obtained the Field Incident Report from officials detailing how his body was discovered.

According to the report, another man parking in the lot returned from a three-day trip and called police around 7:30 p.m. after noticing a strong odor coming from the truck parked next to his car, as well as a large number of flies.

The KCI airport police officer who responded to the call said he found fluids coming out of the rear driver side passenger door. The driver seat was reclined all the way back and a blanket was covering Potter from head to feet, the report states.

The report also said the officer saw a pistol holster on the passenger-side floorboard, but no gun.
The officer checked the vehicle’s plates, and it came back as reported stolen, with Potter listed as a missing person.

The officer wrote that he created a perimeter around the truck and called for backup.

Shortly after, the scene was released into KCPD’s control. Those officers found the gun and spent bullet casing under the blanket.

Officers also found a note in the car possibly written by Potter.

“The wife feels this way—she feels that what happened happened to him. She’s not trying to sugarcoat that or whatever it is like that, the problem with it is you’re going through an emotional rollercoaster for eight months,” Underhill said.

Potter’s truck was parked in one of the 25,000 spaces that S-P Plus manages at KCI Airport.
According to their contract with Kansas City, every night the company is supposed to keep an inventory of the license plates for each car parked in their lots. 

“You expect that stuff to be done here and it was never done in the first place, the ball was dropped,” Underhill said. 

In a statement, Jill Nagel, a spokeswoman for SP Plus wrote:

“SP+ expresses our sympathy to the Potter Family as they deal with the loss of their loved one. We hope you understand that due to the complexity and sensitivity of the matter, we are unable to speculate or provide further details until all the facts are gathered and our investigation in cooperation with airport authorities is complete.”