A Kansas man who was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide has been identified as the killer of two young South American medical researchers whose battered bodies were discovered in a fire earlier this month.
The Jackson County Prosecutor’s office said Kevin Ray Moore, 42, murdered researchers Camila Behrensen, 24, and Pablo Guzmán Palma, 25, in their apartment and then intentionally set it ablaze.
Their bodies were found on Oct. 1 in the rubble at the apartment they shared near the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, where they were predoctoral researchers.
Investigators determined that both victims suffered trauma before their bodies were burned and deemed their deaths a homicide. Police have not revealed how they died or what injuries they suffered.
About two weeks after the gruesome killings, cops found the bodies of Moore and 40-year-old mother of five, Misty Brockman, in a car near an amusement park in Clay County. Police believe Moore killed Brockman before killing himself, but didn’t disclose how.
Camila Behrensen and Pablo Guzmán Palma were researchers from South America, working in Missouri at the time of their deaths. GoFundMeA subsequent investigation determined that Moore was the main suspect in the murders of Behrensen, of Argentina, and Guzmán Palma, of Chile.
Police used phone and computer data, surveillance videos, ballistic testing and DNA evidence to determine Moore was behind the slaughters, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Early in the investigation, detectives had filed a search warrant to gain access to an Amazon Alexa device inside the researchers’ apartment. They hoped the device’s cloud storage may have recorded what happened on the day of their murders.
Behrensen and Guzmán Palma were part of the 2020 predoctoral class at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.
In a statement to The Post Thursday morning, the Stowers Institute thanked the Kansas City Police Department and the Jackson County prosecutor’s office for their dedication.
“The Stowers Institute and the Graduate School at the Stowers Institute are grieving the loss of two brilliant, promising scientists,” the statement read. “The individual who committed this crime has no tie to the Institute or the Graduate School.”
“We are saddened to learn that this same individual is involved in an additional case out of Clay County. We thank the authorities who investigated this incident as well. Our deepest sympathies go out to those who knew the victim.”
