Father led Kansas City police to vehicle where his missing son’s body was found

A father led police to a vehicle containing the body of his missing 24-year-old son Tuesday outside a home in Kansas City, according to a search warrant application filed in court by homicide detectives. 

Adam Blackstock, of Grandview, was found dead inside the vehicle after officers were called to the home in 4600 block of Montgall Avenue in the Oak Park Southwest neighborhood, according to the Kansas City Police Department. A statewide log of missing persons maintained by the Missouri State Highway Patrol listed Blackstock as being missing since Monday and his father reported having been unable to find him for days. 

According to the search warrant application filed Tuesday night in Jackson County Circuit Court, police officers were dispatched to the home shortly after 3 p.m. and met with a man, identified only by initials in court documents, who reported he had been unable to reach his son since Sunday. He told the officers he located his son’s SUV crossover in a driveway and that it was concealed by a car cover.

At the residence, police officers spoke with a woman who told them the vehicle belonged to her uncle. Officers also spoke with a man there who said the vehicle was his, the warrant application says, and “then stated he did not have time to deal with whatever the officers wanted” and referred them back to the resident they initially spoke with.

The father of the missing man disputed those claims and apparently sought to further display to police that the SUV was his son’s by remote starting its engine, according to the court document. Police took note of the vehicle’s license plate and VIN. 

The resident gave police “verbal permission for the vehicle to be removed from the address,” according to the search warrant application. Before it was towed away, officers saw an apparent bullet hole in the driver’s seat, dried blood on the front passenger seat and floor, and possible blood on the vehicle’s exterior. 

The one-page warrant application sought permission to recover additional evidence from the property outside the home, namely a car cover and a bottle of cleaning product that was noted by responding officers. A property receipt attached to the warrant lists a gray tarp and DNA swabs as evidence collected Tuesday night.

While the court document matches specific details about the homicide case, including the time and location of the discovery of the vehicle, it makes no mention of a body being recovered from inside it. 

In an emailed response to The Star’s questions about that on Thursday, Sgt. Jake Becchina said precisely when and where police recovered Blackstock’s body could not be publicly disclosed as that information was part of KCPD’s ongoing investigation. 

He also declined to say whether anyone had been detained or arrested in the investigation.

Kansas City police were asking anyone with information about the case to contact homicide detectives at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816474-TIPS.