Couple charged with murder after body found on property
By Shain Bergan
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JACKSON COUNTY, MO (KCTV) — A couple already facing child sex crime charges have now been charged with first-degree murder after a missing Independence woman’s body was found on some Grain Valley property last month.
Michael Hendricks and Maggie Ybarra are in the Jackson County Detention Center without bond. The murder charges stem from the death of Kensie Aubry, whose body was found buried on Hendricks’ property in July.
The Jackson County prosecutor presented charges to a grand jury late last week regarding Hendricks and Ybarra. The grand jury returned indictments of first-degree murder, first-degree harassment, and first-degree sexual misconduct.
The grand jury also included another charge for Hendricks of third-degree enticement of a child/child molestation, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
“Our community owes greatly a child victim in this case who came forward and alerted police of the gruesome criminal activity detailed in these charges,” said prosecutor Jean Peters Baker. “Without her bravery, we might not know today Kensie Aubry’s fate.”
Local police, sheriff’s deputies, and the FBI have been out to Hendricks’ property and the accompanying properties off of Buckner Tarsney Road several times since Aubry’s body was first found.
According to court records, a separate child sex crimes investigation into Hendricks and Ybarra led investigators to the property to search for Aubry’s body.
Both Hendricks and Ybarra are accused of molesting a teenage girl. During that investigation, the teen told investigators she believed a woman was killed and her body could be found on Hendricks’ property.
Before being charged with murder, Hendricks and Ybarra were charged with nine counts of various child sex crime charges, including child molestation, sexual misconduct and tampering with physical evidence.
According to court documents, the teenage girl told investigators that Hendricks showed her pictures of a girl and told her they had killed her. The teen said she was told Hendricks “choked her to death” and placed her in the freezer.
The teen also told the investigators that they showed her pictures of the body cut up. She said that they also told her they buried the body.
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