Harrisonville, MO - A Cass County judge on Tuesday granted a defense request for a mental evaluation for Kylr Yust, the man accused of killing two girlfriends years apart and dumping their bodies in a wooded area of the county.
Yust, 30, is charged with two counts each of first degree murder and abandonment of a corpse in the deaths of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions.
His lawyers filed a motion last month claiming he “suffers from a mental disease or defect,” and needs treatment before going to trial.
A doctor stated Yust "lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense." If the evaluation shows Yust is competent, the defense will have ten days to object, plus another 30 days to arrange for a second evaluation.
Kopetsky was 17 when she went missing in 2007. Runions, 21, disappeared in 2016.
Mushroom hunters found human remains in a wooded area in the spring of 2017 in Cass County and both sets were identified as those of Kopetsky and Runions.
Yust's trial is set to begin Nov. 4.