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PRESS RELEASE:
Edward Blakley was charged last week in Kansas City Municipal Court with intimidation and filing a false report related to an incident that took place July 25. He approached a 41-year-old woman in a convenience store parking lot in the 10200 block of Wornall and gave her his phone number on a piece of paper. As she drove away, she saw him following her, and she began to feel ill. She pulled into a nearby restaurant and went inside. Blakley followed her in. She said he appeared to be touching himself. She told him she’d called police, and he left. The woman thought the paper may have been laced with drugs, but police think she was suffering from anxiety-related symptoms. She’d thrown the paper away and did not submit to medical tests.
After identifying Blakley in the above case, Kansas City Police realized he also was the likely suspect in a July 22 incident at a grocery store in the 6600 block of Winchester. In that case, a 49-year-old woman was walking to her car to load her groceries into it. She told police a man approached her and asked if she was in a relationship. She said “yes” and kept walking. He asked if she would take his phone number, and she refused. He walked away, and she loaded groceries into her vehicle. Then, the suspect pulled his vehicle behind hers and blocked her in. He told the victim, “You dropped this,” and handed her a piece of paper. When she looked down, she saw he was exposing and touching his genitals. She turned away, and he left. Charges are pending in this incident.
Then, a 46-year-old victim in a neighboring city came forward after seeing media coverage of the July 25 incident in Kansas City. She said that on July 26, she was at a gas station when a man approached her as she was pumping gas at about 11:30 a.m. He asked her if she was married, and she said “yes.” He gave her his phone number on a piece of paper and told her to call him if she was ever single again. She told police she felt safe because the gas station was quite busy, but the man continued to stand by the pump as she waited for her tank to fill up. When she looked down, she realized his genitals were exposed, and he was touching himself. She then saw him take out a cell phone and appear to film or take pictures of her. She told a friend about the incident but did not call police initially until the friend told her about the very similar July 25 incident on the news.
Kansas City Police have Blakley in custody but are concerned there could be more victims. The three known victims were white females in their 40’s whom the suspect approached at businesses. If you were a victim of a similar incident, please call the police department in the city where the incident took place.
