Months after unsolved hit-and-run, victim’s family furious about fee to retrieve his truck

CLAY COUNTY, Mo. (KCTV) - A family dealing with an untimely death due to a hit-and-run has now had insult added to injury in the form of a tow lot storage fee incurred while his truck was held as evidence.

“We didn’t ask for this tragedy to happen and we’re paying the consequences of it now through a tow bill on top of that, besides everything else we are dealing with,” said Luke Scheidecker.

His younger brother, 30-year-old John Paul R. Scheidecker was killed in a possible hit-and-run collision in rural Clay County on July 30, 2023. Nine months before that, his father died suddenly from a blood clot.

“The last two years have been incredibly tough for our family,” said Luke. “Both of them were healthy and good to go and then both gone within a moment.”

John Paul was an elite wakeboarder who could be found in and out of his boat on Smithville Lake regularly during the summer months. He had just bought his dream farm on 60 acres near Liberty.

There are few details about what happened to John Paul. It was 3:54 a.m. when Clay County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a country road. They deduced that he had been standing outside his pickup on the side of the road when someone hit him and then drove off. There were no witnesses. They didn’t know how long he’d been there. Investigators told John Paul’s family he was likely killed instantly.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office impounded the truck for more than seven months as the $60/day storage fees racked up. They needed to keep it indoors to preserve possible evidence. The agency doesn’t have a facility for that. Instead, they contract with more than a dozen tow companies who take calls on rotation.

“His truck was the most evidence we had and part of the crime scene,” Clay County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sarah Boyd told KCTV when asked why it was held for so long. “We retained the truck for investigation while we waited on subpoenas to collect electronic data from it.”

She said the position of some items inside the truck also indicated another person could possibly have been in it prior to the crash, and it took time to wait on DNA results to rule that out.

Several months into the investigation, Luke said, he asked investigators who would pay the storage fees.

“We were told like, ‘Oh, well insurance will pay for it. You know, like that’s, you know, no big deal, right?” Luke began.

Turns out the insurance policy for the truck did not pay, he said, because the truck wasn’t damaged.

Boyd said the truck sat in the lot for more than a month after the sheriff’s office released it to the family on March 15, 2024, continuing to incur fees.

The owner of L&L Towing said the family refused to pay, so the bank that had a lien on the truck paid the fee on May 3 and took the truck.

The bank was about to put the truck up for auction, Luke said. It’s sentimental to them, so when they got the final answer from the insurance company on Thursday, they paid the $17,000 in storage fees to the bank to get the truck back despite their anger about the whole situation.

“This isn’t right. This isn’t fair to our family,” Luke said. “This wouldn’t be fair to any family.”

Boyd said the Sheriff’s Office began revising their policy in October to mandate reduced rates for vehicles held as evidence. They expect to have that placed in new contractual agreements by the end of this year.

“We realize how difficult this is for the family to deal with on top of their grief and the unsolved nature of their loved one’s death. That’s why we’ve been working to change our policies and contracts with tow companies,” Boyd said. “Unfortunately, there are no public funding sources or systems in place to allow for the storage of evidentiary vehicles, barring a state legislative change, which we would love to see.”

Luke would like to see change too as a matter of principle and for the sake of future families who might be in their shoes.

There is a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in John Paul’s death. Anyone with information can leave a tip by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477) or by reporting it online.

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