This is the first of a 4-part series of interviews with retired Kansas City Police Department Sergeant Troy Cole. On April 2, 1988, Homicide Sergeant Troy Cole was preparing to leave work and looking forward to watching his Oklahoma Sooners play Arizona in the NCAA tournament that night. He received a call from the police dispatcher that a naked man wearing a dog collar and leash was claiming he had been kidnapped and tortured. A uniformed officer, Larry Lewis, had requested the Crimes Against Person’s Unit Supervisor be notified. Sgt. Cole sent 2 Sex Crimes detectives, Ashley Hurn and Darwin Dupree, out to investigate. Shortly after, Detective Hurn called Sgt. Cole and said this looked like it might be a real kidnapping and crime and the suspect was a Bob Berdella. Most police officers encountering this kind of scene will approach skeptically until the evidence proves this is not just a falling out of lovers. Note – if you don’t like it that cops are skeptical when confronted with this street scenario, go out and work the streets and then come back and talk.
The naked man, Christopher Bryson, points out a nearby house, 4315 Charlotte St., and claims that is the house where he was held captive by a man named Bob. Det. Hurn sends Mr. Bryson to a nearby hospital and returns to his office to prepare a search warrant for the house. Police Officer Cindy Cherry is left to guard the home when a man drives up and asks what is going on. Officer Cherry learns this is the owner of the home Bob Berdella. He is placed under arrest for forcible sodomy based on Bryson’s allegations.
While Sgt. Cole will get to watch his favorites, the Oklahoma Sooners, defeat Arizona, what seemed to start as a simple gay lovers quarrel will soon dominate Troy Cole’s life for several months. In the next episode, Sgt. Cole tells how his team will uncover evidence that will force him to merely hear the reports of how the Kansas Jayhawks defeat his Sooners for the NCAA championship on April, 4, 1988.
Sgt. (Ret.) Troy Cole and former KC Star and now Washington Post reporter, Tom Jackman, published an account of this case, the Rites of Burial.
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