KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The investigation into Kevin March began when Kansas City police officers, responding to a call about someone yelling for help, found a woman handcuffed to a tree in June.
She told police a man, later identified as 39-year-old March, allegedly made her take drugs before he duct taped her hands and feet. He forced her into her own vehicle's trunk and drove her around before forcing her to perform a sexual act and eventually restraining her to the tree in south Kansas City, police said.
March, who also allegedly took officers on a chase while driving the woman's vehicle, was charged the next day with resisting arrest. His bond was set at $15,000, and he was released the day after that on his own recognizance, according to court records.
But while out on bond, March in January allegedly punched a woman in the face and shot her with a pellet gun before tying her up.
Weeks later he repeatedly raped a woman, according to police.
It remained unclear why March, of Grandview, was not charged with more serious offenses after the alleged June incident.
Prosecutors on Sunday announced March faced a dozen felonies for the unrelated allegations. Those included four counts of kidnapping, three counts of sodomy, one count of robbery and one count of rape or attempted rape, among other offenses.
The Kansas City Police Department, through a spokesman, Capt. David Jackson, referred questions about the charging to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office.
That office's spokesman, Michael Mansur, said he could not comment Sunday.
The first alleged assault was reported in June 2019, when officers responding to a disturbance call found a woman handcuffed to a tree in the 8900 block of East Longview Road.
The woman told police she met March on Craigslist and came to Kansas City with another person. The woman told police she was forced by March's "body language" to ingest what she believed was meth, according to charging documents.
March drove the victim in her vehicle to State Line Road and West 85th Street, where she said he made her smoke marijuana, according to police. They had consensual sex in a wooded area before committing a burglary, a detective wrote in court records.
The two went to another area, where March pulled out a handgun and forced the woman to accompany him during another burglary, police said.
March then made the woman take off her clothes and duct taped her hands and feet, putting her in the trunk of her own vehicle before he drove around all day, according to a probable cause statement.
Eventually, police said, the two ended up at Longview Lake, where March forced the woman to perform a sexual act. He handcuffed her to the tree where officers found her, according to court records. A shirt covered her head. March allegedly told the woman he had to do something and she "couldn't be involved." He said he would return within hours, the woman said.
March never came back.
Instead, police said, he took officers on a chase when they saw the woman's vehicle southbound on The Paseo before running a stoplight at Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard. The pursuit entered Interstate 435; March fled at speeds between 90 and 105 mph, according to charging documents. The chase hit 120 mph on Interstate 470 before he exited on Raytown Road.
The vehicle eventually ran over stop sticks near 87th Street and I-435, police said. It came to a stop on I-435 northbound, just south of Gregory Boulevard.
After March was arrested, police learned he had seven previous offenses for driving a motor vehicle with a revoked license, according to charging documents. Officers found a BB gun in the vehicle.
When he was questioned by detectives, March admitted to committing a burglary in Independence and taking police on a "lengthy car chase," a detective wrote in court records.
March denied restraining the woman and said all of their sexual contact was consensual. He told police the handcuffs used to restrain the woman were his and claimed she "must have taken them out of his bag," the detective wrote, paraphrasing March.
More than a month after he was released from custody, a grand jury indicted March in July for resisting arrest.
As his April trial date neared in that case, March allegedly carried out two more assaults that a detective described as similar.
SECOND ASSAULT
On Jan. 4, March messaged a woman who he previously had consensual sex with, asking if she wanted to meet up, police said. The woman, who had met March on Craiglist, agreed.
After the two had consensual sex, the woman wanted March to leave, which he did, according to charging documents. But the woman soon realized her keys and car were missing. She reported it stolen.
She confronted March about her car when he came back the next day. March put a pellet gun to the side of her head and fired several pellets, according to police. He punched her in the face and tied her up, putting a scarf in her mouth, police said.
March blindfolded the woman and put her in a shower, she said. She freed herself and found March having sex with another woman in her bed, according to court records. March tied her up again and put her in a closet before she again freed herself.
The woman eventually ran outside, a steak knife in hand, searching for help. When officers arrived at the apartment complex in south Kansas City, the woman said "Wesley March," using his middle name, stole her car and held her against her will.
Officers found her with swelling and blood on her face. They found rope in the apartment and blood in the bedroom and closet.
The woman was taken to a hospital.
THIRD ASSAULT
Before the third alleged assault, a woman checked into an Extended Stay America on Jan. 26 in south Kansas City. She started walking to a gas station when March allegedly pulled up and asked if she needed a ride, which she accepted.
While driving, March punched the woman for apparently throwing a pizza box out of a window, police said. He drove to a parking lot near East 96th Place and Drury Avenue, where he raped the woman in the first of a host of attacks, according to police.
March tied the woman's hands and wrapped duct tape around her mouth and face, police said. At one point, he allegedly made her swallow meth and forced the drug into other parts of her body, according to charging documents.
The woman screamed. She couldn't get out of the car, police said. March raped her a second time, the detective wrote.
March drove to a Walmart in Raytown, where he raped the woman in the parking lot, police said. He took her cellphone and tried to trade it in at a kiosk inside the store, prosecutors alleged. He drove to another lot, raping her "yet again," a detective wrote.
Later at a Kansas City home, March forced the woman to perform a sexual act on one of his friends, police said. He then drove the woman to a vacant, new home in Raytown, forcing entry and raping her there, according to court records.
When he noticed he lost his cellphone, March threatened to burn down the home with the woman inside if she did not tell him what happened to it, police alleged.
March made the woman take a bath before forcing her back into the vehicle, police said. He drove to an area where he found his phone and took the woman to a home in Harrisonville, where he made her take a shower, according to the records. She watched March and two other people smoke meth there, she said.
March left the home and asked one of the people he allegedly smoked meth with to have the victim walk to a Casey's General Store, police said. Before she left, one of those people told the woman she "needed to get away from March," a detective wrote. March was not at the store, so the woman locked herself in the bathroom until an employee called 911.
Kansas City police responded to the reported rape at the Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville. The woman had scrapes on her hands and said her neck, chest and shoulders hurt.
A week later, an "investigative want" was issued for March, police said. Ten days after that, March was taken into custody when he was seen leaving an address.
March told detectives he could not remember any details from Jan. 26, but he stayed at the Extended Stay America for a night or two that weekend, according to police.
He said no one had asked him for a ride, but that he did have consensual sex with someone in his car. He denied raping anyone. March was then arrested Thursday on a stop order for the department's sex crimes unit.
In a news release announcing the charges Sunday, prosecutors said some of the women were bound for hours.
The prosecutor's office requested March's bond be set at $500,000. He was in custody at the Jackson County Detention Center.
March did not yet have a listed attorney who was representing him in the new case as of Sunday. A public defender representing him in the resisting arrest case could not immediately be reached by phone.
