Authorities want to talk to this Kansas man in connection with his parents’ deaths
Updated 4:20 p.m.: A man wanted for questioning in the shooting deaths of his parents in Fort Scott has been arrested by law enforcement.
Dawson J. Mitchell, 23, was picked up around 1 p.m. on Wednesday near 5th and Judson streets in Fort Scott and taken into custody, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in a news release. He was subsequently booked into the Bourbon County Jail on suspicion of theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and unlawful possession of controlled substances.
The KBI says Mitchell is not currently facing charges related to the Tuesday slayings of 48-year-old Melissa Mitchell and 53-year-old Leonard Zimmerman in their Fort Scott home. But he is considered a person of interest, a vague term used by law enforcement to describe people who may be tied to a crime, usually as possible suspects or possible witnesses.
The deaths are being investigated as homicides.
Original story: State authorities are asking the public to help them track down a 23-year-old Fort Scott man in connection with his parents’ shooting deaths at their home.
Dawson J. Mitchell is considered a “person of interest” and is “wanted for questioning” in the Tuesday killings of 48-year-old Melissa L. Mitchell and 53-year-old Leonard D. Zimmerman in Fort Scott, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in a Wednesday news release.
He is about 5-foot-7, weighs approximately 160 pounds and has blonde hair and blue eyes. He was last seen in blue jeans, a brown Carhartt-style coat and a baseball cap that authorities described as light colored in the front and dark in the back.
Anyone who knows his whereabouts is asked to call the Fort Scott Police Department at 620-223-1700 or the KBI at 1-800-KS-CRIME.
Mitchell should not be approached, the KBI says, because he “is expected to be armed and dangerous.”
Authorities say Fort Scott police received a 911 call around 7:40 p.m. on Tuesday from a person who arrived the victims’ home at 402 Main in Fort Scott and found Melissa Mitchell with gunshot wounds. The KBI did not elaborate on who that person is, other than saying they are a family member of the victim.
Police officers who went to investigate found both Melissa Mitchell and Zimmerman dead when went into the house. Their deaths are considered homicides, the KBI says.
Fort Scott is in Bourbon County, in southeast Kansas along the Missouri border.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 10:56 AM.
