Great-grandson arrested in death of 81-year-old woman, Kansas police say

Andover police have released the names of an 81-year-old woman who died Sunday and a 23-year-old suspect who is her great-grandson.

Maryln Valeta Harvey died at a hospital after family found her injured at her apartment-style home in a retirement community in the 400 block of North Lioba. Police were called at 3:47 p.m.

Tristan Paul Weir, Harvey’s great-grandson, is in a hospital and will be taken to Butler County Jail when he is released, police said.

Harvey was assaulted, but “we still trying to determine how,” Capt. Ben Graber said in a phone interview Tuesday. He said knives were found scattered around the apartment after an apparent scuffle, but an autopsy will determine how she was killed.

Weir was released from Sedgwick County Jail on Sunday. He had been there since February 27 after being arrested on “several municipal (domestic violence) misdemeanors” through Wichita, Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Benjamin Blick said in an email. Andover police previously said he had been in jail the last year.

Harvey picked up Weir from COMCARE, which serves people struggling with mental health issues, before taking him back to her apartment, Graber said. He said family members headed to Harvey’s home to help figure out where Weir could sleep and found her.

After the assault, Weir left in Harvey’s vehicle, Graber said.

Police used Wichita’s Flock automated license plate reading camera system to track the vehicle to 13th and Woodlawn and then to 21st and Oliver, where Graber said the relative was arrested during a traffic stop.

“Using the Flock, it was able to help us pinpoint a better location where he was at, where he had been possibly hanging around,” he said.

Graber said the relative was taken into custody during the traffic stop but “passed out on us.” Officers used NARCAN, he said, which is used to counteract an opioid overdose, and Weir was revived. expected Weir, who he said is on community corrections, to be released from the hospital and booked into jail in the next couple of days. He didn’t know what Weir’s arresting charges would be.

This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 9:11 AM.