Orlando Teneile Taylor, 35, is charged with rape and burglary in the home invasion
The family of a woman who died fleeing from a brutal home invasion attack has called upon prosecutors to charge her suspected rapist with murder.
Orlando Teneile Taylor, 35, is charged with rape and burglary in the August 18 home invasion that ended with 39-year-old Shannon Eileen Keithley dead in a single-car crash in Kansas City, Kansas.
Kansas law includes in the definition of first-degree murder the killing of a human being ‘in the commission of, attempt to commit, or flight from an inherently dangerous felony’.
‘She was panicking, that’s for sure’ when the crash occurred, father Richard Keithley told the Kansas City Star.
Shannon Keithley, who repaired musical instruments for a living, was home alone in the early hours of August 18 when someone kicked in the back door to her grandmother’s house, where she had been living.
Shannon Eileen Keithley died in a single-car crash on August 18, just minutes after calling 911 saying she had escaped from a brutal home invasion and rape. She was 39
Keithley had been living alone in her grandmother’s house (pictured). The back door was found kicked in, and Taylor was discovered crouched in hiding under the back deck by police
What happened in the home and how long it lasted remains unclear, with much of the evidence against Taylor under seal for now.
But around 5am, Keithley escaped from the house. A kitchen knife was later found in her driveway, suggesting she fought for her freedom.
Keithley made it to her car and called 911 as she sped away.
Less than a mile away at 5.09am, her SUV collided head-on with the concrete pillar of an interstate overpass, killing her.
She was not wearing a seatbelt, something friends said was highly out of the ordinary.
Keithley died when her SUV collided with these concrete pillars as she desperately fled after calling 911. Prosecutors have thus far declined to press murder charges in the case
Officers responding to her 911 call found the suspect Taylor crouched in hiding under a wooden deck behind her house.
He is currently being held pending $500,000 bond on the burglary and rape charges.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree has thus far resisted bringing felony murder charges in the case.
‘The possibility of additional charges exists,’ Dupree’s spokesman Jonathan Carter said in a written statement to the Star.
‘However, the two charges, rape and aggravated burglary, are where the case stands at the moment.’