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Overland Park, Kansas student rides 150 miles to raise awareness [Video]
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Overland Park, Kansas student rides 150 miles to raise awareness [Video]

A 17-year-old Overland Park high school student is nearing the completion of an extraordinary bike ride to raise research funds and awareness for his exceptionally rare metabolic disorder.Carson Hunt is legally blind and has minimal vision. He was born with homocystinuria cblG (HCU), one of only 51 known cases worldwide for this strain.This condition leaves him constantly vulnerable to vision loss, strokes, heart attacks, and seizures.Born in Missouri, a state without a newborn screening test for HCU, it took doctors three months after Carsons birth to identify his condition. They offered his parents a bleak outlook.You probably should just take him home and love him because we dont know what to do, we dont know how to treat it, and weve never seen anything like this before, said Dana Hunt, Carsons mother, who advocates for newborn screening for HCU in every state.Im at an age where doctors didnt expect me to be alive at this point, and Im running out of methods. Now were just trying to find new ways for me to take my medicine, Carson said.As a baby, doctors warned Carsons parents that if he survived, he would likely never walk, talk, or have any vision.Despite having burned-out retinas, Carson has maintained minimal peripheral vision, which hasnt deteriorated in a decade. However, with HCU, he remains at constant risk for additional vision loss, strokes, seizures, and heart attacks.But this hasnt stopped him from being active his whole life. With the encouragement of his older brother Ethan, Carson has played soccer and basketball, skied, earned a black belt in taekwondo, and can ride a bike. He also currently plays the saxophone in Blue Valley Northwest High Schools Howlin Husky Marching Band.No one other than Carson has lived this long and this well with his condition. His constantly changing drug regimen is setting a prototype for managing the disorder. It has already helped 4-year-old Grayson Parke from Colorado, who shares the same strain of HCU, but so far, Grayson has suffered no side effects.It just feels so good being me; it can help others, Carson said.Its pretty incredible, and I think Carson represents our program with passion, purpose, and prideour three ideals here at the high school, said Kenneth Tysick, Blue Valley Northwest High School band director. It is amazing that he has these obstacles in his life yet is able to overcome them and participate like any other student in the marching band.I believe God has a plan for everyone. I dont know how long Ill live, but I just want to experience life to the fullest, Carson said.Carson has set a goal of riding his bike 150 miles in September to raise research funds and awareness for HCU.We have made it our mission to keep fighting to find a solution and to help unravel this medical mystery, Dana Hunt said.Carson plans to complete his 150-mile bike ride at The Kingdom Bar & Grille, located at 12655 Antioch Road in Overland Park, at 1 p.m. Sunday, with family, friends, and the community cheering him on at the finish line.It means a lot to see all these people supporting a local kid trying to achieve a goal of raising $20,000, Carson said.The restaurants owner is also planning to donate half of the proceeds from customers between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Sunday to help Carson reach his fundraising goal.Carson, a junior at Blue Valley Northwest High School, already plans to attend the University of Kansas, play in the schools marching band, and major in marketing.

Missouri man, woman, charged in sexual crime cases involving children [Video]
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Small Business Lifestyle

Missouri man, woman, charged in sexual crime cases involving children [Video]

****WARNING**** The details of this story are graphic and may provide disturbing information for readers Investigators continue to search for evidence in cases involving child sexual crimes that span nearly two decades in a small Johnson County, Missouri town.Prosecutors have charged Gregory D. Arnold, 56, with three felony counts of first-degree statutory sodomy.Yvonne P. Arnold, 55, is also charged with one felony count of first-degree statutory sodomy.Both are in the Johnson County, Missouri, jail after their arrest earlier this month. A judge has denied bond in their cases.The details of their criminal cases extremely graphic and disturbing, even to investigators.Prosecutors say Gregory Arnold committed sexual crimes against two children in two of the familys homes in Chilhowee, potentially dating back to 2005. They also alleged in court documents Yvonne Howard sodomized a child in 2012.The Arnolds home along Cedar Avenue in Chilhowee is blocked by a high privacy fence. It is barricaded with trees, brush, and rocks. KMBC 9 Investigates could see chicken wire covering multiple windows at the home.PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS QUESTIONED BY NEIGHBORSNeighbors also told KMBC they question on the scope of previous investigations by childrens division and law enforcement, especially after young child came forward to Johnson County sheriffs investigators in May of 2020 about potential crimes committed in the home by Gregory Arnold.Court documents say Johnson County Sheriffs office took a 13-page victim statement on May 27, 2020, after a child came forward to investigators about sexual encounters with Arnold.Johnson County, Mo. sheriffs Lt. Jeff Parsons told KMBC 9 Investigates the department, in general, cannot move forward to prosecutors with cases without enough evidence.In all investigations, you go with what you know, he said. And if you’re not aware of things at the time, you can’t move forward. KMBC asked if the department applied for any search warrants in the case in 2020. Parson said he was limited on what else he could share due to the nature of the current investigation.Obviously, were in a position in the case, now the disclosures that are placed in the probable cause statement, that there was enough to move forward with this case, he said. If we didnt have that back then, that would be the reason why we didnt move forward.Parsons also said with the new information in the probable cause statement, it prompted the department reopen the 2020 investigation. Court documents say Johnson County childrens division workers attempted contact with the Arnolds multiple occasions since 2020, but never got a response or access to the see children at the home.A representative for the division told KMBC 9 Investigates they couldn’t comment about the investigation. The documents also allege children living at the home had no access to the outside world, did not attend school, or see medical professionals. They should have took the kids away from them, said neighbor Bob Gardner. Gardner says he saw children’s division workers at the home, having contact with the Arnolds. But children remained in the home. Next door neighbor Norma Atkinson says the family kept to themselves and stayed barricaded on their property. She said she saw children at the home, but they never spoke to her. Makes you want to cry for the kids, she said. It’s a crying shame. Somebody should have been doing something.Authorities are still looking for tips in the case. KMBC is also going to keep working on the case, too. If you have any tips, email investigates@kmbc.com.