'It Turned Him On When People Die:' Teen Led Cops To Missing Woman's Remains Buried On Alleged Abuser's Property, Authorities Say

Investigators in Missouri who uncovered the human remains of a woman who disappeared months ago were led to the site where she’d been buried by a teenage girl who alleged the property owner described the killing while he was sexually abusing her, police said.

The remains of 32-year-old Kensie Renee Aubry were found this week on a property in an unincorporated territory in Grain Valley, Missouri, the Independence Police Department said in a statement on Thursday. Aubry was initially reported missing from Independence in October 2020. Her mother told local station KSBH that she’d moved to the Kansas City area from Texas in 2019 for a fresh start; it wasn’t until after two missing person reports were filed that an investigation into Aubry’s disappearance began in earnest in May.

"I think everybody needs to be listened to because I think she would have been found sooner," Cindy Aubry told KSBH. “My daughter didn’t deserve to die like that.”

Michael Hendricks, 40, the owner of the property, has not been charged with a crime in relation to the discovery of the remains on his property; the ongoing investigation is being treated as a homicide, Independence Police said on Thursday. Hendricks is currently in custody, however, after being arrested by the Grandview Police Department, accused of seven felonies, including sex crimes involving a child and tampering with witnesses in a criminal case, Jackson county inmate records show. He is being held in the Jackon County jail on a $500,000 bond. 

Identical charges were also brought against his partner, Maggie Ybarra, in Jackson county earlier this month. The 30-year-old is also being held in Jackson County jail. Both are set to appear before a judge on Tuesday, court records show. Ybarra told investigators that she met Hendricks at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and that they’d been dating for a few months, the Kansas City Star reported.

The couple is accused of having sex in front of the teenage girl in order to entice her into sexual activity. Hendricks is also accused of touching the teenager — who has been identified only by her initials in county records — on her vagina over her clothes, The Kansas City Star reported. Both Hendricks and Ybarra have been accused of later attempting to stop the girl from telling anyone about their alleged encounters, which the girl said took place between October 2020 and April.

The teen, who according to court documents is in foster care, initially spoke with a counselor who then notified authorities. The girl, who police said provided a physical description of Hendricks that included his back tattoo, told detectives that at one point, Hendricks had shown her pictures of a woman who had been bound and gagged; other photos he produced, she reportedly said, were of dismembered body parts.

The girl said that Hendricks told her he had choked a woman to death and put her in his freezer, according to detectives.

“It turned him on when people die,” the girl said of Hendricks, according to the court document. 

“She said that they told her they buried the body,” police reported. “[The girl] said she knows the area of where it is.”

Greg Watt, an attorney representing Hendricks told Oxygen.com on Friday that Hendricks has multiple business holdings but is primarily a software developer. Watt said that he and his team are doing their own independent investigation

“[The findings are] going to be very strongly supportive of him and a strong defense of him,” Watt said. “We look forward to fighting this case in the court of law.”