KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The mother of the woman whose remains were found by police Wednesday in the backyard of a Grain Valley home is thankful her daughter's remains have been located.
Police in Independence confirmed Thursday, the remains they discovered a day earlier, belonged to 32-year-old Kensie Renee Aubry.
Cindy Aubry cherishes her daughter's happier moments in life because she said growing up for Kensie was rough.
"She was a good girl. But you know, people take the wrong turn," Cindy Aubry said. "You get hold of the wrong crowd. And you get mixed up in drugs and that's exactly what's the whole situation."
Originally from Pearland Texas, outside of Houston, Kensie left in 2019 and moved to the Kansas City metro with some friends with hopes of a fresh start.
"You get introduced to somebody that you know, you think is OK, and I guess they're not," Cindy Aubry said.
Aubry spoke with her mother on Oct. 7, 2020.
Her mother did not know at the time that it would be the last time they ever spoke.
Around Christmas time, still nothing. So they reached out to law enforcement.
"The first police department I called was Kansas City," Cindy Aubry said. "They did wellness checks to find out something, but it always ended up that, you know, I was just [a] too-worried mother."
Cindy Aubry said she tried filing a missing person report twice, and eventually Independence police took one in May.
"I think everybody needs to be listened to because I think she would have been found sooner," Cindy Aubry said.
Efforts to locate Kensie Aubry started in earnest in May, when police spread word about her disappearance.
The case led investigators to search and discover her remains on a Grain Valley property Wednesday.
“I had an idea, but there’s a mother’s hope that it’s going to be a different turnout,” Cindy Aubry said. “My daughter didn’t deserve to die like that.”
Kensie Aubry's friends, who turned into online sleuths during the search, threw Cindy Aubry a surprise for what would have been Kensie 33rd birthday.
“She would do anything for you,” her mother said. “Even though she would make you mad, she would do anything for you. She did not deserve how this all ended up.”
She said some of her daughter's friends will join her on the trip to pick up her ashes.
"But I want to go get her, and I want to bring her home because I told her that I would," Cindy Aubry said.
