KANSAS CITY, Kan. — An imprisoned man has been charged with the November 2017 murder of December Htoo — who was gunned down inside the laundromat in Kansas City, Kansas, where he worked in a case that vexed police for nearly seven years.
A fellow employee found Htoo, who was 15, shot to death inside the Maple Hill Laundromat, located in the 2400 block of South 34th Street, on the morning of Nov. 18, 2017, but leads proved tough to come by and the case quickly went cold.
That changed in September 2021 when Lenexa police recovered the gun used to murder Htoo during a narcotics traffic stop, but the case went cold again until it was moved to KCKPD’s Cold Case Unit in May 2024.
Some fresh interviews allowed investigators, armed with new information, to re-examine the surveillance footage with a fresh set of eyes, which led authorities to identify a suspect — Luis Samano — who was charged July 11 with premeditated murder and attempted aggravated burglary.
Samano, 24, has been at Larned Correctional Center since 2019 for unrelated crimes.
‘Senselessness’ of Htoo’s murder sticks with KCKPD
Htoo, whose family immigrated from Myanmar to escape ongoing political violence, was a sophomore at J.C. Harmon High School, where he wrestled and sang in the choir.
He also was active in his church youth group — by all accounts a kind, wonderful boy with a bright future.
“This is just one of those cases that pretty much stuck with everybody up in the detective bureau just because of the senselessness of it,” KCKPD Homicide Det. James Gunzenhauser, who worked the case after Htoo’s murder.
Wendy Medina had joined KCKPD four months before Htoo’s murder as a victims services advocate.
“It was my first response by myself after training as a victim advocate,” she said. “That early morning, I was paged and I responded to the scene of the homicide and immediately was able to connect with the family from the moment of the death notification to the immediate aftermath through the investigation.”
It’s been a long journey for investigators, who developed a personal stake in the case.
“Overall, in the department, there's joy in this,” KCKPD Cold Case Capt. Katie Yarsulik said. “I know several officers that remember responding out on the call so many years ago, officers that worked in our CSI Unit, have come forward to Detective Szewc. I think gratitude and joy are two big feelings around the police department right now.”
Htoo’s mother died two years ago, but his family joined KCKPD in rejoicing that charges have been brought in the quest for justice for Htoo.
The family has requested privacy, a request KSHB 41 News will honor, but they did release a statement Thursday:
December is loved and is deeply missed by his family, friends and community. He always smiled, had a positive energy, and always participated in his community including his church youth camp and Bible study.
We want to thank the community and the police department for looking at the case again. We understand it is pretty hard to get cold cases solved. In our culture, we had never experienced something like this because our Karen community was fairly new to the U.S. We think it is wonderful and are grateful for the work that detectives did.
Case goes cold
Gunzenhauser and other investigators rounded up surveillance video, but the case went cold with no witnesses and little physical evidence — at least until the gun was discovered.
“The gun was a huge turning point in this, but, saying that, it's also a rarity for that gun — for any homicide gun — to turn up down the road,” Gunzenhauser said. “Tracing it back is even more difficult just because the number of hands that potentially that firearm has changed.”
Gunzenhauser found the original owner, who reported it stolen in Kansas City, Missouri. He then followed a few leads related to the gun’s theft, but the trail again went cold.
KCKPD created the Cold Case Unit in January 2022 and Htoo’s murder landed on Szewc’s desk two months ago, so she circled back to speak with witnesses about the stolen gun again.
“In conducting those interviews, I was able to find someone who had some knowledge of the case and gave me some direction as far as the suspect goes,” Szewc said. “Upon reviewing surveillance footage that was collected from a nearby business, I was able to pinpoint a vehicle that was involved in that homicide as well as connected to my suspect.”
That suspect — Samano, who has been locked up at Larned Correctional Center since 2019 after he was convicted in a 2018 aggravated arson in Overland Park — was 17 at the time.
“It was indicated to us that the initial crime would have been a robbery and things just went wrong,” Szewc said when asked if the investigation had uncovered a motive.
Szewc, who has now cleared four cold cases that have been brought for charges in her time with the unit, called it a team effort to identify Htoo’s suspected killer.
“Without the initial investigation work that Det. Gunzenhauser did, following up with the firearm that was recovered, we would not have been able to develop him (Samano) as a potential suspect,” she said. “Even though he was not in possession of the gun when it was recovered, thanks to his investigative work, we were able to develop him further as a suspect.”
KCKPD relishes cold-case win
Police have a tough job and one that comes with a lot of scrutiny, but that makes wins, especially big wins like cracking open Htoo’s case after seven years, a reason to celebrate.
“Officers in our department remember the name December Htoo and they feel gratitude to the detectives and enjoy that we are getting to bring some justice to this family,” Yarsulik said.
Gunzenhauser said it was a relief to know that his work — and Szewc’s follow-up investigation — produced results.
“Honestly, when Det. Szewc came over and told me that she finally got it, that was a good day for the bureau,” he said. “... This is my 40th year in law enforcement. Some cases you carry, some you forget. This is just one of those that you carry. But now you at least have answers for it.”
It felt like a personal win for those involved.
“I was really happy and proud to hear that this case was solved because it was something that I carried close to my heart for all of these years,” Medina said.
Samano’s criminal history
Samano had an extensive criminal history in Johnson County before and after Htoo’s murder. He was charged with a series of burglaries involving washers and dryers at apartment complexes in 2014 and again in 2015, according to online court records.
He also was charged with theft and criminal damage to property related to those cases, which were wrapped up in a plea agreement that involved four other cases: marijuana possession in 2014, intimidation of witness in 2015, an apartment burglary in 2015, and attempted aggravated robbery at knifepoint in 2015.
Samano was placed on intensive supervision probation for a year as part of that plea deal, according to court records.
One month after Htoo’s murder, Samano was charged with burglarizing a house in Gardner, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of drug paraphernalia in December 2017.
He was placed on nine months of intensive supervision probation, including house arrest, in February 2018 as part of a new plea deal, but within two months he had been arrested again and charged with four counts of aggravated arson and one count of misdemeanor theft.
Samano was sentenced to nine years and five months in state prison in March 2019.It’s unclear if Samano was charged with any crimes in Wyandotte County as a juvenile.
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