KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Independence police confirmed that human remains have been found at a Grain Valley house, where local and federal authorities started digging Wednesday as part of a missing person's investigation.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed Wednesday morning that they are helping local police with an investigation of a property in the 4000 block of Buckner Tarsney Road in Grain Valley.
Earlier Wednesday, a 41 Action News viewer spotted several law enforcement vehicles on the driveway of a property. Video from the scene showed crews using a front loader to dig up dirt in the back yard of a residence.
Independence Police Public Information Officer John Syme said he could not confirm which missing person's case was connected to the search in Grain Valley, but said the family of the person possibly involved has been contacted.
"There is the body on the property," Syme said. "I'm going to leave it at that for now."
Once the remains are positively identified, the case will be referred to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office for homicide charges, Syme said.
He declined to say if the investigation has identified any suspects.
The Grain Valley property where the FBI is assisting Independence search is owned by Michael Hendricks and his wife.
Hendricks was charged May 3 with several felonies, which were amended June 4. He faces two counts of enticement or attempted enticement of a child less than 15 years old, third-degree child molestation of a child less than 14, two counts of first-degree sexual misconduct and four counts related to tampering with evidence.
According to a probable cause statement from Grandview police, an underaged foster child told officers on April 14, 2021, that a woman named Maggie Ybarra had shown her cell phone pictures of an unidentified woman “with her hands tied, naked and gagged" at her residence in Grandview.
Syme confirmed that Grandview police also were at the Grain Valley home, where authorities discovered the body Wednesday.
Ybarra told the girl that she and her boyfriend, Hendricks, “killed the female and disposed of the body.” Hendricks visited Ybarra's residence in Grandview on multiple occasions when the girl was present.
According to the probable cause statement, Ybarra told the girl that she and Hendricks were in a sexual relationship with the woman in the photos, which she was also shown on a separate camera, and that Hendricks “choked her to death” before putting the woman’s body in a freezer, dismembering it and burying it.
The girl, according to police documents, had been removed from Ybarra’s care as a small child due to allegations of sexual abuse by one of Ybarra’s former boyfriends, but found Ybarra’s profile on Facebook and reconnected last fall.
The girl spent some weekends overnight with Ybarra in December and January at her Grandview residence, according to police, but visits started “a couple times a week” in October 2020, police said.
Additionally, the girl said that Hendricks was inappropriate toward her, kissing her knee in a sexual way in one instance when she was getting dressed after a shower.
During another instance, the girl told Grandview police, Hendricks touched her inappropriately after Ybarra had her put on lingerie and show him.
Ybarra and Hendricks had gotten into bed with the girl to watch a horror movie together with Hendricks telling her “it turned him on when people died.”
According to the court document, Ybarra and Hendricks began engaging in a sexual act and asked the girl if she wanted to know what it felt like.
The next day, Ybarra, who admitted during an interview with police to working as a prostitute in the past, told the girl that she and Hendricks wanted to have a sexual relationship with her.
The girl said she knew it would be wrong, according to the probable cause statement.
During a jailhouse call May 3, Ybarra — who has been charged with the same nine counts as Hendricks — asked her boyfriend to go to her Grandview residence and dispose of some items that “were wrapped up in (a) sheet in the garage.”
Hendricks and Ybarra are scheduled July 20 for a pre-trial teleconference. Both requested a bond modification, which a Jackson County judge denied on June 7.
Hendricks' attorney, Greg Watt, told 41 Action News he's aware of the search and the allegations, which his client denies.
Ybarra remains in jail after a judge declined her bond request.
Hendricks also remains in custody, according to Watts, on a $500,000 cash-only bond.
His bond conditions include a no-contact order with Ybarra and any witnesses and he’s not allowed to be within 1,000 feet of the alleged sexual assault victim, victim’s residence, any address associated with a witness or co-defendant, or anyone under 17 years old.
Among other restrictions, the bond conditions forbid possession, or being in the presence, of firearms, ammunition, firearms components or other deadly weapons — including chainsaws, knives and machetes — as well as “any rope, gags, chains, or other materials used to bind.”
Hendricks' wife filed for divorce on June 15.
