KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two Kansas City area families bonded by tragedy are now suing a tracking device company.
The lawsuit against Spytec GPS comes after their children, 22-year-old Sara Beck and 20-year-old Mikey Williamson, were victims in a 2022 double murder-suicide in Lenexa.
VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Cameron Taylor
“I don’t want the rest of my life to think the only reason me and her know each other is because our children were killed,” Desmond Theel, Sara Beck’s father said.
Lenexa police said Sara’s ex-boyfriend shot and killed Sara and Mikey before taking his own life.
Police also said the ex-boyfriend tracked Sara with a GPS device leading him to Mikey’s house.
It’s a story the KSHB 41 I-Team has followed for two years.
“It’s just still unbelievable that it happened and the way that it happened,” Melanie Williamson, Mikey Williamson’s mother.
For the first time, the two families sat down together with the I-Team to share the change they are hoping for with their lawsuit.
“I want to know that after this happened that we did something about it,” Theel said.
The two parents formed a bond after meeting each other at their children’s funerals. That bond has helped them get on a path toward healing and seeking accountability.
“We’re here to bring light onto this,” Theel said.
“Have something good come from it,” Williamson added.
“So their deaths are not totally in vain,” Theel said.
The two families claim the tracking device company sold the tracking device to Sara’s ex-boyfriend.
“What is the message you all are trying to send with this lawsuit?” Cameron Taylor with the KSHB 41 I-Team asked.
“We’re not going to stand for this. We gotta have laws that keep up with technology,” Theel said.
“People need to understand how dangerous it is,” Williamson added.
In the 24-page wrongful death lawsuit, the families accuse the company of designing and manufacturing a device and app “which are negligently, recklessly, and intentionally designed for the purpose of covertly tracking unsuspecting individuals.”
LINK | Read the lawsuit
“The wanted outcome is to get some justice for these families. The wanted outcome is to make some change,” Nick Brand, the attorney representing the two families.
In response, the company denied the allegations and added the ex-boyfriend's “use of the product at issue constituted a misuse of the product in a fashion that was not reasonably foreseeable.”
LINK | Read the tracking device company's response to the lawsuit
“I don’t want average Joe public being able to have them. Businesses can have them, that’s fine. I don’t want average Joe to have them,” Theel said.
That’s the kind of change Desmond and Melanie are looking for with their lawsuit.
They have seen some wins along the way like Kansas strengthening its stalking laws following the I-Team's reporting. They think it could go even further.
Desmond and Melanie are still waiting for Missouri to make a change.
“I’m not going to tell ya that we’ll change the world, but I'm going to try. If it’s the last thing I do, I'm going to try,” Theel said.
In Missouri, a lawmaker introduced a bill that would ban someone from putting a tracking device on someone’s car without the owner’s consent.
For the second year in a row, it did not move forward.
The I-Team also reached out to the attorneys representing the tracking device company, but they did not respond to a request for comment.
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Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify the name of the company named in the lawsuit.