KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Exactly seven years after her daughter was found in a motel bathroom in Independence, Cindy Caswell continues to fight for answers.
This comes despite police believing Libby Caswell's death was a suicide.
KSHB 41 I-Team Reporter Sarah Plake has been following the case for years, uncovering new details.
In our in-depth piece in 2021, What Happened in Room 319?, Cindy said, "I know better. I know different because I knew Elizabeth."
Cindy has not wavered since. She's adamant in saying there are too many red flags in Libby's case and wants a new, independent investigation.
She's not alone in that assertion, with a team of experts with backgrounds in law enforcement, forensic medicine, and social work on her side.
"There [are] things I know now that I didn't know then, and it's given me strength to keep going," Cindy said in a new interview.
Cindy is a different person now than she was on Dec. 11, 2017, the day police told her Libby was found dead in a seedy Independence motel with her boyfriend's belt around her neck.
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She was lost and didn't know where to turn, what she could do, or what she had access to in Libby's case.
"I've come a long way since then," Cindy said.
She feels stronger than ever now, talking about Libby's case to anyone who will listen.
In our 2021 story, Libby's on-and-off again boyfriend told investigators he woke up to find Libby had hung herself in a bathroom at the Sports Stadium Motel on 24 Highway.
He left the motel and called the police, eventually turning up at IPD headquarters a couple of hours later.
The Independence police department soon ruled her death a suicide. However, the Jackson County medical examiner ruled her death "undetermined" due to the circumstances surrounding her death.
We are not identifying Libby's boyfriend because he has not been charged with a crime and denied involvement in her death.
"I know she did not take her own life in that bathroom that day," Cindy said.
Cindy says Libby was a domestic abuse victim.
A couple of years into her fight for answers, Cindy contacted Alliance for HOPE International, a multi-disciplinary advocacy organization for abuse victims, their experts came to the same conclusion — also believing that Libby was killed.
"We know that justice can happen in the Libby Caswell case," Alliance founder Casey Gwinn said on the anniversary.
Gwinn, other Alliance leaders, and Cindy announced their ongoing mission on a Facebook live video.
"Request a completely different, from-the-beginning, investigation into the case," Gwinn said.
Gwinn said he is requesting the newly-elected Jackson County prosecutor, Melesa Johnson, review the case and assign it to a different agency.
Outgoing prosecutor Jean Peters Baker told KSHB 41 News in 2021 her office looked at the case and there wasn't enough evidence to move forward with charges.
"The scene was manipulated to look like a suicide," said Dr. Bill Smock, who is the medical director of the Alliance's Training Institute for Strangulation Prevention.
Smock is a nationally known forensic physician with expertise in strangulation cases. He looked at Libby's case file. KSHB 41 interviewed him for our story in 2021.
"When you look at the objective evidence in Libby's case, the physical injuries to her body, to her neck, on her chest, on her back - What happened in room 319? She was murdered," Smock said.
The Alliance has hosted numerous training conferences over the years for law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, social workers, advocates, and medical workers, including the Hidden Homicides conference. Smock and Gwinn say they've presented Libby's case for review at these conferences and the consensus is always "homicide."
Over the years, through records requests and interviews, reporter Sarah Plake uncovered more details about Libby's case – including a history of domestic violence, the extent to which the FBI got involved, witness accounts that contradict the timeline Libby's boyfriend gave police, and surveillance video that was never collected.
KSHB 41 asked Independence police for an interview to address these questions but has yet to hear back.
Following a news conference from the family commemorating the anniversary of Libby's death in 2023, an IPD spokesperson said given the evidence available, Libby's death is "most likely a suicide."
KSHB 41 has also never been able to get a hold of Libby's boyfriend.
In the beginning, police called him a person of interest.
"I'm not going away," Cindy said. "I'm going to show up and I'm going to keep showing up until something happens for Libby. She has a civil right to have a comprehensive investigation and I haven't seen anything yet that exemplifies that."
Again, this story is to mark seven years since Libby's death and the continued calls for a new investigation. Looking ahead, KSHB 41 is also rolling out a series of stories on Libby's case. We will go more in-depth, highlighting all the information we've gathered over the last couple of years and the questions the family says are still unanswered.
Those stories will air on KSHB 41 and will be on the KSHB website.
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