Reporter Sharon Montague can be reached at 822-1411 or by e-mail at smontague@salina.com.
Salina Journal
PORTIS -- It was about noon Tuesday when Brad Roadhouse noticed the light blue or gray, four-door car, driving on a rural Osborne County road about an eighth of a mile from U.S. Highway 281.
"The reason I noticed it is from the simple fact that it had an odd-colored fender on it, and it was a vehicle I hadn't seen around here before," said Roadhouse, who manages the Midway Co-op Association grain elevator here.
"For some reason, I just looked off that way and kept an eye on it."
The car, he said, was headed toward a farmhouse owned by farmer and rancher Jeffery "Scott" Noel, 55. Roadhouse noticed the trunk lid was ajar.
Roadhouse didn't think much about the car until later Tuesday afternoon, when he learned that Noel had been murdered in his home, possibly by a person or persons who, earlier Tuesday, had burglarized a farmhouse a couple of miles away.
Now, authorities say they want to talk to whomever was in the vehicle when it was seen near Noel's home.
Sgt. Jack Innis of the Osborne County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that Noel's body was discovered in his home about 4 p.m. Tuesday. However, he said authorities believe he was killed between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
"We had another incident within close proximity -- a burglary at another residence -- in that same time frame," Innis said. "We're not sure if it's connected yet, but we are pursuing that possibility."
Not much information
Innis wouldn't say who discovered Noel's body, or how he was killed. He said an autopsy was to be conducted in Hays.
He didn't know whether anything had been stolen from the Noel home.
"They're processing the crime scene now," Innis said Wednesday afternoon. "I don't have any information about anything that might be missing."
Innis said authorities are still looking for the car. They have no information about a license tag, he said, so they don't know whether it was from out-of-state, or what county in Kansas it might have been registered in.
Authorities also have a vague description of a possible suspect -- a white male with a medium complexion, between 5 feet, 8 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with brown hair.
He couldn't say whether more than one person might have been involved in the murder.
"We're just still in the early stages of the investigation," Innis said.
Rumors? They're false
Innis said rumors about the murder are rampant in the Osborne County area, and most of the ones he's heard have been false. He said there has been no escape from a correctional facility, as some have suggested, and that no suspects have been taken into custody. There also hasn't been a rash of burglaries.
"We only had the one other incident," Innis said.
Roadhouse said the murder has put people in Portis, a community of about 110 people, "a little bit on edge."
The grain elevator, which is the only business in town, was filled with people Wednesday morning, discussing the incident, and people continued to drop by all day.
"Nobody knows why a thing like this happened to a person of his nature," Roadhouse said.
He said Noel was an "outgoing, laughing, family-type person that was very family-oriented. He was very outgoing, very respected within the community."
A crime-free community
Noel was born and reared in the area, Roadhouse said, and he reared his own two daughters and son on the farm. Noel's children are grown and have moved away, Roadhouse said.
Portis is pretty much a crime-free community, Roadhouse said. Innis said the last murder in the county was about 15 years ago, and the murderer committed suicide before he was arrested.
"We're a pretty close-knit community," Roadhouse said. "We're hoping that somebody is found that was responsible for this, and that it happens pretty quickly."
nReporter Sharon Montague can be reached at 822-1411 or by e-mail at smontague@salina.com.
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