ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
WARRENTON — Next month it will be a year since Kara Kopetsky, then 17, was reported missing from her high school in Belton, Mo., near Kansas City.
Her mother, Rhonda Beckford, has not given up hope of finding Kara.
So when the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation contacted her earlier this week about putting Kara's picture on one of the Team Hornbeck Racing cars, Beckford jumped at the chance.
"It's all about creating awareness and getting the word out," Beckford said Saturday at the annual Warrenton Home and Garden Show, where Team Hornbeck debuted six cars for this year's dirt track season.
The team is a partnership of race car drivers that helps support the foundation's mission through financial support and by featuring photographs of missing children on its cars.
The foundation was formed by Shawn's family after he was reported missing in October 2002. Shawn was found in January 2007— along with William "Ben" Ownby of Beaufort, Mo. — in the Kirkwood apartment of their abductor, Michael Devlin.
Photographs of 30 missing Missouri children will be rotated throughout the season.
The team was founded last year and had three cars featuring photos of missing children. This year, said Craig Akers, Shawn's stepfather, they wanted to have a driver in every category: This season's first race was to be held Saturday night at the Montgomery County Speedway in New Florence, Mo., but was canceled because of weather.
Races are held every Saturday through September.
Ideally they would like to find all of the missing children, Akers said, but he hopes that through the team's efforts, families might at least be able to find some information about whether the children are still alive.
"You hope for a positive outcome, of course, but even a negative outcome is better than not knowing," Akers said.
That's what Becky Klino, of Skidmore, Mo., is hoping. Her son, Branson Perry, who was 20 at the time, was last seen in 2001. Since then, the family hasn't stopped looking for him, but they have heard nothing, Klino said.
"You never know where the leads may come from," she said. "This may help us find him, or at least we will know what happened."
rtstclair@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8206
