Arkansas City Police Chief Sean Wallace will testify Thursday before the Kansas Legislature in support of Jodi’s Law ? a revision to the current state stalking law.
Jodi Sanderholm of Arkansas City, a 19-year-old Cowley College student, was murdered in January 2007. A local man, Justin Thurber, was allegedly stalking members of the school’s dance team of which Sanderholm was a member.
Thurber is charged with capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy and scheduled to go on trial this summer.
Wallace has been working with Rep. Kasha Kelley, R-Ark City, for over a year to make changes in the law he feels would make it easier to arrest and prosecute individuals who prey on women and terrify them by stalking.
“The current law has vague language that prevents law enforcement officers and prosecutors from aggressively enforcing the law,” Wallace said. “The proposed changes remove that vagueness and give the law more weight and give more power to law enforcement and prosecutors to get dangerous individuals off the street before they hurt and/or kill those they are stalking.”
Sanderholm disappeared Jan. 5. Her car was found four days later in the Cowley State Fishing Lake, east of Ark City off U.S. 166. Her body was found about 11 miles away, in a wooded area near the Walnut River.
