The location where Sheila Ingold's body was found

This is the location where Sheila Ingold's body was found.

It is situated at 3740 Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri.

Ingold was a victim of the Kansas City Strangler, Lorenzo Gilyard.

The 36-year-old sex worker was found murdered in the back of an abandoned van at this lot on Troost Avenue. An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled to death.

She was missing two rings from her fingers, which investigators believe were taken by her killer as "trophies".

Her body was discovered on November 3rd, 1987, when a man approached the owner of the repair shop and said that he was interested in purchasing the van.

Although the owner made it clear that it was a piece of junk that had been scavenged for spare parts, the man remained keen on taking a look at it. The owner found this particularly odd, as there were other vans in the lot.

When they opened the side door to inspect the inside, they saw Ingold's naked body sprawled out across the floor.

Later, it turned out that the prospective buyer was a 37-year-old man named Lorenzo Gilyard.

The police started to suspect Gilyard after they learned about his unusual interest in the vehicle.

During the course of the investigation, they discovered that he was dating the victim's friend. They also learned that he worked at a fish market across the street from the crime scene.

Although they arrested Gilyard and interrogated him, they were eventually forced to release him due to a lack of evidence.

However, before they did, they took a blood sample from him and kept it on file.

Roughly 16 years later, during a review of cold cases, the DNA from his blood sample connected him to the deaths of 12 women.

In 2007, Gilyard was found guilty of murdering Ingold and five other women. He is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Photos

Photos of the site and other related images.

3740 Troost Avenue

This Google Street View image of 3740 Troost Avenue was taken in May 2021.

Sheila Ingold

Ingold lived in the 3600 block of Troost Avenue, which was just north of the autobody repair shop.

Manheim Road

The Google Street View image above was taken from Manheim Road, which is on the southern side of the property. The red ellipse highlights the location where the van was parked.

News footage

Image source: KCTV 5 News

This screenshot is from a KCTV 5 News segment about the crime.

Van

Ingold's body was "found" after Gilyard feigned interest in purchasing the van.

His actions in this case suggest that he got some sort of psychological gratification from his victims' bodies being discovered. For example, he may have enjoyed the attention that his crimes received.

The fact that he dumped his victim's remains across the street from his workplace further supports this theory.

By doing so, he could watch the investigation unfold and listen to people talking about the murder.

It seems as though he expected Ingold's body to be found much earlier. Consequently, he grew impatient and decided to engineer the discovery of her remains.

Being the person who "found" the body may have also given him an extra kick, as he'd be in the midst of the investigation, hiding in plain sight.

However, in this case, he overplayed his hand by showing far too much interest in a piece of junk.

Crime scene

This is a police diagram of the crime scene.

Fish market

At the time of the murder, Gilyard was working at a fish market across the street.