KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The trial against an accused serial killer will proceed after attorneys involved the case said they were comfortable moving forward.
With that decision, a Jackson County judge scheduled Frederick Scott’s murder trial to begin on Sept. 6, 2022. Jury selection is expected to begin Sept. 1.
Scott is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Karen Harmeyer, Steven Gibbons, John Palmer, David Lenox, Timothy Rice and Michael Darby. Harmeyer was killed in Grandview. The five men were killed along Indian Creek Trail in 2017.
Scott’s case was put on hold in June 2021 after the Missouri Department of Mental Health told the judge that Scott was incompetent to stand trial because he hadn’t been taking his medication.
The state has not released why Scott is taking medication, but his mother has said, in the past, her son exhibited signs of paranoid schizophrenia, resisted treatment and was never diagnosed with the illness.
According to court documents Scott admitted shooting Gibbons and Palmer.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story reported that Fredrick Scott pleaded guilty to the murders of Gibbons and Palmer. Court documents said he admitted killing the two men.