Ali Kemp was a young woman who was murdered in 2002. Her killer was apprehended after her father initiated an innovative billboard campaign to find the suspect.
In the summer of 2002, Ali Kemp, a 19-year-old college student, was working at a community pool in Leawood, Kansas. On June 18, she was found beaten and strangled to death in the pool’s pump room. The case initially had few leads, and the local police struggled to find the perpetrator.
In response to the lack of progress, Ali’s father, Roger Kemp, took the unusual step of launching a billboard campaign to catch his daughter’s killer. The billboards featured a composite sketch of the suspect and a hotline number. This campaign was one of the first of its kind and gained significant media attention.
The billboards eventually led to a tip that resulted in the arrest of Benjamin Appleby. Appleby was a drifter who had been in the area at the time of Ali’s murder. In 2006, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The tragedy of Ali Kemp’s death led to the creation of The Ali Kemp Educational Foundation (T.A.K.E.), which provides self-defense training for women and girls. The foundation has been instrumental in raising awareness about personal safety and has trained thousands of participants in self-defense techniques.