Ex-murder suspect charged with soliciting prostitutes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man once suspected in the deaths of several women linked to prostitution was charged with soliciting prostitutes while on parole recently.

Gregory Breeden, 55, was charged in Kansas City Municipal Court with soliciting prostitution Dec. 2. A warrant was issued Jan. 3, said Sgt. Tony Sanders, a Kansas City police spokesman. Sanders would not release any other details about the case Friday.

Breeden once was investigated in the deaths of seven teen-age girls and women whose bodies were found in the Missouri River between 1982 and 1994. Some of the bodies had been dismembered.

He was charged in Ray County in one of the cases, the 1994 murder of Viola McCoy. The charge was dismissed in 1999 after a witness refused to testify.

Breeden, who has denied any involvement in the deaths, is being held in the Western Reception and Diagnostic Correctional Center in St. Joseph for allegedly violating his parole on bad-check charges.

John Fougere, Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman, said Breeden, who had been living at the Kansas City Community Center halfway house, allegedly violated house rules and parole by going to unauthorized locations while looking for work. Fougere declined to say where Breeden had gone or whether the prostitution allegation played a role in the parole case.

"The parole board will take into consideration many things, including this," Fougere said.

Breeden denied the allegation Friday, saying he had learned of it at his parole hearing Thursday.

"If anybody had bothered to check, I was in KCCC at that time," Breeden said. "It's hard to be in two places at the same time. This is just police harassment."

Halfway house officials could not be reached for comment.

Breeden also denied allegations that he had gone to unauthorized places while seeking work.

Fougere said it would take about six weeks for the parole board to decide whether to release Breeden or revoke his parole, returning him to prison to complete his 10-year sentence for passing more than $1,500 in bad checks. Breeden served two-thirds of the sentence before being given a conditional release in July. He was arrested Dec. 13 for a parole violation.