Police say Rubi Perez was last reported at Holy Family School before she was found dead the next morning.
GREAT BEND, Kan. — A report of a missing 14-year-old girl late April 8 became a murder case by the next morning, when Great Bend police found Rubi Perez dead behind a dirt pile and arrested a boy her age.
The first hours of the case remain the clearest part of the public record. Police have described when they were called, where Perez was last reported, where her body was found and how quickly officers made an arrest. They have not publicly explained what they believe led to her death, what relationship the suspect had with her beyond school, or what evidence tied him to the scene.
At about 8:36 p.m. Wednesday, April 8, officers responded to a missing-person call involving a 14-year-old juvenile female. The girl had last been reported at a class at Holy Family School, 4200 Broadway Ave. That campus sits near the Holy Family Catholic Parish Center and not far from Veterans Memorial Park, a public area near the 4700 block of 17th Street Terrace. Police said officers received multiple calls about possible places the girl might be. They checked those leads, but the search did not locate her that night.
The next call came at about 9:10 a.m. Thursday, April 9. Officers went to the 4700 block of 17th Street Terrace after a juvenile female was reported behind a large pile of dirt. Police said the girl was determined to be dead and was later positively identified as Perez. The location placed the discovery near Veterans Memorial Park and across from a cemetery area, close enough to school and parish landmarks that news spread through Great Bend quickly. In the first police release, her name was held while family members were notified.
From there, the search turned into a criminal investigation. Police said investigators and officers processed the crime scene, conducted many interviews and executed several search warrants. The Barton County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Great Bend Fire Department assisted Great Bend police. By later April 9, police had arrested a 14-year-old juvenile male. He was taken to the Barton County Detention Center on a first-degree murder charge. His name has not been released because he is a juvenile.
Witness accounts later filled in the scene that the official release left plain. Manuel Polanco told KAKE that he was near the railroad tracks when he saw officers and others at the dirt pile. “They had it blocked off at this entrance over here and blocks over there with some barricades,” Polanco said. He said he saw roughly 10 to 15 officers in the area. Police have not said whether the dirt pile was tied to nearby construction or why Perez was found there. Authorities also have not released a confirmed cause of death.
Inside Great Bend Middle School, where Perez was an eighth grader, students were learning pieces of the same news in real time. Bella Donna Werner, a friend, told KAKE that the previous day felt strange and that she wondered where Perez was when she arrived at school. Werner said a teacher later told her Perez had been found. “Then she sat me down and said they didn’t find her alive,” Werner said. The reaction at school gave the case an immediate human weight beyond the police tape and court filings.
Perez’s family later published an obituary that identified her as Rubi Paulina Perez, born Oct. 13, 2011, in Great Bend. It said she was the daughter of Raul and Araceli Gonzalez Perez and the sister of Mateo Perez and Alberto Perez. The obituary described her as a student who was loved by peers and teachers, an athlete in track, volleyball and basketball, and a girl remembered for kindness and a bright smile. Funeral events were set for April 15 at Bryant Funeral Home and St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church.
The court case moved on a separate track. Barton County Attorney J. Colin Reynolds announced that the boy was accused of first-degree murder in Perez’s death. A detention hearing was scheduled for April 21. Reports from that date said the proceeding went forward but was closed to the public after the case was sealed. Later, a district court judge reopened the case to public access. The shift showed the tension in juvenile cases between privacy rules for minors and public interest in a homicide investigation.
The most recent filing came May 4, when prosecutors asked Barton County District Court to try the boy as an adult. That request does not decide the case by itself. It asks the judge to move the prosecution from juvenile court to adult court, where the suspect’s name would become public if the motion were granted. Adult prosecution also would change the legal exposure and the public handling of records. Until the judge rules, the boy remains publicly unidentified.
The unanswered questions are central to the story. Police have not released a motive. They have not said whether Perez and the suspect left any location together, whether surveillance video exists, or what the search warrants sought. Local reports have used the word bludgeoned and quoted a friend who said she heard Perez died from blunt-force trauma to the head, but police have not confirmed those details in a public statement. Officially, the case is a first-degree murder prosecution tied to a body found behind a large dirt pile after an overnight missing-person search.
For Great Bend, a city in central Kansas about 100 miles northwest of Wichita, the case connects familiar community spaces: a middle school, a church campus, a park, a cemetery and a funeral home. The route from a missing report to an arrest was measured in hours, but the court process is expected to move more slowly. Each new filing has added one piece to the public record while leaving the core account of what happened to Perez still incomplete.
As of May 8, the murder charge remains pending and the adult-court motion is the next public step. The court’s ruling will determine whether the 14-year-old suspect stays in juvenile proceedings or faces the case in adult court.
Author note: Last updated May 8, 2026.