Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Sorority Sister Killed While Jogging

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Elsa McGrain went out for a jog on Thursday, November 6 in Lawrence, Kansas and was hit by a vehicle. Someone passing by found McGrain's body hours later and called 911. Security cameras captured a truck of interest and several tips led to the arrest of William Klingler, 36. The district attorney's office filed charges of felony leaving the scene of a deadly accident, circumventing an ignition interlock device, driving while suspended and no proof of motor vehicle insurance. McGrain was a pre-med student and a beloved sorority sister. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Use code CRIMEFIX at https://jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! These sell out fast so get them while they last! #JonesRoadBeauty #adHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Tom Smith https://www.youtube.com/@GOLDSHIELDS Producer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A young college student named Elsa McGrane went out for a run and was hit and killed, and deputies say the driver took off. I'll tell you how detectives say they found the driver and what Elsa McGrane's family and friends are saying about their terrible loss. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Annionette Levy. This case is going to make you mad. Really, really mad. I'm going to tell you that right off the bat. Elsa McGrane, she was a college student who had everything going for her. And on a Thursday night, she went out for a jog and never came home. It's something that a lot of college kids like her do in Lawrence, Kansas. That's where Elsa, who was just 20 years old, was attending the University of, of Kansas. The sheriff's office said a driver in a white truck hit Elsa and left her to die alone. Elsa was a pre-med student. It was around 6 p.m. when Elsa reached the 1700 block of

East 1500 Road on Thursday, November 6th, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office says she was hit around that time. But her body was not discovered for nine hours. It was around 3.35 a.m. when passing by called 911. When deputies arrived on scene, it was simply too late. Elsa was dead. As I mentioned, Elsa was a pre-med student, and she was expected to graduate next year. She was a member of the Chi Omega sorority. The sorority posted on Instagram about their sister. It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our beloved sister, Elsa McGrane. Elsa was the kind of person everyone wanted to be, genuine, kind, and full of light. She noticed the quiet one in the room, checked on you, whether things were good or bad, and was the loyal friend we all strive to be.

She had a gift for making everyone around her feel valued and loved. Also was an active member of PC23 and served on exec as house manager, where she led with grace, compassion, and a servant's heart. Her faith was the guiding light in her life and in the lives of everyone blessed to know her. One of Elsa's favorite verses was Matthew 633, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you. Our hearts go out to Elsa's friends, family, and all those who were touched by her light. Her faith, kindness, and sisterhood will forever remain in our hearts. And deputies immediately began searching for the driver who hit and killed Elsa. Lucky for detectives, homeowners in the area had security cameras up, and at least

one captured clear images of a white truck that interested detectives. A security camera on a home captured part of the hit and run crash, and those homeowners provided the footage and information to authorities. According to the homeowners, it's not an uncommon occurrence for people to be on the road, and a lot of people run and bike and walk their dogs in that area. Detectives released two photos of a vehicle of interest in this case, asking for the public's help and identifying the all-white truck with no side markings. Three days later, tips from the public led deputies to the location of the suspected vehicle and the alleged driver less than one mile from where Elsa was hit and killed. The suspect was identified as 36-year-old William

Ray Klingler, and according to the sheriff's office, he has a lengthy criminal history, including several arrests for driving under the influence. Douglas County deputies charged him with one count of reckless involuntary manslaughter and an additional count of failure to appear related to another case. The Douglas County District Attorney's Office has filed charges now of felony leaving the scene of an accident, circumventing an ignition interlocked device, driving while suspended, a second or subsequent offense,

and no proof of motor vehicle insurance. He is being held now on a $500,000 bond. Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis said in a statement, My office will hold fully accountable those who endanger their fellow citizens and make our roadways unsafe. I extend my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Elsa McGrain as they mourn her tragic and senseless loss. It is certainly completely senseless. Klingler's criminal record, it goes back to 2003 when he was just a teenager. But let's focus now on his arrest for driving under the influence.

When Klingler was 21, he got his first DUI. He was fined and completed a diversion program. Despite that, other arrests for DUI followed in 2018 and 2019. And last year, he was arrested and charged with his fourth DUI. He actually has three convictions for driving under the influence. According to court records, he was also found guilty of improperly driving on a lained road while having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle. Now, this man, he even had anti-alcohol devices in his truck to prevent him from getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.

Records indicate he was charged with tampering with ankle monitors and trying to disable the ignition interlock on his vehicle. But let's get back to Elsa. And who she was. Elsa grew up, surrounded by her loving family in Omaha, Nebraska and graduated from high school in 2023. she was a really good student. She was pursuing her dreams of becoming a doctor while studying at the University of Kansas. She was devoted to her faith and known for her ability to make the people around her feel seen and welcome. She loved spending time with her friends and playing soccer and supporting sports teams at the University of Kansas. Being on camera means that having the right makeup to keep my skin happy is really important. I've always hated it when makeup feels cake. or heavy, especially during the holidays when you're running from work to parties, and your skin can start to feel really stressed. But Jones Road Beauty, they get it. All of their products are clean, simple, and actually good for your skin. They're great for that effortless, healthy,

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Just head to jonesroadbeaut.com and use code crime fix at checkout after you purchase. they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Elsa's mom posted on Facebook about the loss of her beautiful daughter. Anna McGrain wrote, A child should never have to leave this world before their parents. But this angel I had in my life was a bright light to me and so many that God had such big plans for her while she was on this earth.

She packed so much into her life doing good for others, and giving to everyone she met and touched. As her mom, I was always worried she needed to protect her heart, but her heart was full by helping and connecting with others. Countless times, I have been amazed at her maturity, connection to God and the Holy Spirit. She truly spent her short life impacting others by bringing out our good, pushing us to find our true spiritual souls

and making the littlest of people feel God's love and light. She lived life with conviction. She was incredibly smart and was so excited to follow in the footsteps of her grandpa in medicine. She was going to be a pediatric oncologist. She wanted to bring the Holy Spirit and faith to those who needed it most through her ability to help heal the body and soul. We all need to find more faith in God and our connections to each other the way Elsa carried her life.

This was her life's purpose, and I can see this in all the beautiful messages and stories, her father, stepmother, brothers, sister, and extended family and friends, and I have received. You all were her family. She loved hard and loved all of you. I pray for all who are hurting as I am, but please know she was as excited to be with her maker and to hug Jesus the day she walked through the gates of heaven. She had the faith and trust in Jesus that I can only hope to have through this awful tragedy. Thank you all for your love. Prayers, support, and messages. The best way we can remember my Elsa Bean is by living how she showed us to live. Her last hour was spent connecting to God in prayer at sunset. She even sent a message to a close

friend asking her how she could pray for her on her run. God had her in his arms immediately and she is now with him and the bliss of heaven forever. There is more good in this world than evil. Please extend a smile. A hello talk to a stranger. Ask them, if they need a prayer you can provide her bedroom wall says it all god is good so to discuss what i think is just a horrific horrific case i want to bring in tom smith he is the host of the gold shield show on youtube one of the hosts tom um you're also a retired homicide detective so i this case i'm just flabbergasted this poor family elsema grane's family um they should be celebrating their daughter and instead they're doing a funeral.

Where do you begin when you find you've got a case like this, a homicide case like this, it lands in your lap. Obviously, they canvass the neighborhood. They found the surveillance footage. But when you look at it, where do you begin with this? Yeah, you know what? And I just want to repeat what you said. It's a horrible, tragic event that happened.

You know, a young girl just goes out for a run, just like millions do every day. And then this happens, which is horrible. but that's where crime is unfortunately sometimes and the way you start is you know you get as much information of the victim as you can when did she start running where did she run to how often does she do it and kind of get a pattern down of her lifestyle of what she's doing that particular day and then work from there but you brought up the best point and the most important point with today's society the evidence of videos everyone's got a camera somewhere either on their house, on the corner of a store, in their car, whatever it might be.

And that is the number one place that you start working in today's world because that is immeasurable and it is so vitally important. Because what it does, it sets up you being able to get a timeline together of when the events happen. And when you have a homicide case going on, a timeline is critical. Absolutely critical. And, you know, I'm thinking about. what they're going to have aside from maybe surveillance footage that will provide a timeline.

You know, I'm thinking Elsa, she's a young person. She's 20 years old. She is a runner. So I'm thinking she likely had a phone. She likely maybe had an Apple watch or a Fitbit, whatever device she may have had that was tracking her run possibly. And maybe that's going to provide a lot of really useful data to the detectives. So what are your thoughts about that? 100%. Because like I said, that sets up. That is the beginning of the timeline. As soon as that young girl leaves her house, that's where this starts. And then what you do is you match it up once you have a suspect, which they do. Once you have that, then you match it with her information on like a watch or her phone and to see where those two intersect. And that is damning evidence when it comes to a case like this.

What I, and just really horrified by in this case, other than the fact that, you know, somebody would hit somebody and just keep driving, is the fact that we don't know if Elsa, you know, I'm thinking maybe she could have been saved. We don't know if she could have been helped. We don't, you know, there's a lot that we don't know about this case. But maybe she was struck and she's found somewhere hours and hours later. but if somebody had stopped to help her, the person who hit her, we don't know if she could have been, her life could have been saved. She could have been laying there and suffering for a really long time. Absolutely. And that's the horrible point of it. You know, you know you hit someone and you continue and they just audacity to leave a human being to suffer and die in this case is

incredibly to think about that someone would do that. And all it would have taken was to pull over and call 911. That was it. You know, you want to take off and just be that guy. Fine. Call 911 first and help her out. But you're eventually going to get caught anyway. But just the thought of leaving someone there when I think you're correct, you know,

could have been saved and could have had, you know, some sort of first aid rendered on her to prevent her from dying is probably a really good outcome of this. And maybe nobody saw her. because of the time of day, you know, the time had changed by that point, you know, the daylight savings time, you know, we had fallen the hour back or whatever. So it was dark by that time of the evening. And so she's out taking her run. Maybe people couldn't see her.

But the actual person responsible for striking her could have stopped or, you know, could have at least called 911 anything. I mean, that's just what's so sickening to me. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office, when they first track this suspect down, they say William Klingler is the guy. They charge him with manslaughter. And, you know, that's just the charge they hold him on to arrest him. It's ultimately up to the district attorney about what charge they will file and what evidence they feel they have to pursue charges at this point in time. Right now, they've got this failure, you know, to report an accident or leaving the scene of a fatal accident, I should say.

That's what the charge is that they filed. So do you think that the reason, and this is what I'm thinking, at least, but do you think that they haven't filed another type of, you know, death-related charge at this point because they're, they want to build the case or they want to collect additional evidence and wait for other evidence to come back before moving forward with something, maybe that's a little bit more serious of a homicide charge? Yeah, and that happens quite often. You know, some people think because you arrested the person or the DA is starting their criminal justice process with hearings and so forth, the investigation stops and it doesn't. It continues to, you gather information, you get witness statements, you get all technical technology-backed evidence, you know, to strengthen your case. And if there's something there to add a charge to or to heighten the charges, that's going to be done. I was a little surprised that it just wasn't involuntary manslaughter because of how it's defined, especially in Kansas.

And it's very similar to New York, just causing the death of someone by an accident or, you know, the influence of the DWI charge, which this individual has a enormous long history of, you know. So I was a little surprised that that wasn't the top charge, but they can. can always add that with additional evidence that they're going to be able to gather. You know, another charge that he is facing at this point in time is this circumventing an ignition interlock device. You only have an ignition interlock device, and that's where you basically have to blow into a device to show that you aren't intoxicated or don't have alcohol in your system or on your breath, to let your car start. You only have that if you are doing like probation,

or time or whatever as part of your sentence for a DUI, you know, a DUI conviction. And so he has that. And so he's being accused of circumventing that. So this guy has a problem. He's innocent until proven guilty, of course. But the guy has a problem with alcohol. And so my God, like how many times do you have to be arrested for driving under the influence before you realize that maybe this is not working for you and you've you've done something to now you're accused of circumventing

the interlock device and now you're accused of driving drunk and killing somebody right and you know that at some point you would think someone would have stated that in a courtroom like your honor eventually this individual is going to kill somebody you think someone would have said that and it would have made sense to someone because that is the scenario it happens all the time not just in this case, but how many cases that we have assault, assault, assault, and the judges keep getting told, this person's eventually going to kill someone, and then they do. You know, it's just, it's the way things work, and criminals are criminals. You know, he might have just thought of circumventing the ignition, but he still is a bad

guy that goes out now under the influence, and again, that's still to be proven, but then ends the life of this young girl. Why? By his own actions. And it was allowed for him to do this because of the criminal justice system. And he's also charged with driving with a suspended license for like a second offense. So I'm just, you know, this poor family, I mean, this Elsa McGrane's family, I cannot imagine being her family. I don't know what you do because like you can make all the laws in the world that you want. You're still going to have. have people who do stuff like this. I mean, it's just so sad, Tom. Yes, it's very sad. And, you know, a lot of this, the family gets lost sometimes with these stories

because everyone's focused on just the bad guy and the victim. But this victim has a family that loved her and she was so full of life by all the reporting and the interviews that were done. And it's just so sad. But, you know, we continue to see these over and over again. But this one in particular, you know, kind of hit a little harder. because of, again, just free of doing anything wrong and full of life and just wanted to take a run and take a jog and stay in shape and be healthy. And this is the outcome of it.

Yeah, it is just heartbreaking. So if you had a crystal ball, do you see additional charges being added at Grand Jury? No doubt about it. Again, not a crystal ball, but I would be shocked if they weren't. just because of the nature of it, what it entailed, the pure disregard for human life and disregard for your own actions and not being held accountable for your actions, I think, should play a role in this as well. But I'm going to be very surprised if the involuntary manslaughter charge isn't added. And I'll be interested to see if they have some witnesses who know this guy, Klingler, who come forward and say, yeah, I saw him after this happened.

or yeah, he told me this after this happened or something to that effect. And I really, really want to know about Elsa's health data from her phone or her watch. I'm really interested to know more about that. It's just heartbreaking. Yes, it is. Tom Smith, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Always a pleasure.

Thank you for having me. And despite the arrest, the sheriff's office is still looking for tips. The sheriff posted on Facebook, as we have shared previously. The sheriff's office received numerous tips. information from the public regarding the hit and run fatality crash that killed 20-year-old Elsa McGrain, who was running outside Lawrence in the evening on November 6th. This information has immensely helped detectives and deputies make progress in the investigation, including locating the suspected driver and making an arrest on Sunday night. As detectives continue to

piece together all details about the crash, at this point in the investigation, DGSO, is seeking more potential witnesses and would ask anyone who was driving in the 1700 block of East 1500 Road between 6 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, November 6th, to please contact Investigations Lieutenant Rita Fulton Mays at 785-840-840-7144. That section of East 1500 Road is North 7th Street extended and south of U.S. Highway 2440 near the Lawrence Regional Airport. Pine Landscape Center. 1783 East 1500 Road is also located on the road. Any additional information about formal charges of the suspect

or the case will come from the Douglas County District Attorney's Office. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. We'll continue to follow this case and I'll see you back here next time.