A judge reopened access before prosecutors sought adult proceedings against the 14-year-old murder suspect.
GREAT BEND, Kan. — A juvenile murder case that was sealed after the death of 14-year-old Rubi Perez has partly returned to public view as prosecutors seek to try the accused boy as an adult.
The public fight over access has become one of the defining features of the case. A first-degree murder charge is pending against a 14-year-old boy, but his name has not been released because he is a juvenile. Court reporting said a judge first closed the case, then another judge reopened it to public access. On May 4, prosecutors filed a motion that could make the suspect’s identity public if the case is transferred to adult court.
The first police record was brief and procedural. At about 8:36 p.m. April 8, Great Bend officers were called about a missing 14-year-old juvenile female. She had last been reported at a class at Holy Family School, 4200 Broadway Ave. Officers received multiple calls about possible locations and searched for her, but they did not find her during the night. The next morning, about 9:10 a.m., police were called to the 4700 block of 17th Street Terrace, where a juvenile female was found behind a large dirt pile and pronounced dead.
Police later identified the girl as Perez. The scene was near Veterans Memorial Park, across from a cemetery area and close to the Holy Family Catholic Parish Center. Officers and investigators processed the area, interviewed people and executed multiple search warrants. A 14-year-old boy was arrested later April 9 and taken to the Barton County Detention Center. The Great Bend Police Department said the Barton County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Great Bend Fire Department assisted in the investigation.
The charge became public before many supporting details did. Barton County Attorney J. Colin Reynolds announced that the juvenile was accused of first-degree murder in Perez’s death. Later reporting described the charge as intentional and premeditated first-degree murder. Authorities have not released a probable cause affidavit to the public in the available reports, and they have not publicly stated a motive. They also have not released the suspect’s name, which remains shielded under juvenile rules unless a court orders the case into adult proceedings.
The first listed court event was a detention first appearance scheduled for April 21 in Barton County District Court. The hearing went forward, but news reports said the proceeding was closed because a judge had sealed the case. That meant reporters and the public could not observe the hearing or review parts of the court record that had briefly appeared in an online case portal. A later report said another district judge reopened the case to public access last week, restoring at least some public visibility before the adult-court motion was filed.
The May 4 motion is the most important legal development now pending. Prosecutors are asking the judge to allow adult prosecution of a 14-year-old defendant. If granted, the move would not decide whether the boy is guilty. It would decide which court system handles the case. Adult court would bring broader public access, a public name and a different range of possible penalties. Juvenile court would keep more of the case private and focused on procedures designed for minors. No final ruling on the motion has been widely reported.
Outside the courthouse, the facts have been carried through family notices and witness accounts. Perez’s obituary said she was born Oct. 13, 2011, in Great Bend to Raul and Araceli Gonzalez Perez. She was an eighth-grade student at Great Bend Middle School and was remembered as positive, kind and active in track, volleyball and basketball. Services were scheduled April 15 at Bryant Funeral Home and St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. The family asked mourners to wear white in her honor.
Witnesses described the morning scene in the kind of detail court records have not yet provided. Manuel Polanco told KAKE he noticed people on or near the dirt pile from a distance and saw barricades and officers around the area. “There was actually a lot of cops, maybe 10 or 15 or so,” Polanco said. The official police statement did not describe the condition of Perez’s body beyond saying she was dead. Local reports used the word bludgeoned and cited a friend who said she had heard Perez suffered blunt-force trauma, but police have not publicly confirmed that account.
At Great Bend Middle School, the case unfolded as both a criminal investigation and a loss among students. Perez and the accused boy were described in reports as classmates. Bella Donna Werner, a friend of Perez, told KAKE she sensed something was wrong before the school learned Perez had been found. Werner said a teacher first said Perez had been located, then told her privately that Perez had not survived. “Yesterday was off,” Werner said, describing the day before the discovery.
The location links the legal file to a small set of public places. Holy Family School at 4200 Broadway Ave. was the last reported place Perez attended a class. The 4700 block of 17th Street Terrace was where police found her. Veterans Memorial Park and the nearby cemetery area became the visible search and crime scene. Great Bend Middle School, less than a mile east of the park and church area, became the place where many students learned the news. Bryant Funeral Home and St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church later became the sites of public mourning.
The case remains incomplete in public view, even after reopening. Authorities have not said what investigators found in the search warrants, whether forensic testing is complete, or whether any additional hearings have been set on the adult-court motion. The boy remains unnamed, and no motive has been released. The known record shows a missing report, a body found the next morning, a same-day arrest, a first-degree murder charge, a sealed hearing, a reopening order and a pending motion to move the case into adult court.
Currently, the court’s next major decision is whether the 14-year-old suspect will be prosecuted as an adult. That ruling will shape how much of the case becomes public and how the murder charge proceeds.
Author note: Last updated May 8, 2026.