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A case that startled the community and saddened a woman’s family has closed.

The woman whose body was found floating in a Smithville fishing pond died as a result of suicide by drowning, the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office determined.

The ruling brought an end to a Smithville Police Department case that began as a possible criminal case and ended as a personal tragedy case.

“How sad,” Smithville Police Chief Ken Wilson said last week.

The woman, Kathy A. Perkins, 48, lived about a block from the Helvey Park pond — where a couple spotted her body in the water around noon Sept. 30.

Police and the medical examiner determined Perkins likely wasn’t in the water longer than late the night before she was found.

Police said they last had contact with Perkins in February, when, according to police, she attempted suicide at her residence.

Within a few days of the discovery in the pond, police ruled out foul play.

However, the first few days were rare ones in Smithville. The Kansas City Police’s crime scene unit, Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators and Lee’s Summit underwater rescue team assisted local police. Residents worried about what could have happened, and television news crews visited.

The pond — a city-run, 10-acre stocked pond — sits at Helvey Park Drive and Summit Street near the city’s street department buildings as well as the Lakeland Heights subdivision. The pond is known as the municipal reservoir.

Smithville Editor Nancy Hull Rigdon can be reached at 532-4444 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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