In the remote, far southwest Kansas town of Richfield, rumors of cult killings or mass murder have been flying since Friday.

Also flying has been a news helicopter from a Wichita TV station, buzzing the two square miles police have cordoned off in their apparent search for a body or bodies.

But the few officials who might actually know why a patch of farmland outside this settlement of 48 people attracted so many police weren’t saying much Wednesday.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline called a Topeka news conference Wednesday to confirm that various law enforcement agencies had descended Friday on the Morton County farm to execute a search warrant. He would neither confirm nor deny the hunt was for corpses. He released few details, instead warning the public and the media against speculation.

“There are people down there who have to live their lives, and that speculation can harm them,” Kline said.

But if he was trying to squelch the rumors of something awful having occurred, he failed.

Forrest Lusk, who runs the Downtown Cafe in Elkhart, which is about 20 miles from the farm and the nearest town of size, said Kline’s news conference did nothing to slow the cranking rumor mill.

“That was like pouring gasoline on a flame,” he said. “This is all gossip at this point. It would make a good story for one of those (tabloids) you see in the grocery store.”

Though unconfirmed accounts of the search varied by the hour, Lusk said he thought something “extreme” happened on the property.

“The more you hear, the more you have to think that (at least) one of the stories going around is close to being accurate,” he said.

AG declines to provide details on Morton County investigation (10-13-04)

Karen Brady, who owns the weekly newspaper in Elkhart, wanted facts, not gossip.

“Everything is speculation,” she said. “It’s getting to be ridiculous. We got TV people running around, chasing rumors. As far as I can tell, nobody’s come up with anything.”

But clearly something big is going on. Otherwise, why have so many police agencies been so long on the scene and why did the attorney general promise they would be there for some time to come?

‘Rumors for years’

Here’s what Kline would confirm:

“We are executing that warrant. We anticipate that the execution of that warrant will take a great deal of time, and so we will be on that site for the near future at least,” he said.

He said a Shawnee County judge issued the search warrant Thursday for two locations on a farm. The search began Friday. Kline refused to identify the judge who issued the warrant. He and officials at the Shawnee County Courthouse said warrants were closed records.

Kline said officials from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kansas Highway Patrol, Morton County Sheriff’s Office and Elkhart Police Department were involved in the search.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said her staff was informed last week by Highway Patrol Supt. Col. Bill Seck that the agency was asked to help secure the area. Sebelius said she didn’t know details.

“I guess there have been rumors for years about murders and bodies buried,” in the area, Sebelius said.

Kline said his policy was neither to confirm nor deny whether an investigation had been opened, but because of rumors surrounding the case and the visible nature of the search, he broke that policy to confirm a probe was ongoing.

The searchers, according to witnesses near the scene, were on a farm a few miles south of the Morton-Stanton county line. Since Friday, roads leading to the property have been blocked by police.

Bitner family

According to a relative of the property owner, the land was settled in the late 1800s by James Bitner Sr.

Bitner’s grandson, Jim Bitner, his brother, Joe, and their sister, Edith, grew up on the property. Edith Bitner still lives on the property.

Jim Bitner died Oct. 2 in Amarilllo, Texas. He was 67.

The relative, who asked not to be identified, said KBI agents stormed the farmstead Friday. There they found Joe and Edith Bitner.

Joe Bitner “was underneath his pickup, working on it,” the relative said. “They pulled him out at gunpoint. And then three of them went to the house with their guns drawn and pulled out his sister, who’s just about deaf.

“None of this makes any sense,” the relative said. “These are people who, if they had just asked, would have shown them whatever they wanted to see. There’s no sense in this.”

A woman who answered the telephone at the home of Joe Bitner declined comment when called by the Journal-World.

“Our lawyer said not to talk to anyone,” she said before hanging up.

The relative who spoke to the Journal-World described the Bitner brothers as generous, caring and hard-working.

Jim Bitner was cremated. The relative said family members had decided to spread his ashes on a pond on the family’s farm.

“They stormed the place Friday,” he said. “We were supposed to spread his ashes on Saturday. They’ve got the pond all roped off now.”

The relative disputed rumors that in his final days Jim Bitner had mailed a letter to authorities, telling them where to look for bodies.

“That didn’t happen,” he said. “Toward the end he was not capable of writing a letter. He couldn’t even talk. And I know he didn’t mail it because I was with him the whole time.”

Divorce proceedings

Another family member told the Journal-World the warrant stemmed from allegations made during divorce proceedings in Texas involving one of Jim Bitner’s daughters and a son-in-law.

The family member, who insisted on anonymity, said Jim Bitner was prepared to testify against his daughter.

“That’s what this is all about,” the family member said. “There isn’t a letter. There isn’t anything. The rumors should stop; some very innocent people are being hurt by this.”

Attempts to contact the daughter were unsuccessful.

Jim Bitner’s obituary indicated he was “raised on the family farm 27 miles north of Elkhart,” where “he farmed most of his life” before moving to Borger, Texas, in 1998.

Reporters’ calls to the Morton County Sheriff’s Office were referred to the Attorney General’s Office.

“There’s nothing to report,” insisted Whitney Watson, a spokesman for Kline. “The investigation is ongoing.”