The Great Bend eighth grader was found dead near Veterans Memorial Park, and a classmate is charged with murder.
GREAT BEND, Kan. — Rubi Paulina Perez was remembered as a kind athlete and standout student as Barton County prosecutors pressed forward with a first-degree murder case against a 14-year-old boy accused in her death.
The case has left two public records moving side by side: a family obituary that names the girl Great Bend lost, and a court file that still withholds the name of the boy accused of killing her. Perez was 14, an eighth grader at Great Bend Middle School and a daughter, sister, teammate and friend. The suspect is also 14, and prosecutors now want him tried as an adult.
Perez was born Oct. 13, 2011, in Great Bend to Raul and Araceli Gonzalez Perez. Her obituary said she had two brothers, Mateo Perez and Alberto Perez, and many relatives and friends. It described her as a student who stood out among classmates and teachers and as an athlete who excelled in track, volleyball and basketball. The obituary also said she loved makeup and was remembered for her smile, spirit and kindness. Those details emerged publicly one day after police announced an arrest.
The missing-person call came at about 8:36 p.m. April 8. Great Bend police said Perez had last been reported as attending a class at Holy Family School, 4200 Broadway Ave. Officers received several calls about possible places where the missing girl might be. They followed those reports but did not find her that night. By 9:10 a.m. April 9, police were sent to the 4700 block of 17th Street Terrace for a report of a juvenile female behind a large dirt pile. Officers found the girl dead and later confirmed she was Perez.
The discovery site sits near Veterans Memorial Park, across from a cemetery area and close to the Holy Family Catholic Parish Center. That geography made the case feel close to daily life in Great Bend, where school, church, recreation and remembrance are clustered within a short distance. A resident, Manuel Polanco, told KAKE he saw police activity near the railroad tracks and the dirt pile. “There was actually a lot of cops, maybe 10 or 15 or so,” Polanco said. Investigators blocked parts of the area as they processed the scene.
Police said officers and investigators conducted interviews, processed evidence and executed multiple search warrants. They arrested a 14-year-old boy later April 9 and booked him into the Barton County Detention Center on a first-degree murder charge. The Great Bend Police Department said it received help from the Barton County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Great Bend Fire Department. Officials have not released a motive, have not named the suspect and have not published a detailed account of what they believe happened before Perez was found.
Friends at Great Bend Middle School were still trying to understand the missing report when the news changed. Bella Donna Werner, who described Perez as a friend, told KAKE that school felt different that morning. Werner said she first wondered whether Perez might be at breakfast. Later, she said, a teacher told her Perez had been found. “I about ran out of the classroom to go to the other girls,” Werner said. She said the teacher stopped her, sat her down and told her Perez had not been found alive.
The grief later moved from school hallways to formal services. Visitation was set from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 15 at Bryant Funeral Home in Great Bend. A Mass of Christian Burial followed at 5 p.m. at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. The family asked people to wear white in Perez’s honor. The obituary listed a memorial fund in her name through Bryant Funeral Home. It also named her grandparents, aunts, uncle, cousins and many friends, making public the family network behind the brief police phrase “juvenile female.”
The court record has been more limited. Barton County Attorney J. Colin Reynolds announced that the boy was accused in Perez’s death. The charge is first-degree murder. A detention first appearance was set for April 21 in Barton County District Court, but the case was sealed and the public was not allowed into the proceeding. A later report said a district judge reopened the case to public access. Because the accused is a minor, his name has remained withheld under juvenile procedures.
On May 4, prosecutors filed a motion asking to try the boy as an adult. That motion became the first major public step after the sealing dispute. If the judge grants it, the suspect’s name would become public and the case would proceed in adult court. If the judge denies it, the case would remain under juvenile rules, where privacy is greater and many records can stay out of public view. The motion does not prove the charge. It only asks the court to decide which system should handle the prosecution.
Authorities have not confirmed many of the details that have circulated in the community. KAKE reported that a friend said she heard from a mother who knew Perez’s mother that Perez died from blunt-force trauma to the head involving a cinder block or similar object. Law enforcement has not released an official cause of death in public statements reviewed for this story. Police also have not said whether a weapon was recovered, what the search warrants produced, or whether additional forensic testing is pending.
The story now rests on two timelines. One is the life of a girl remembered by her family as positive, athletic and kind, with services held less than a week after she disappeared. The other is the court path of a 14-year-old suspect whose identity is shielded unless a judge moves the case to adult court. Both timelines began in the same small area of Great Bend, from a class at Holy Family School to a dirt pile near a park and cemetery.
The boy remains charged and the adult-court request is pending in Barton County. The next public milestone is the court’s ruling on whether the juvenile murder case will stay sealed around the suspect’s identity or move into adult proceedings.
Author note: Last updated May 8, 2026.