Inmate charged in cold-case Kansas homicide

A federal prison inmate has been charged with killing a Kansas man whose partial remains were found by a mushroom hunter south of Topeka.

WIBW-TV reports the Osage and Shawnee county prosecutors announced the first-degree murder charge Thursday against James P. Harris.

Harris is accused of killing 50-year-old James E. Gerety, who was reported missing in March 2011 by a law firm that handled his personal affairs.

One year later, a woman hunting mushrooms discovered remains near Carbondale in Osage County. DNA tests recently confirmed the remains as those of Gerety.

Details about Harris and the killing were not disclosed Thursday. Harris is being held in a federal prison in Texas on an unrelated crime and will be brought to Kansas in December.

Information from: WIBW-TV