Pregnant mom who vanished on Thanksgiving killed by man met online, Missouri cops say
A pregnant mother who vanished on Thanksgiving was stabbed to death by a man she met online, Missouri authorities say.
The family of Amethyst Killian, a 22-year-old who was five months pregnant, went searching for her after she went missing in St. Peters, a St. Louis suburb, officials say. When they found her purse and clothing, the family called the police.
A short time later, Killian’s body was discovered in brush about a block from her home. She had been stabbed more than 20 times, officials say.
Killian’s mother, Stacy Stelzer, told KTVI her daughter said she was going to a nearby QuikTrip the night before Thanksgiving. Killian and her mother had planned a green bean casserole bake-off the next day, but she never returned home, the St. Louis TV station reported.
“The past few days have been gut-wrenching,” Stelzer told KTVI. “Being that the crime scene is out my back door, it’s not like I can shut it off.”
Investigators obtained Killian’s phone records that revealed she communicated with Damion Delgado, a 27-year-old O’Fallon man, through the TextNow app just before her death, authorities say.
As investigators focused on Delgado, they captured him on surveillance video at a nearby gas station minutes before meeting Killian and learned he took an Uber to the area where Killian died, authorities say. At the crime scene, investigators found droplets of blood on a knife, the sidewalk and a fence that they say belong to Delgado.
Delgado was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder in the death of Killian’s baby and armed criminal action.
St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said during a news conference Thursday that investigators don’t have a motive for the killing of the young mother of two and called it a “random act of violence.” Delgado’s actions were “unexpected,” Lohmar said.
“You’ve got a very violent, violent killing,” Lohmar said. “There has to be some motive out there. At this point we don’t know what that is.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Pregnant mom who vanished on Thanksgiving killed by man met online, Missouri cops say."