Police in Missouri have arrested a man on murder charges for allegedly stabbing a pregnant mother-of-two to death on Thanksgiving after me...
Police in Missouri have arrested a man on murder charges for allegedly stabbing a pregnant mother-of-two to death on Thanksgiving after meeting her for sex.
Damion Delgado, 27, from O'Fallon, Missouri, was taken into custody this week on counts of first- and second-degree murder, and armed criminal action in connection to the brutal killing of 22-year-old Amethyst 'Ame' Killian and her unborn baby.
'It was a very violent, violent killing,' St Charles Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said during a Thursday press conference announcing Delgado's arrest.
Lohmar revealed that the attack was 'targeted,' and that Killian was stabbed more than 20 times, mostly to the head, neck and abdomen. She was five months pregnant with her third child at the time of her death.
Damion Delgado, 27 (left), has been charged with murdering Amethyst 'Ame' Killian, 22 (right), by stabbing her to death more than 20 times in Missouri on Thanksgiving
St Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Timothy Lohmar announced Delgado's arrest during a press conference on Thursday
The prosecutor said Delgado and Killian, who, according to police, sometimes engaged in prostitution, met on the Text Now app and arranged to have consensual sex not far from the woman's home in St Peters in the early hours of November 26.
Killian was last seen alive leaving her residence at around 1am, ostensibly to buy cigarettes at the QuikTrip gas station down the road.
When she did not return, her boyfriend and step-father went searching for her. About 20 hours after Killian's disappearance, they recovered some of her personal belongings, including her purse and items of clothing, Fox 2 Now reported.
The family contacted the police, who responded to the scene and found Killian's lifeless body hidden in the brush a short distance away from her home.
Lohmar told reporters on Thursday that police also observed droplets of blood on a knife, ground and fence at the scene, which were found to belong to an unknown male.
Detectives relied on Killian's cellphone records to determine that the last person she had communicated with before her death was Damion Delgado.
Lohmar said the biggest breakthrough in the case came when detectives were able to place Delgado at the crime scene through text messages, surveillance video and witness accounts.
'There was an item left at the crime scene, that in a text exchange, the defendant indicated he had just stopped at a gas station and bought this item,' explained Lohmar.
Killian left her home in St Peters, Missouri (pictured), at 1am on Thanksgiving morning
Killian was last seen alive walking to this QuikTrip gas station near her home
Investigators visited several gas stations in the area and pulled records to see if a similar item was purchased around the time of the murder.
Police also interviewed an Uber driver who allegedly drove Delgado to the scene, and surveillance video showed the suspect a short time before he met up with Killian at a gas station.
Investigators also got an IP address from the Text Now messages and were able to trace it to Delgado's place of residence.
When detectives arrived at his home on Tuesday, they learned he was at the hospital after attempting to commit suicide the day before by cutting his arms, reported KMOV.
Police obtained a search warrant for Delgado's DNA, which Lohmar said matched the DNA found at the scene of the crime and on the suspected murder weapon.
Lohmar said Delgado has a very limited criminal history, and his purported actions in connection to the violent killing were 'unexpected, to say the least.'
When asked about what may have prompted the killing, Lohmar replied: 'there has to be some motive out there, but at this point we don't know what that is. The person who could tell us that is the defendant, and so far he's chosen no to do so.'
Delgado is being held in jail on $1million bail.
Killian's heartbroken mother, Stacy Stelzer, thanked police for their hard work, but said she still has many unanswered questions, reported Fox 2 Now.
'I still don't understand how someone can do this anybody,' she said through tears while holding her baby grandson in her arms.
Stacy Stelzer (left) described the Thanksgiving Day murder of her daughter, Killian, as 'brutal.' The pregnant mom-of-two (pictured right with her boyfriend and baby son) was found dead in suburban St Louis last Friday
Stelzer said she does not know how to explain to her grandchildren, one year-old Hendrix (left) and six-year-old Marley, what happened to their mother
In a prior interview with the outlet, Stelzer said while she was at work last Wednesday night, she got a call saying that her daughter had left at 1am to walk to the QuikTrip gas station down the street from where she lived with her family.
When Stelzer came home from work at 8am, she discovered that her daughter had not returned.
The mother said she believed at the time Killian would be back soon, and she did not want to spoil her granddaughter Marley's Thanksgiving plans, which included a green bean casserole bake-off.
'We were going to have this bake-off, which Ame knew about, so as we were preparing this, I'm thinking in my head, "Something is wrong. She would not miss this,"' Stelzer recounted.
After dinner, Stelzer went directly to the local police department and filed a missing persons report.
The following morning, Stelzer was at work when she got a call from the police, telling her they had found her daughter's belongings, and then her body.
Killian's boyfriend told police she sometimes engaged in prostitution. She allegedly advertised her services as a sex worker online
'I did not brace myself for this call,' she said. 'You can't.'
According to Stelzer, her daughter had a troubled past but loved her children.
'She might not have been perfect, but she was as perfect as she could be,' she said.
Stelzer said earlier this week she wants the person who took her daughter's life held accountable for what they had done.
'I want to look at them in the eyes so they can tell me that they did this to my child and see the pain that they have caused,' she tearfully said.
Killian was the mother of six-year-old Marley and 11-month-old Hendrix, and she had only recently learned she was pregnant with her third child, KDSK reported.
According to her relatives, Killian left her home in the 200 block of Main Street in St Peters at around 1am on Thursday to walk to the nearby QuikTrip gas station. She never made it back home.
At around noon last Friday - more than 12 hours after she was reported missing - police got a call from Killian's relatives stating that they had found her cellphone charger stained with blood not far from the home she shared with her mother, stepfather, children and boyfriend.
Officers were dispatched to the area and found a woman's body lying in some brush in the 100 block of North Church Street.
The body was later identified as Killian, and the Major Case Squad launched a homicide investigation.
The following day, Killian's family found her blood-stained phone charger and other items, leading to the discovery of her body
Investigators said Killian was stabbed more than 20 times in the head, neck and abdomen. The mom is seen on the right showing off her baby bump to her daughter
Killian lived with her boyfriend, her six-year-old daughter, 11-month-old son, her mother and stepfather
Family members described Killian as a loving mother who was artistic and creative.
Neighbor Susan Brown told KSDK she would often see the 22-year-old walk outside with her baby in a stroller.
‘She seemed like a wonderful mother,’ Brown said. ‘They just seemed like such a close, wonderful family.’
A cousin has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the family with Killian's funeral expenses.
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