Inset: Kristian Haughton (St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department). Background: Cementland, the unfinished public art site in St. Louis, Missouri (Google Maps).
Two Missouri residents are facing charges tied to the 2022 kidnapping and fatal shooting of a young mother who disappeared after leaving home to buy diapers for her infant daughter.
Dasia Allen, 25, set out on the errand in March 2022 but never returned. About a week later, her body was discovered in a wooded area near Cementland, the unfinished public art installation and former cement factory on Scranton Avenue in St. Louis.
Kristian Haughton, 30, and Jamont Ellis, 30, have each been charged with first-degree murder, robbery, and kidnapping, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said.
Allen’s burned 2005 Mercury Montego was located on Thrush Avenue just hours after she was last seen alive, roughly 2 miles south of Cementland, according to St. Louis-based Fox affiliate WTVI.
She was reported missing the following day. Friends later found her body less than a mile from her home on Rivertrail Court.
“The victim was shot multiple times in what can be best described as a frenzied execution,” a police officer wrote in court records obtained by local NBC affiliate KSDK.
Charging documents obtained by local CBS and MyNetworkTV affiliate KMOV allege Allen was involved in a crash during the diaper run. Police said the other vehicle was driven by Haughton and that Ellis and Denzel Williams were passengers. Investigators identified the crash site as near Riverview Drive and Chain of Rocks Drive.
An altercation quickly followed the car crash, police said.
Ellis and Williams allegedly got out of Haughton’s car, guns in hand, and approached the young mother. Then, the men got into her car and drove off with Allen still inside — holding her at gunpoint, police said.
Meanwhile, Haughton abandoned her own car and arranged to meet up with Ellis and Williams, police said. Then, the defendants kept Allen hostage as they drove around St. Louis, according to law enforcement.
Law enforcement is not sure when, exactly, Allen was killed, but investigators found .40-caliber shell casings near the crime scene that were eventually linked to two different crimes, police said. One crime involved Ellis and the other involved Haughton, according to the charging document.
During a recent interview with detectives, Haughton allegedly admitted to being involved in the car crash and then aiding Ellis and Williams, police said. The female defendant was arrested on July 27 with the help of the FBI, police said.
Ellis is currently incarcerated on a weapons and narcotics violation, the police department said in a statement. A booking photo of the male defendant is not available, a spokesperson told Law&Crime.
Williams was killed in an unrelated incident in St. Louis County in 2023, police said. The charges against Williams will be “Abated by Death of the Offender,” according to law enforcement.
Haughton is being detained in the St. Louis County Jail with no bond. She is slated to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 27.
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