ST. PETERS, Mo .- An O’Fallon, Mo. man has been charged with murder for the Thanksgiving Day stabbing of 22-year-old Amethyst Killian and her unborn baby.
Damion Delgado has also been charged with armed criminal action and second-degree murder for the death of Killian’s unborn child.
Murder suspect
“It was a very violent, violent killing,” said Tim Lohmar, St. Charles Prosecuting attorney during an afternoon press briefing.
Lohmar says Killian was stabbed more than 20 times, mostly in the head, neck and abdomen.
He also said a motive is not clear, but that it is a rage killing and it was targeted.
Lohmar said Killian and Delgado met online and were engaging in some dangerous activity the night of the crime but wouldn’t go into more detail.
“They had made a connection through an online website, exchanged numbers, and communicated throughout the evening. They agreed to meet up and their intention was to have consenual sex,” said Lohmar.
The prosecuting attorney say investigators were told Killian left her house in the early morning hours of November 26 to go get cigarettes.
Her boyfriend and step-father went to search for her when she didn’t return. Lohmar says about 20 hours after her disappearance, they found Killian’s purse and items of clothing nearby her home near Old Town St. Peters.
Her relatives contacted police and not long after they arrived they found her body stashed in brush.
Lohmar also explained several droplets of blood were found on a knife, sidewalk, and fence near the scene. It came back to an unknown male that was later identified as belonging to Delgado.
Investigators say they were communicating with the Text Now app.
Officials got a subpoena for her phone records and were able to connect that Killian’s last communication was with a man named Damian Delgado.
Lohmar says the biggest breakthrough came when they could connect Delgado to the crime scene through the text messages.
“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.
Lohmar says detectives then went to several gas stations in the area and pulled records to see if a similar item was purchased.
He says Delgado was seen on surveillance 10-15 minutes before he met up with the victim at a local gas station.
Lohmar says Department of Revenue records were compared with surveillance and a positive ID was made.
Investigators got an IP address from those texts and were able to trace it to a residence where Delgado was staying.
Lohmar credited outstanding police work to crack this case. He said more than two dozen investigators worked around the clock.
Detectives also interviewed the Uber driver who allegedly drove Delgado to the scene.
“It is textbook definition of good police work,” said Lohmar.
“I’m grateful for detectives and their hard work but still I have so many questions to be answered. I found out she was stabbed to death, ” said Killian’s mother Stacy Stelzer.
She says she is trying to figure out how to explain to her 6-year-old grandaughter Marley, and one-year-old grandson Hendrix, how their mom died.
aAcandlelight vigil for Saturday night at 6 pm at Old Town Park in St. Peters.
