Police say a minor traffic crash preceded Dasia Allen’s kidnapping, the burning of her car and her fatal shooting in 2022.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Two people have been charged with murder, robbery and kidnapping in the 2022 death of 25-year-old Dasia Allen, a St. Louis mother who investigators say was abducted after a traffic crash while she was out buying diapers for her infant daughter. Kristian Haughton and Jamont Ellis, both 30, are accused of taking part in a chain of events that ended with Allen being shot multiple times and her car being set on fire.

The charges announced in July brought a major development in a case that had remained unresolved for more than four years. Police say Allen encountered Haughton, Ellis and a third person, Denzel Williams, after a collision near Riverview Drive and Chain of Rocks Drive on March 30, 2022. Investigators allege what began as a traffic crash quickly became a kidnapping. Ellis and Williams, both allegedly armed, approached Allen and entered her 2005 Mercury Montego, according to charging documents described by local news reports. They then drove away with Allen still inside and being held at gunpoint, authorities allege. Haughton later met with the men and assisted them as they moved through St. Louis, police say.

Investigators have not publicly established every moment of what happened after Allen was taken. Authorities say they believe she remained in her own car while it was driven around the city. Police have not said exactly when she was killed. About two hours after the initial crash, Allen’s Mercury was found burning in the 700 block of Thrush Avenue, according to the charging allegations. Fire investigators determined the blaze had been intentionally set. Allen was not with the vehicle. Her disappearance then became a missing-person investigation as her relatives and friends tried to determine why a routine trip from home had ended with her car abandoned and destroyed.

The first public reports from 2022 described a family urgently searching for Allen. She had left home in north St. Louis and failed to return or contact relatives. Early coverage said she had gone out to shop, while the later charging allegations specified that she was trying to get diapers. Her burned vehicle became an early indication that something serious might have happened. Allen’s family offered a $5,000 reward for information during the search, and her mother publicly appealed for help finding her daughter. At that point, authorities had not announced the kidnapping theory that would emerge years later. Allen remained missing for more than a week as family members, friends and police searched for her.

On April 9, 2022, relatives and friends searching near Scranton Avenue and Riverview Drive found Allen’s body in a vacant or wooded area. Police opened a homicide investigation. Later charging documents say Allen had been shot multiple times. An officer described the killing in court records as a “frenzied execution,” language that reflected the number and apparent nature of the gunshots but did not establish who fired them. Investigators recovered .40-caliber cartridge casings from the area. The precise sequence of the shooting, including who allegedly fired which shots, has not been fully described in the publicly reviewed reports.

Those shell casings eventually became an important part of the investigation, police say. According to the charging allegations, ballistic evidence recovered near Allen’s body was linked to two other incidents. One of those incidents involved Ellis and another involved Haughton, authorities said. The public reports do not describe the complete forensic process or identify every firearm investigators believe was involved. The evidence nonetheless helped police connect people already known to investigators with the Allen case, according to authorities. The charges filed in 2026 show how investigators say physical evidence gathered at the scene remained significant long after the immediate search for Allen ended.

Police also say Haughton provided information during a more recent interview. Charging documents allege that she admitted being involved in the traffic crash with Allen and acknowledged helping Ellis and Williams afterward. Authorities have not released a full transcript of that interview, and the allegation should not be treated as a finding of guilt. Haughton was arrested July 27 with assistance from the FBI, according to police. Prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree kidnapping. Ellis faces the same three charges. He was already incarcerated on unrelated weapons and narcotics violations when the Allen charges were announced, authorities said.

The third person named by investigators cannot be prosecuted in the case. Williams died in an unrelated St. Louis County homicide in 2023, police said. Authorities said any charges associated with him in Allen’s case would be abated because of his death. His absence leaves prosecutors to pursue the case against Haughton and Ellis while relying on evidence investigators say connects the three to Allen’s abduction. Publicly available reporting does not establish whether prosecutors contend that Haughton or Ellis personally fired the shots that killed Allen, and the charging allegations do not amount to a conviction. Both defendants are entitled to the presumption of innocence as the cases proceed.

The 2026 allegations also give a far more detailed account of Allen’s last known movements than was available when she disappeared. What relatives initially knew was that a young mother had left home on an ordinary errand and never returned. The later police theory places her at a collision, then inside her own vehicle as armed men allegedly took control of it. Haughton is accused of abandoning the vehicle she had been driving and later meeting up with Ellis and Williams. Authorities say the vehicles then traveled through St. Louis before Allen’s car was burned. The charging documents do not explain why the defendants allegedly decided to kidnap Allen after the crash, and police have not publicly identified a motive for the killing.

The gap between Allen’s death and the filing of charges underscores how the case changed from an urgent missing-person search into a long-term homicide investigation. In April 2022, police asked anyone with information to come forward after Allen’s body was found. By July 2026, investigators said they had assembled enough evidence to seek murder, kidnapping and robbery charges against two people. The reviewed reports do not say when each major piece of evidence was developed, when police first focused on Haughton or Ellis, or what specifically caused prosecutors to move forward after more than four years. The charging documents provide a theory of the crime, but important questions about timing, motive and individual actions remain matters for the court process.

Haughton was reported held without bond after her arrest. Initial reporting said a preliminary hearing had been scheduled for Aug. 27, but reliable public reporting reviewed for this update did not establish the outcome of that proceeding. No later disposition for either defendant was confirmed in the sources reviewed. The first-degree murder, robbery and kidnapping counts remain allegations unless proved in court, and authorities have not publicly announced a trial result or other final resolution in Allen’s case.

Author note: Last updated Sept. 8, 2026.