Pregnant Kentucky mom found slain with unborn child missing from womb
· Toronto Sun
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Police found a pregnant mother of three slain in her Pineville, Ky., home, but didn’t discover until the next day that her unborn child was also missing from her womb .
April Barlow Celio, 41, was found dead on Sept. 23 with medical examiners making the horrific discovery the following day , reported the New York Post .
Cops said they returned to Celio’s home and collected what appear to be fetal remains.
A suspect in her slaying has been identified as DeMarcus Kenneth Johnson-Wright, who has an “extensive violent criminal history and several outstanding violent felony warrants out of Tennessee,” said police.
Authorities didn’t say how we was connected to Celio’s slaying, but issued a warrant for kidnapping and robbery on Sept. 25 before adding murder and tampering with physical evidence charges on Sept. 30.
Cops found Johnson-Wright in a Clarksville, Tenn., home about 155 km from where Celio was killed and he was arrested after “materials relating to the case” were allegedly recovered in a search.
The manner in which Celio and her unborn child were killed has yet to be revealed.
Johnson-Wright’s charges include murder related to domestic violence and he already had multiple warrants out for his arrest for suspected aggravated robbery, kidnapping, felony possession of a firearm and domestic violence from previous incidents, according to court records obtained by People .
He was booked into the Montgomery County Detention Center in Tennessee while awaiting extradition to Kentucky.
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GoFundMe started for funeral costs
Celio’s sister Amanda de Paz launched a GoFundMe to help her sister’s three children who “are left with questions, memories and the heartbreaking reality that their mother’s life ended in violence.
“What hurts even more is knowing that her three young children have to grow up without their mother,” the campaign said. “No child should ever have to carry that kind of loss.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, $9,546 US had been raised out of a $13,000 goal.
“We never imagined we would have to ask for help burying someone we love because her life was taken from her,” wrote de Paz.
“My sister was murdered. There are no words that can truly explain what our family is going through right now. One moment she was here — someone we could call, hug, laugh with and love — and now we are trying to figure out how to say goodbye to her far too soon.”