A mother missing her murdered daughter says she is both heartbroken and grateful. That’s because the most-wanted fugitive suspected of killing her child is spending his first night in jail. News4’s Jackie Bensen reports.
A fugitive on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list who was arrested in Maryland is suspected in the death of a Southeast D.C. woman, according to police.
Officers checking on the welfare of 40-year-old Natina Kiah found her dead in her apartment in the 5000 block of D Street SE about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said. She had been stabbed. Her cat also had been killed.
Police arrested 43-year-old Lamont Stephenson in Prince George’s County Thursday morning, police said.
A security company that monitors a property where rental trucks are kept called police at 2 a.m. about a suspicious person who was in one of the trucks, police said. He told the three officers who responded he was homeless and trying to get out of the cold.
Stephenson cooperated with police when they asked for his name, Chief Hank Stawinski said, and he offered that he may be wanted for other crimes. The officers ran his name and took him into custody on a federal arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution issued in September 2017.
One of the arresting officers said Stephenson seemed relieved at that point, according to Stawinski.
“Three Prince George’s County police officers in the early morning hours apprehended one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted,” Stawinski said. “There are precious few individuals in law enforcement who have the place to say such a thing.”
Stephenson was wanted by the FBI for the suspected strangulation of his fiancée, Olga DeJesus, and her dog in Newark, New Jersey, in October 2014. Stephenson was charged with homicide in November 2014 but has been on the run for years.
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He had been living homeless in the D.C. area for several years, Stawinski said.
He was added to the 10 Most Wanted list in October 2018, according to the FBI.
Kiah was a mother of four children who worked as a security officer at a homeless shelter in Northeast D.C. Her family said that's where she met Stephenson, who was staying there. The two had been dating in recent weeks, her family said, and Kiah fell for him not knowing he was a fugitive.
At her family's home in Temple Hills, Maryland, relatives expressed elation an arrest has been made but also deep sadness for the loss of Kiah.
“My baby’s gone, but I feel so happy and so blessed that they got him,” said her mother, Jennifer Wallace.
“That was my only child,” she added. “He took it away from me. He took it away from me, but he will not take my joy.”
“Why?" exclaimed Kiah’s sobbing daughter Timeia Clark. "My mom’s not going to be there for my graduation or my prom. Just why? Why did they have to do it?”
“That was senseless, brutalist murder,” said Timothy Clark, the father of Kiah’s children. “He just left four young women without a mother.”
Kiah’s boss said she worked at the shelter for a little less than a year.
“We really feel the loss for them and, you know, her kids,” said Derrick Parks of Metropolitan Protective Services. “I mean, to know that you have a 14-year-old who will grow up without her mother.”
D.C. police also have an arrest warrant for Stephenson in connection with Kiah's death.
Stephenson is in the custody of the FBI.
