Kentucky Man Charged With Murder in Rare Fetal Abduction Case That Left Mother of Three Dead

A suspected fetal abduction in southeastern Kentucky has left a 41-year-old mother of three dead and a community searching for answers, after police say a man kidnapped, robbed and killed a pregnant woman before cutting the fetus from her womb.

DeMarcus Kenneth Johnson-Wright, now in custody in Tennessee awaiting extradition, faces charges of domestic violence murder, robbery, kidnapping and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the death of April Barlow Celio, according to the Pineville Police Department. Officers were called to a home in Pineville on September 23 and found Celio dead. It wasn’t until the medical examiner’s office began its work that investigators discovered the full horror of the crime: Celio had been pregnant, and the fetus was missing from her body. Investigators say they later recovered the fetus, though police have not detailed where or in what condition it was found.

How the Fetal Abduction Investigation Unfolded

Cases involving a fetal abduction are exceedingly rare in American crime data, which is part of what has made Celio’s death so disturbing to investigators and the public alike. Pineville police have released only a limited account of how the case developed, but the timeline shows a fast-moving pursuit of a suspect with a documented history of violence.

Authorities first secured an arrest warrant for Johnson-Wright on kidnapping and robbery charges on September 25, two days after Celio’s body was discovered. Murder and evidence-tampering charges followed five days later, suggesting investigators spent that window building out the homicide case even as they moved to take the suspect into custody on the lesser charges. Police describe Johnson-Wright as having an “extensive violent criminal history,” including outstanding warrants in Tennessee predating this case.

With assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, investigators tracked Johnson-Wright roughly 250 miles away to a home in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he was arrested on September 30. Officers searching the residence say they recovered evidence connected to the case, though the Pineville Police Department has not specified what that evidence included.

Unanswered Questions in the Fetal Abduction Case

Despite the arrest, significant gaps remain in the public record. Police have not disclosed the relationship between Johnson-Wright and Celio, nor have they offered a motive for the killing or detailed how the alleged robbery and kidnapping unfolded before her death. Celio’s official cause of death has also not been released, and investigators have not said whether the recovered fetus survived or whether it had a viable chance of survival after being removed from the womb.

Those unanswered questions have not stopped Celio’s family from trying to make sense of the loss. Her sister, Amanda De Paz, started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover funeral costs, describing the devastation of losing a sibling to violence.

“My sister was murdered,” De Paz wrote in the fundraiser. “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.”

Celio leaves behind three children, who De Paz said are now left to process not only grief but the specific horror of how their mother died. “They are left with questions, memories, and the heartbreaking reality that their mother’s life ended in violence,” the fundraiser states. “No child should ever have to carry that kind of loss.”

What Comes Next

As of this week, Johnson-Wright remained held in a Montgomery County, Tennessee, jail pending extradition back to Kentucky, where he will face the full slate of charges tied to Celio’s death. Extradition proceedings between states can take days to weeks depending on whether a defendant contests the transfer, and it remains unclear whether Johnson-Wright plans to fight his return to Kentucky.

Once he is back in Bell County, where Pineville is located, prosecutors will need to build a case that accounts not just for the killing itself but for the additional, legally complex element of the fetal abduction — removal of the unborn child from the womb — which could factor into how the case is charged and prosecuted under Kentucky law.

For now, Pineville police say the investigation remains active, and they have not ruled out additional charges as more evidence from the Clarksville search is processed. Law enforcement officials have urged anyone with information about the circumstances surrounding Celio’s death to come forward, as investigators continue piecing together the events that preceded one of the more harrowing crimes the small Kentucky town has seen in recent memory.

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