Suspected serial killer charged in Missouri over seventh death

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A suspected serial killer already charged in six killings in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas has been charged with first-degree murder in a seventh death.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced the new murder charge Friday against Perez Deshay Reed. Baker also charged Reed with one count of armed criminal action and two counts of fraud involving a credit or debit device.

The most recent charges against the 26-year-old Reed, who lived in the St. Louis area, stem from the November shooting death of Stephon D. Johnson of Kansas City, Missouri. The prosecutor's office did not provide Johnson's age.

Brian Horneyer, an assistant Missouri public defender in St. Louis representing Reed did not immediately return messages seeking comment left Saturday on his office phone and cellphone.

When law enforcement officers arrested Reed in nearby Independence on warrants from St. Louis County, they found a key on him that fit a deadbolt lock at Johnson's apartment, Baker's office said, citing court documents. Testing indicated DNA collected from an empty cigarillo package found in Johnson's apartment was connected to Reed, Baker's office said.

Baker's office said the bullet found inside Johnson was fired from the gun Reed had on him when he was arrested. Witnesses also told police a man who had been a guest of Johnson's was the "serial killer" from St. Louis whom they had seen on the news. They identified him by a distinctive, crescent moon-shaped tattoo on his forehead.

Reed remains in custody in St. Louis, and Baker's office is asking that he be held on the new charges with no bond.

Reed is charged in the St. Louis County killings of 16-year-old Marnay Haynes on Sept. 13, 2021, and 40-year-old Lester Robinson on Sept. 26. He also is charged in the killings in St. Louis of 49-year-old Pamela Abercrombie on Sept. 16 and 24-year-old Carey Ross on Sept. 19. All four were shot in the head.

In Wyandotte County, Kansas, he is charged in the October 28-29 deaths of Damon Washington Irvin and Rau'daja De'Naya Farrow. Their bodies were found in separate apartments at a complex in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, authorities have said.

Johnson's family reported him missing after they hadn't seen him since Nov. 1, and officers found him dead in a closet in his apartment, shot in the back of his head.

Officers were tailing Reed on Nov. 5 when he got on an Amtrak train in Kansas City, Missouri, bound for St. Louis. They arrested him when he got off on the train's first stop in Independence and boarded a bus.