‘It’s been hard’: Family searching for answers in Kansas City woman’s sudden death
On a Friday night last month, Asia Maynard told her sister she was going out on a date with a guy she’d met the week of Valentine’s Day.
She texted a photograph of him and told her his name. They made plans to meet up and talk about the romantic evening the next morning. Teara Maynard told her younger sister to be careful.
“She said, ‘OK, love you. Bye,” Teara Maynard recalled. “And I never heard from her again.”
The next day, on Feb. 19, Asia Maynard, 29, was found dead inside a residence in Kansas City’s Coachlight Square neighborhood on the southeast side. Police have opened a death investigation, which they say is ongoing, but little else has been disclosed.
In the days since she died, the family has been struck by the suddenness of the loss and frustrated by many unanswered questions. They say police initially led them to believe her death arose from natural causes, a conclusion the family never trusted. They were never told where the body was found, who found her that way, or how she died exactly, Teara Maynard said.
Family has come to suspect she may have overdosed on drugs supplied by the man she was with that night. The Star is not naming the man because he has not been charged with a crime.
Even so, the family questions that possibility because they say Asia Maynard only drank alcohol on occasion and never used hard drugs. They say she was single mother of four children ages 2 to 12, who was outgoing, fun-loving and family oriented.
“It’s been hard,” Teara Maynard said. “Because all we really want is answers of what really happened. And they’re not really giving us no information.”
Police have said the cause of death has yet to be determined and it may be weeks or months before that process is finished. The Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office is not releasing its records, including any preliminary findings, citing the ongoing police investigation.
‘Take responsibility and communicate’
Teara Maynard began wondering where her sister was when she awoke on Feb. 19. She called her phone around noon to check in. Then several times more, until around 5 p.m. when the calls started going straight to voicemail.
Teara Maynard said the absence was unlike her sister, but she figured perhaps something minor had happened. On Sunday, as the family continued to look for her, she decided to file a missing person report with Kansas City police.
Officers were sent out to the family home. Teara Maynard said she was instructed to call her sister’s workplace and area hospitals to see if she could be located. While she was on the phone, she saw several other police cars pull up.
Officers walked in a group toward the house. Teara Maynard stepped outside. She sat down and they broke the news: her sister had been found deceased 24 hours prior inside a friend’s house.
Teara Maynard described the explanation she received as brief. She said she was told that a friend of Asia Maynard’s had awoken to find Asia Maynard in the house, performed CPR and then called police. Police found no immediate signs of foul play.
From there, Teara Maynard said, receiving information from authorities has been difficult. Searching for answers, she posted a photo on Facebook of the man her sister was supposed to be with the night she died.
A flood of messages came in. She learned he went by a different name, Teara Maynard said, than what her sister initially told her. And former friends of his have accused him of being linked to drug overdoses in the area, including fatal ones.
Several people reaching out to the Maynard family identified the man as a habitual drug user who has supplied fentanyl-laced drugs to them and their friends. Two former roommates spoke with The Star on Tuesday, saying over the past two years that the man has been known to sell pills and marijuana frequently.
Teara Maynard said the family is still trying to make sense of everything in the wake of her sister’s death. And as they call for the allegations to be investigated, she said they’re hoping to soon get the answers they’re seeking from authorities.
“We just really want the police to take responsibility and communicate. And we really want to know what happened to my sister.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 7:41 AM.
