Two suspects in case of missing MO teen charged with murder as search for motive begins
Two suspects charged in the disappearance of a 16-year-old northern Missouri girl found dead this week are now charged with killing her.
Alayna Leann Mason, 20, and Hunter Tyne Ames, 19, are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Kayla Huff, of Moberly. Kayla had been missing since May 6; her body was found Wednesday in a wooded area in the Rudolf Bennitt Conservation Area.
Randolph County Sheriff Andy Boggs said a local resident found Kayla’s body around 8 p.m. Wednesday. Authorities and volunteers had been searching the conservation area for several days, Boggs said. Moberly is about 130 miles northeast of Kansas City.
On Friday afternoon, the Randolph County prosecutor told The Star that for now, only Mason and Ames are charged with murder and two other adults face charges in relation to the teen’s disappearance.
“As the investigation continues, I can’t say whether there will or won’t be any more charged with (first-degree murder),” said Randolph County Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Luntsford. “I can’t rule it out, but I don’t know if that will happen.”
Court records reveal violent details pertaining to Kayla’s disappearance and death, alleging Mason and another individual — whose name was redacted from documents — kidnapped the teen, put her in the trunk of a car and took her to the conservation area, assaulted her with a blunt object and shot her. A 17-year-old has also been charged in juvenile court in relation to the teen’s disappearance.
The gun used to kill Kayla, court records show, was Ames’ pistol. He told authorities that Mason and another person, whose name was redacted, showed up at his residence the morning of May 6 and asked to borrow the pistol, records show.
Ames shared with investigators that he was told that “they had someone in the trunk” of a white Chevrolet Impala and that they needed his pistol to “take care of it.”
According to court records, Ames said he allowed them to take his pistol, and they left in the Impala.
Luntsford said she anticipates the 17-year-old will have a certification hearing to determine whether he will be tried as an adult.
‘Hit everyone hard’
Kayla’s disappearance and subsequent death have shaken the Moberly community. Kayla’s parents first reported her missing on May 6.
The teen left behind her “electronics or id -debit card,” according to a post her mom wrote on social media. And her car, her father said, was abandoned on Rollins Street in front of the Assembly of God church in Moberly.
Members of the community and those close to the teen joined law enforcement in searching for her. People from across the state, the sheriff said, traveled to the community to help search for the teen. Others donated food and water for those helping.
Randolph County has dealt with homicides before, Luntsford said. But Kayla’s disappearance and death has affected so many in the community.
“This one just seems to have hit everyone hard,” said the prosecutor, who has worked in the office for nearly two decades.
After Kayla was reported missing, law enforcement “worked round the clock,” Luntsford said, “desperately trying to find her” and the frustration only increased as days passed by.
“So I think that aspect of it made this hard,” the prosecutor said. “Because nobody really knew what had happened. Where is she? What happened to her? Is she OK? Is she not OK?”
The sheriff told The Star that the night the teen was found was “emotional” for law enforcement.
When asked whether authorities knew a motive in Kayla’s death, Luntsford said that “our investigators are working very diligently on that.”
“The first part of this investigation really focused on the search, on finding her,” she said. “Now they can start really going through the evidence. They are working on that to establish a motive.”
Suspect accused of stealing patrol vehicle, fleeing
Before Kayla’s body was found, three adults — Mason, Ames and Christopher Alan Hull — were charged Wednesday with kidnapping. All are from Moberly, according to court documents.
Another man, Julian Mason, 26, of Moberly, was charged Thursday with tampering with evidence in relation to Kayla’s disappearance. The Randolph County prosecutor said Julian and Alayna Mason “to my understanding, are not related.”
Hull and Ames also face charges of tampering with physical evidence for allegedly discarding an expandable baton used to assault the teen, records indicate.
After law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence, Hull said that someone located the expandable baton still there. “At this time, no one had advised law enforcement a weapon like this was used in the commission of the crime,” court records said.
In an interview with investigators, ”Ames stated he wanted to discard the baton, so he had (name redacted) drive him to a rural area to do so. Records indicate that Hunter and Ames “showed law enforcement where the baton was left.”
Court records in another case, which is related to Kayla’s disappearance, shed even more light on Alayna Mason’s behavior in the days before she was charged.
On May 7, a lieutenant with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office detained Alayna Mason for questioning in Kayla’s case, court records show.
“Mason was handcuffed behind her back with department-issued handcuffs and placed in the front passenger seat” of a deputy’s marked patrol vehicle, a court document said. “While in custody, Mason stole (the deputy’s) department-issued patrol vehicle and fled from law enforcement.
“Multiple department-issued and/or personally owned firearms were inside the vehicle at the time it was stolen.”
Luntsford said Mason was “somehow able to slip out of the handcuffs.”
“Within a few hours they found her,” Luntsford said.
She was located at a residence in Moberly the evening of May 7 — a day after Kayla disappeared — where she was hiding, records show, and “refusing to comply with commands from law enforcement officers.”
“Mason was found wearing department-issued handcuffs on each wrist, which had been damaged and cut,” the probable cause statement said. “While in custody, Mason spontaneously admitted to stealing the Randolph County patrol vehicle.”
In addition to the kidnapping and murder charges, court records show that Alayna Mason is charged with stealing a motor vehicle, stealing firearms and escape or attempted escape from custody while under arrest for a felony.
