Ep 58 | DAMION DELGADO Transcript

Ep 58 | Damion Delgado Transcript

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers. Listener discretion is advised. 27 year old Damion Delgado of O'Fallon, Missouri.

He is charged with murder one, armed criminal action, and murder two. Amy was five months pregnant with her third child, a baby boy. At any point in time up to this point, did you know she was pregnant? I did not. What was your reaction when she pointed a gun at you? I, I didn't understand. I was confused, scared.

Her whole demeanor and everything just changed all of a sudden. So what do you think your issue is, man? I really, I don't know. Do you think you're a violent person? I think I'm violent when I drink. I'd hit rock bottom. I hadn't seen my daughter in three months, and if it wasn't for the, the slightest possibility that I would get to see my daughter again one day, I probably wouldn't be here right now.

You are now listening to the podcast Voices of a Killer. I'm bringing you the stories from the perspective of the people that have taken the life of another human and their current situation thereafter in prison. You'll see that although these are the folks that we have been programmed to hate, they all have something in common.

They are all humans like us that admit that they made a mistake. Will you forgive them or will you condemn them? They are currently serving time for their murders and they give us an inside glimpse of what took place when they killed and their feelings on the matter, now. Here are the voices of those who have killed. On thanksgiving, 2020, most families around the country were sitting down to a home-cooked meal. In the Stessler home, however, the food had long gone cold, and one seat remained glaringly empty. Amethyst Killian, a young mother of two, had been missing since 1am that day. Instead of clinking wine glasses and sharing jokes, Amethyst's family members were calling hospitals and searching through the woods.

By the next day, Amethyst's bloody body would be found in some bramble with 20 or so stab wounds ripping apart her head, neck, and abdomen. The latter wounds had killed not just Amethyst, but also her five month old unborn son. Fast forward to a brief investigation, and 27 year old Damion Delgado was named as Amethyst's killer.

The O'Fallon resident had a clean criminal record, and even the prosecuting attorney admitted that Damion's actions were, quote unquote, "unexpected to say the last." leaving many of the public asking why. In this week's episode, we're talking to the only person who can answer that question. The killer himself, Damion Delgado, joins us to tell the full unfiltered story of Amethyst's death. We'll hear about the psychological battles Damion has dealt with, and the blow by blow details of that one night in a Missouri park. Despite attracting the ire of the public in a high profile case, we'll see that Damion is not the monster some would make him out to be, but a normal misled kid who grew up in small town Missouri.

And that's exactly where our conversation begins this week on Voices of a Killer. Damion, your crime happened in Missouri, is that where you grew up? Mostly, yeah. I spent about four years in Iowa. That was where I was born. Okay. Your parents took you to Missouri after about four years old? Yeah. Well, the guy, she was dating at the time.

Yeah. Okay. So your mom and dad, your biological parents aren't together? No. So at four years old is whenever you met your stepdad or this, your mother's boyfriend, I guess? Well, two years old is when I met him. Okay. So you pretty much spent your life around him. Yeah. Did you get along with your stepdad?

Yeah. Not for a long time, not till I was about 20. Oh, wow. So why did they want to move to Missouri? To get away from the kind of lifestyle that they were living up in Iowa, which involves the drugs and all kinds of crazy stuff. Were they successful at getting away from that by moving to Missouri? They were, yeah.

Pretty much our whole family moved down here to St Louis from Iowa. You lived in St Louis? No, I've spent most of my time in St Charles County and Lincoln County. Lincoln County, I lived from 6th grade all the way until I graduated, and then I moved back out to St Charles County. Gotcha. How would you describe your childhood growing up?

Do you feel like it was rough or normal or what? I had a pretty normal childhood, I think. I mean Yeah. The only issue I really had was my parents weren't really there a lot. They were working most of the time just to kind of, you know, provide for me and my sister and my brother. Right. I didn't see my stepdad a whole lot.

I was really close with my mom. Do you have a relationship with her today? I do. They're actually my mom and my stepdad are the only two people that actually talk to me. Your siblings don't talk to you? No. How come? I don't really know. I haven't really pressed that button yet. Growing up in any way with yourself or your parents or your siblings, was there any kind of violence ever?

Even if it's like verbal? I used to pick on my little sister a lot. Russell and I kind of hit her sometimes. So just normal sibling play or are pretty rough or violent, you think? I wouldn't really say it was violent. I mean, there were, there would be some times where I would leave bruises on my sister, but it wasn't anything that I wasn't being sadistic with it or anything like that.

Did you graduate high school? I did. Yes. What'd you do after high school? Oh, I had intended going into the army, but that didn't quite pan out. What made you want to go in the army? I felt like I didn't really have a whole lot of options coming where I came from out in Lincoln County. When I got into high school, I kind of tanked, sort of.

I didn't really care a lot. Did you do drugs and alcohol? I smoked weed every once in a while, and I started drinking in high school, yeah, freshman year. Did you get like really, really drunk, or you just kind of drank a little bit here and there? It was usually just at parties at one of my, my close friend's house.

His mom was really cool. She'd let us drink and, and hang out and play party games and things like that. So what caused you to not be able to go into the army? Well, technically I went to basic training down in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Oh, so you got, you actually did go into the army if you went to basic training, right?

Yeah, I shipped off to basic training. I was there for about 30 days. How old were you? I was 18. Was it tough and you couldn't take it? Yeah, pretty much. I actually went and I talked to a psychiatrist and everything there. I actually freaked out. It was, it was a culture shock that I wasn't really quite ready for and I didn't know really how to handle it.

I've got three older brothers that went to the military, I've got grandparents with, so I've heard that, like almost every basic training there is a very, very small number of people that they can't do it either physically and mentally or both or, you know, whatever. Were you the only one like that in the group where you just couldn't take it?

No, there were about 10 of us. How far did you get into it before you basically forfeited your time there? I didn't even start actual basic training. There's kind of like an R&O period like there is here in Princeton. Gotcha. And that part is kind of where I lost, I was there for about two weeks, and they tried to ship us into real basic training.

Was it more physical for you or mental for you, that you couldn't take it? It was more of a mental thing. What was the turning point you think there? Was it just the people you were around? Was it the strictness? What was the turning point? I've had a lot of time to kind of think about it. I think it was like an attachment thing.

Like I felt attached to my family that I was really close to and the friends that I had. And all of a sudden I got ripped away from that. Yeah, put into a different world. Yeah, and I'm getting yelled at and all this and that. I just think that, that subconsciously I couldn't really handle it. Certainly you knew that it was going to be a big, big change and also you probably knew that you were going to be yelled at.

You didn't prepare yourself mentally for that? No, I don't think I did. What was the solution to that? Did they say, you give you an option, you keep pushing forward or you can have a discharge? No, they, they basically, they discharged me for disobeying a direct order from the first sergeant. And so the captain deemed me unfit for duty. Yeah. Like I said, I've heard that there is groups in every, you know, basic training that fall out for whatever various reasons, usually physical or mental or both. Do you felt like you brought that failure with you? Did you feel like you failed yourself and you brought that with you whenever you left? I did.

Yeah. Because I felt really proud when I had signed up. Right. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. So I felt like I was a real big let-down to my family and people that I knew. I imagine that that would've be a, a big effect on you, that you probably, the commitment of signing up and then all of a sudden you're, you're breaking your own commitment and, and also the armies and the, you know, the country, I guess in a way,

has probably weighed on you quite heavily. Circa 2010. Damion wasn't a bad kid, just one who lacked direction in life. Unsure about what to do after high school, damion took his shot at a military career, a decision that backfired badly. Military life was not all it was cracked out to be. The military prides itself on its Spartan-like discipline and work ethic, and this turned out to be a brutal reality shock for the teenager. Around 14% of recruits drop out before they complete basic training in the US. An indication of how grueling basic training can be. Think, yelling, drill sergeants, water lock boots, and days without sleep.

It's designed to break people like Damion to their limits, weeding out the weak links. Early on at 18, bright-eyed and fresh out of high school, damion wasn't resilient enough to cope with the military demands. With a heavy heart, he returned to his family back in St Charles County and to his high school drinking buddies.

Now entering his young adult years, Damion looked to start a new chapter of his life. We'll hear more about that after the break.

What age were you when this happened? This was 18. It was the summer after I graduated. So you're a brand new adult basically, young adult for sure. You get back, what's your first move? I ended up going and living with my parents out there in St Charles County. What was that like? I don't know, I guess the best word to describe it would be familiar.

Yeah. I don't know, I felt like that's where I could have been. How did they accept you of coming back from, you know, quitting that? They accepted me pretty well. They just said, you know, you gotta either get a job or go to school or do something. What did you do? Ended up getting a job. I kind of bounced through a lot of jobs up until 2015.

What kind of jobs did you do mostly? That would have been pizza. I've done a lot of delivery jobs. Delivery and factory jobs are really mostly what I've done. Yeah. So sometime in there you actually met a girl and got married. How did that happen? I did. That was back in 2015, 2016. Yeah. We actually met two times.

The first time we met, she was already dating someone, and it was through a church group I was going to called CenterPoint. They're based out of Lindenwood University. And the bill. I don't know if they're still open. So we met through them at a small group at this house. We really kicked it off. And she was the greatest.

I thought she was the greatest ever. Yeah. I'll never forget that first time I met her. How did she feel about you, you think? I think that she noticed that I was different to other people. I could tell that she might have kind of took a liking to me because everything went really well. Yeah, but she, you said she was actually dating somebody else?

I believe so. Do you think you might have put a wedge between that? That's why she went to you? Maybe. I never really talked to her about that. I know her relationship before me wasn't very good. So how long after the first time you met like that and you kind of, she caught your attention, did y'all actually start moving into a direction away from just friends and more girlfriend, boyfriend?

Well, the second time we met it was actually through Tinder. Okay. We ended up matching Tinder and so I was like, "oh, I remember her from, you know, way back." And so I messaged her and we started messaging and then we started Facebook messaging and we ended up going to Main Street, St Charles. And we went to Picasso's.

Did y'all hit it off? Yeah, actually I think we hit it off very well. She ended up inviting me to hang out a lot more and we kind of just started dating. Y'all became intimate pretty quickly? Yeah, we did it. It was kind of like a, a internet relationship at first. It was a lot of messaging back and forth and memes and things like that.

Sure. And we're really close doing that. Right. And that, that's gonna be like a, that was something that was very constant in my life, was my relationships through technology were closer than a lot of the relationships face to face that I had with my sister and brother and my cousins and things like that.

Let me ask you this. Whenever the first date happened with your future wife, how long was it after that before an "I love you" came out? An "I love you?" Quite a while. I had had a long relationship before, a high school sweetheart, if you will. And she kind of ruined my outlook on what a relationship was.

Things like that. Little bit of PTSD from the relationship? Kinda, yeah. So I, you know, she would tell me that she loves me and I would tell her that I'm not quite ready to commit to something like that yet until I knew I was for certain, you know what I mean? So that was something in the beginning of our relationship that I don't quite regret, but I wish I would have handled a little better.

So how long did it take for you guys to get actually, or actually not get married, but you asked her, I'm sure, did you ask her to marry you? I did, yeah. Where'd you do that at? We did that at Main Street on the riverfront. It was on her birthday. We did a little scavenger hunt. Did you get down on one knee?

I did, yes. And she said yes, I'm sure. Yes. How long after that did y'all get married? We got married January 6th of 2017. I had proposed to her in December on her birthday. We kinda got married a little early. I knew I wanted to marry her. We got pressured into doing it sooner than I think we should have.

Who pressured you? Her parents. They're very conservative religious. Oh, like they didn't want y'all living together, having sex and all that stuff without being married? Yeah. And we, we had got pregnant. The... AH, okay. Right, yeah. Right around October, September. Did y'all, did y'all have a big wedding? Not really, no.

We had it at her family's church and there was just really immediate family members. How Would you describe the beginning, you know, six months to a year into the marriage? It went well, I think. We lived with her parents for a short time while I had started working in this factory and got up enough money to be able to get a car and an apartment and eventually moved into an apartment together.

Looking back on how they met, Damion speaks glowingly of his now ex wife. With his military stint firmly in his rearview mirror, the next phase of Damion's life was a happy one. Although pressured into marriage more quickly than he'd have liked, Damion loved his wife dearly and, with a daughter on the way, the couple's future looked bright.

Damion makes a telling observation during our conversation. Maybe it's a generational thing, but Damion finds that he gravitates towards digital relationships. Every stage of his romance with his wife, for example, was facilitated by technology of some kind. They first met on Tinder, they dated via a phone screen, exchanging texts back and forth, and during their time together, Damion posted frequently about the relationship on his social media channels.

Take one Facebook post posted by Damion in 2017, for example. It's a picture of his wife cradling their newborn in the hospital just after her birth. Scroll up Damion's Facebook feed a little more and there's another photo, this one of a candlelit dinner set with glasses of wine and plates of portobello mushrooms.

In the caption, Damion gushes over his quote, "magnificent wife." These Facebook posts are a snapshot in time, painting a picture of a happily married couple that's been frozen in digital perpetuity on the internet. Come 2020, however, and there's a sudden notable absence of Damion's wife on his Facebook page.

That's because, just three years on, the Delgado marriage had deteriorated to the point of divorce. What was it that broke up the once happy couple? We'll find out on the next installment of this tragic story on Voices of a Killer.

If you want to find out what happens next, right now, you can sign up at www.Patreon.com/voicesofakiller. There you can find bonus content, early access, ad-free listening, and access to our chat community. So go to Patreon. com slash Voices of a Killer to sign up now. Your support is what keeps us passionate about bringing these stories to you.

I want to thank Damion for sharing his story with us today. His ability to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special. That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handled the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast.

If you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at www.Voicesofakiller.com. There you can find previous episodes. Transcripts, and additional information about the podcast. Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support, and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers. Listener discretion is advised.

Last time we left this story, Damion had told us about his upbringing, his failed career in the army, and his blooming relationship with his now ex wife. We pick up the story in 2020, three years in, and Damion's marriage was on the rocks, teetering on the brink of divorce. What was it that broke up the once happy couple?

We'll find out on this episode of Voices of a Killer. Now speaking of technology, YouTube, there's a video of you where the investigators are questioning you and stuff like that. And one point you're telling a story about you being married to the girl we're talking about. And you had this episode where you, or she woke up and saw you had a knife and you were going to commit suicide.

Is that accurate still? It is, yeah. What would prompt you to do something like that? You got a, you know, a wife that you love and all this stuff and a baby on the way. Well, actually, my daughter was born at that time already. Yeah. On that December 28th of 2018 was that incident. Okay, so walk me through that.

Why would you want to do that? I've kind of struggled with suicide and just having any kind of will to continue on living ever since I was a, pardon me, a teenager. Yeah. You know, I can't sit here and tell you exactly why. Was that the first time that you had ever done that to where people knew that you were going to try to do something?

No. I had done it before. How many times? I want to say, let's see, before that incident, maybe twice, three times. Do you feel like it's for attention? Definitely one or two. And I got talked down out of it. What were the attempts on the other ones? The first one, the first time, that was when I was living with my uncle.

I had locked myself in my room and I was talking to my mom and I just kind of started breaking down and I ended up grabbing a little, not really a straight, what do they call it, a box cutter. Box cutter. Box cutter that I use for work. And I was going to go and split my wrists, and my mom ended up talking me down.

What about the second time? The second time was an incident I found out that my girlfriend from high school, though, like four, four and a half years, she had been cheating on me. And so we broke up and I was just gonna basically drink myself to death. Yes, I went through, I don't even remember how much alcohol, but I just, I just had all kinds of different bottles in my room and I just started drinking and drinking and drinking until I couldn't do anything.

This time that you're married and your wife actually woke up, did y'all have a fight or anything or an episode where you weren't getting along before she went to bed? Actually, not that immediate, but leading up to that December. What was the fight about, or what was the point of contention? So we, I had kind of been ruining the relationship over the last maybe six to nine months.

How were you doing that? I just, I would be drinking a lot. I was doing coc**ne. Did she know you were doing coc**ne and drinking? She did, yeah. Did she ever do it with you? No. Wow, so that's a big... No, she never got drunk. Yeah, when one side's doing that and the other's not, that's pretty much gonna end it all.

And for the record, when both of them are doing it, usually that's gonna end it too. But anyway, yeah, that's definitely a way to exit out of a relationship is to put your attention to a substance. So, how bad were you doing that stuff? I was getting drunk every night. There were times where I'd even tell my wife that I had to work late and I'd just go to the bar and get tanked.

So, were you, this night that you, this night that she wakes up with you holding a knife and threatening to kill yourself, were you coming down off c*ke? That night, no, I was not. That was just all alcohol that night. Yeah. It was actually tequila. Tequila I cannot handle at all. Was her reaction that she wanted to help you or was she just saying, "I can't do this anymore?"

Her reaction, I don't quite remember too much of it that night, I remember she had asked me for a glass of water, and I went to go get a glass of water, and next thing I remember she had our pistol in my face, pointing it at me, and our daughter in her arm, and I was really... she's scared of you. She was. Yes.

Yeah. I mean, that was kind, that's, it's a big deal because you know, you're drunk and you wake up th you know, threatening to hurt yourself. What makes her think you can't hurt her child? Or, or, or her? So whenever she pointed the gun at you. Yeah. What's that? I, I absolutely understand where her beer came from.

Yeah. I, I don't blame all of her for the way she reacted. What was your reaction when she pointed the gun at you? I didn't understand. I was confused and scared. I didn't know what, why she was doing what she was doing. When, what was the resolution for that night? You had to leave or cops were called or what?

She ended up leaving and going to her parents. Her parents actually lived about not even five minutes away from where we live. Did she tell them everything that happened? I believe so, because she ended up calling the cops and the cops came to the apartment and I guess I had wrestled with the cops or something.

I really don't remember that part. I just remember waking up the next day. So you went to jail. No, I didn't go to jail. I woke up the next day in the hospital and they told me that when I got brought in, I was having some kind of crazy episode, screaming and lashing out, they had to strap me onto the bed.

Wow. Yeah. So what do you think your issue is, man? I really, I don't know. Do you think you're a violent person? I think I'm violent when I drink. Damion's substance abuse issues escalated shortly after his 2017 marriage. Alcohol and coc**ne were his two dr*gs of choice, a toxic combination that brought out the worst in Damion.

Now, Damion isn't a violent man when sober, and back then he had no criminal record to his name. Under the influence, however, he became quick to lash out, often battling to remember what he'd done the day before after blacking out drunk. As you'd imagine, this took a heavy toll on his marriage. Although Damion's substance abuse was more about self harm than anything else, his wife lived in constant fear for the safety of herself and her daughter.

One critical night, Damion took shots of tequila and wielded a knife in their home. This was the final straw for his wife. She took off with their child, rang the police, and filed for divorce. The divorce proceedings that followed were acrimonious and Damion lost custody of his only daughter. But that didn't trigger a wake up call to get sober.

Instead, Damion turned closer to alcohol to drown his sorrows even more. That time in his life, Damion tells me, was when he truly hit rock bottom. Part of the whole theme of your murder case and everything stated by like the prosecutors of the news is that you're, had a violent episode. So now I'd like to take us to this day that you, you know, your crime happened.

The weeks leading up to that, were you in a downward spiral, do you feel like? I was, sort of. I would say that I was starting to crawl out of that spiral. Were you still doing c*ke? I had finally hit rock bottom. I'm sorry? Were you still doing c*ke at the time? No, I was just drinking and smoking d*bs and w**d.

Yeah. And you think previous to that, you'd hit rock bottom, so you were kind of climbing out of that? Yeah, I had finally hit rock bottom about September, towards the end of the summer, beginning of fall. I had hit rock bottom. I hadn't seen my daughter in three months. I needed to start getting my life together, so I had started crawling out.

I was using a lot of prosti****s at the time, drinking every single night until I blacked out. There were a few incidents where I got in a bar fight. I got part of my skull fractured in one of them. But I started, I realized I needed to start pulling myself out of that. So I started getting my daughter once a week.

So you were getting your daughter? I was at the time, yeah. Yeah. So you mentioned that you were getting prosti****s. You kind of gave up on the dating apps and went to just, you know, pay for s*x? Pretty much, yeah. So, you're getting these prosti****s pretty regularly. How regularly do you think you're doing this?

Usually a couple of times a week. Oh, wow. How much does that cost each time you think? A couple hundred dollars. Damn. The quick visit is probably somewhere between 80 and 120. So these girls, did you end up just getting their direct phone numbers and you call them whenever you want or, or you just always had to find them on these apps?

I usually use websites on the internet. They would post their phone number, you text the number and they respond. Interesting. What, what apps are those? Escort Alligator, Escort Index, up until not too long before all of this had happened, I would use Backpage. Did you ever get like a cop trying to catch you or anything?

No, I was worried about that, but then that never really actually happened in all the times that I did. So you're actually on this, one of these apps when you met your victim who is 22 year old Amethyst Killian, and she was actually pregnant. Was she on one of these apps by the way? She was, yes. Okay, and I just want to make sure and see what your thoughts were, and I'm pretty sure that's, they're kind of lowkey about it on the news and stuff, but from my understanding she was a s*x worker, she was five months pregnant.

Did you ever meet her before this? I did. I actually used her quite a few, not a lot, but I used her a few times, yes. What was she like? Was she a drug addict? Why was she doing this? Support her kids? From what I've gathered, yes, she was a drug addict, but she was into fentanyl. I was told that she actually had fentanyl in her system when they did the autopsy.

Wow. That's so sad, man, that she's doing that while she's pregnant. Was she pregnant the other times that you were around her? No, I never even knew that she was pregnant. I knew that she had a kid. What if, what if it's your baby that that was if she wasn't pregnant at the time and you'd seen her and then later on, you saw her again as a customer and she's pregnant, what if that's your baby?

I have had that thought. Has anybody tried to figure that out? The authorities? That's crazy, dude. That might be your fricking baby. I mean, it's possible because I had used her a couple of months prior, earlier that year, I had used their services. Do you remember the timeline? She's five months pregnant on the day that she's murdered.

Five months prior to that, did you see her? Around that time? I just know it was earlier that year. So, this time that this crime occurred, did you get a hold over through the app or did you have a direct phone number for her? I had a phone number, I don't know if it was her direct number or if it was one of those numbers you get from an app.

But I did have a direct line to her. And that's how you connected with her? Yeah. What was the first thing you said? "Hey, you got some time?" Or how does that work? Typically with when you deliver an escort, I try to keep it lowkey. Just, "hey, I'm looking to have fun tonight." You know, "what are you trying to do?"

What was her response? She usually would let me know "I'm free between this time and this time." And I would let her know how much time I was looking for and she would let me know. She'd just shoot a number. But it was usually pretty quick. And then we would just set a time and meet up. This time, where was the meet at?

It was in St Peter's. We usually met behind this bar, which I guess was right next to where she lives. Around September of 2020, Damion tells me his life had fallen off the rails. To cope with a bitter divorce and custody battle, Damion dove headfirst into reckless behaviors, drinking heavily, picking up fights in bars and hiring prosti****s off escort apps.

And one of the s*x workers he used pretty regularly was a 22 year old woman called Amethyst Killian. Amethyst known as Ame to loved ones was a young mother with two little kids. She must've had a penchant for rock and reggae because both her kids were named after musicians, six year old Marley after Bob Marley and 11 month old Hendrix after Jimi Hendrix.

By all accounts, from the information we can gather from the news articles that emerged after this crime, Amethyst Killian was a devoted mother who always put her kids firSt these news articles, however, skirted around an important fact. Amethyst had recently resorted to s*x work to scrape up some extra cash.

Later on, her father told the press that Amethyst had been battling a drug addiction for some time and turned to prost***tion to maintain her habit. She was deep into her addiction by late November 2020 by the time her phone buzzed with a hookup text from Damion, she was also five months pregnant with her third child.

Early on Thanksgiving morning, around 1 am, Amethyst snuck downstairs to the front door of her St Peter's house. Her stepfather, who was still awake, was surprised to see her up so early. Amethyst told him she was just taking a walk to the nearby Quick Trip gas station for cigarettes and would be back soon. As he would later recall, Amethyst's stepfather warned her to be careful as he watched her slip out the door.

He had no reason to think she wouldn't come back, not least because that evening was Thanksgiving and Amethyst and her mother had been long planning a green bean casserole bake-off for dinner. Amethyst would not make it to the Thanksgiving bake-off. In fact, she would never return to home as she promised. After the break, we find out exactly what happened to her in the early hours of Thursday morning.

So where did she end up meeting you? Behind a bar, is that what you said? Yeah, there's a bar there on, it's like Old St Peter's. I don't, I'm not sure what the name of the bar is. There's a little parking lot. Okay, so it's like outside, does she like get in the vehicle with you or what? No, I actually got dropped off by an Uber.

Whenever you first see her and you'll agree to meet, you show up first or she's there? I showed up firSt she's walking up and you noticed cause she's five months pregnant. That's pretty, you had to notice, did you? I didn't. She actually had on a big, I would imagine it was her, her boyfriend or fiance's hoodie.

She had a big black hoodie on. I think so. Gotcha. So whenever she walks up, does she look like she's kind of been like tense or worried about anything or, "hey, let's, you know, do this, make some money and get out of here," what? No, she was usually real casual with me 'cause I had used her multiple times before.

So she'd seen me and we kind of like, was like, "Hey," "hey, how, how's it going?" Yeah. You know, I wouldn't really call us friends, but we knew each other. Like, I knew she had kids. I didn't know that she was engaged to somebody, but I, I knew she had kids. So when she walks up, do y'all give each other a hug? No.

There was no intimacy Right. Involved. And did y'all immediately go to a spot that it was secluded? Yeah, there's a little park behind there. There's like a park with a playground and a baseball field and a big grass area. We went over to the restroom building that's part of the park. Yeah, you paid for straight s*x?

Yeah, so we were going to go into the restroom, but the restroom was locked, so we just were going to do it right out there. Did she usually require the money first? Yeah, in which I had no problem doing it. How much did she charge you? 150. Did you give her the 150 before? Yes. So after you give her the money, do y'all just immediately have s*x?

No, I had actually originally wanted 120, it was just for s*x straight up. But I gave her the 150 to get oral beforehand. Did she agree upon that? She did, yeah. Did she perform a roll on you? She did, yes, but we actually ended up getting stopped in the middle of it. A cop car drove by down the road, perpendicular to the road next to where we were at.

How long did that disrupt you? So, we both seen the cop car roll by, so we both stopped, and we ended up starting to walk back towards the parking lot. And, we were talking about where else we could go, and we ended up seeing the building where everything ended up happening. Okay, so is that a building you went into or around the back or something?

Right in front of the building. So the way the building is, it's set up to where it's right next to the embankment by the highway. Gotcha. Yeah, so you're enclosed between the embankment of the highway and the building. And then there's a fence with a bunch of, like, brush and stuff. So, did y'all get around all the way to the side and start up again?

So we got over to the front of the building and she was trying to say that she didn't want to do it anymore. And I didn't understand why she, it was like her whole demeanor and everything just changed all of a sudden. And it was really odd. I had never experienced that before. Do you feel like it was maybe a combination of she had already performed oral on you and then too much time went by, she had the money in her pocket and she felt like the job was complete and she wanted to go get high?

I think so. I think she just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible because she already had my money and I think she felt like she already did something but we had only done oral for maybe five minutes. I was upset that she was trying to take off that money. Was it pretty quick to get into yelling and stuff?

Yeah, it got up there pretty faSt so I didn't understand what was going on. Yeah, so she's like basically sticking to her gun saying that she's done. Yeah. Did you have any weapons on you? I did not. You had no weapons whatsoever? I did not. Did she have any weapons on her? She pulled a knife out of the big black hoodie that she had on.

Big black hoodie she pulled out. What kind of knife was it? Like a small, like what, like a little pocket knife. Whenever she pulled that out, how far do you think you were from her? Maybe a foot and a half. Did you, did she pull it out because you tried to grab her from leaving? Yes. What did you do? You grabbed her hoodie and tried to hold her there?

I grabbed her, her wriSt at any point in time up to this point, did you know she was pregnant? I did not. Whenever you grabbed her and she pulled the knife out, did you let go of her? What was your reaction? I let go of her wrist that didn't have the knife and I immediately grabbed for the knife. And we began getting into a tussle.

You're trying to basically take the knife from her? Yeah, and at that point I kind of snapped. We hustled up against the building and it fell down in the grass. We were kind of partly on the grass. How long did it take for you to wrestle the knife from her? I don't know. She was able to get a few slices in on me.

So she was actually able to stab you a little bit? A little bit, yeah. Was that recorded in the courts whenever you went? I'm not sure. You weren't at the trial or did you take a plea deal? I took a plea deal. So you wrestled the knife from her, the minute you get the knife in your possession, your hand, what position are you in?

And what position is she in? She is like partly on the cement, partly on the grass. And I'm like to the side caddy corner to her. It'll almost be like a, I guess in UFC terms, it'd be like a half guard almoSt right. And at that moment, the position you're talking about right now, is that whenever you threw the first blow with the knife?

Yeah. Like I said, I, it was like something broke at the, like a vase inside my head just broke and the floodgates were released. Do you remember the first place you stabbed her? I believe it was in the side of her head. I guess that would be her left side. Yeah. Did that penetrate her skull? I'm not sure.

Most of everything at this point is a lot of images and sounds. Well, so here's the deal, because you said that you kind of lost it and 20 stab wounds, it's if you, if somebody takes the time and, and they go through the motion with the jab and they count 20 times out, that is a really, that's a lot of jabs that your arm is doing over and over and over again.

And you did 20 of those as reported by the prosecutors and everything. What makes you stop at 20 or why not 5? Why not 40? Do you, do you have an answer to that? I don't think I really do have an answer. I didn't really have any kind of agenda or plan or anything like that. Like I said it, it was like a light switch just went off.

So, was she actually fighting all the way up to the 20th time you stabbed her? I would believe so. Like I said, it's a lot of foggy images and sounds, creams, but yeah, she, that was, yeah, she did. The murder of Amethyst Killian can best be described as a rage crime. A sudden uncontainable violence erupted from Damion when he was denied the s*x he had paid for.

Years later, Damion's memory of the crime is hazy at best, but here's a quick rehash of what happened that night. Damion and Amethyst met up in the parking lot of a bar in Old Town, St Peter's. Behind the restroom, in a nearby park, they had intercourse, but were cut short by a police car driving by. They then moved elsewhere, but Amethyst, with the money in her pocket, refused to carry on.

This made Damion angry, but it was only when Amethyst pulled out a pocket knife that something inside him truly snapped. Damion compares that moment to a vase breaking, a total shattering of his senses. Blinded by rage, he wrestled Amethyst to the ground, grabbed the knife, and stabbed her a total of 20 times in the head, neck, and abdomen.

By the time his rage had subsided, it was over. Amethyst laid dead, as did her unborn fetus. Damion fled the crime scene, though not before he was captured by a security camera as he made his way home. Less than a day later, the body would be discovered and the case ruled a homicide. The murder of Amethyst Killian, a beautiful young mother, caught the imagination of the public and stirred up a media frenzy.

Perhaps spurred on by the public's interest in this case, St Peter's police swung into action and solved the case within a week. The news report you're about to hear from Fox 2 St louis details Damion's arrest and the investigators that caught him. And from one tragic story to another one, a disturbing revelation.

A pregnant St Peter's woman found murdered not far from her home last week had been stabbed more than 20 times. I found out more today from St Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lomar. The victim was stabbed over 20 times mostly in the head and neck region as well as the abdomen region. 22 year old Amy Killian had gone to meet a man at 1:15 in the morning on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day.

She met him online. The location was very close to her house. They had made connections through an online website. They exchanged numbers and communicated throughout the evening agreed to meet up and the intention was to, to, to engage in consensual s*x. Her body was found Friday morning near her home, close to main street in St Peter's next to highway 70. And quick trip. Prosecuting attorney Tim Lomar says they don't have a motive yet, but that it was a rage killing and a target killing. There was an item at the crime scene, and in the text exchange the defendant indicates that he just stopped at a gas station and bought this particular item.

Using that information, detectives utilized a lot of technology and found their suspect, 27 year old Damion Delgado of O'Fallon, Missouri. He is charged with murder one, armed criminal action, and murder two. Amy was five months pregnant with her third child, a baby boy. Police informed Amy's mom, Stacey, about the charges this morning.

I'm grateful for the detectives and all their hard work, but there's still so many questions to be answered. I found, that's when I found out that she was definitely stabbed to death. Now Stacey is trying to figure out how she is going to explain to her six year old granddaughter, Marley. And one year old grandson Hendrix how their mom died.

I still don't understand how someone can do this to anybody. There's a good chance that Damion would have gotten away with this crime if it hadn't been for the efforts of the St Peter's police department. Although Damion's blood was found at the scene of the crime, his DNA wasn't on police file, making the blood untraceable. The case could have easily reached a dead end if there hadn't been a strong digital trail that led the police to Damion Delgado.

Earlier in our conversation, Damion mentioned his reliance on technology. Ironically, this was instrumental in helping police crack the case. The investigation began in earnest on Thanksgiving evening when Amethyst's mom filed a missing person's report. By Friday, a search effort had uncovered Amethyst's body stashed in some brush in North Church Street. Investigators then subpoenaed Amethyst's phone records and found her last texts with Damion, then an unknown suspect. Another breakthrough happened when officers noticed that Damion had a distinctive gait in the gas station footage. They used this to place him at the crime scene.

By identifying his unusual walk in another piece of footage close to the park where Amethyst had been killed, through a mix of phone records, IP addresses, credit card details, and surveillance footage, Damion was caught as Amethyst's killer. But there was a tragic twist in this tale that truly shocked not only the public, but Damion himself.

We'll find out what that is, on the next episode of Voices of a Killer.

If you want to find out what happens next, right now, you can sign up at patreon.com/voicesofakiller. There you can find bonus content, early access, ad free listening, and access to our chat community. So go to patreon.com/voicesofakiller to sign up now. Your support is what keeps us passionate about bringing these stories to you.

I want to thank Damion for sharing his story with us today. His ability to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special. That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handled the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast

if you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at Voicesofakiller.com. There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and additional information about the podcast. Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host, Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer. 

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers. Listener discretion is advised.

Welcome back to the tale of Damion Delgado. Last time Damion was eventually caught by the police. A product of his own undoing, damion left a trail at the St Peter's Police Department, easily traced back to him. By the time police swooped into arrest their killer, however his home was empty. Damion had been admitted to the hospital a day earlier after attempting suicide.

The aftermath of the crime had clearly spun Damion into a dark mental space. This was only to get worse as Damion was about to learn he was responsible for two deaths, Amethyst Killian's and her unborn child. We'll hear about that on this episode of Voices of a Killer. What did you play guilty to? I pledge guilty to one count of first degree murder, life without parole, one count of second degree murder, ran from current, and one count of armed collection with 15 years after the life without parole.

So I was trying to, as soon as you said first degree murder, I'm trying to think, isn't that mean planned out? So did they think that you brought the knife? I'm not sure. I never really. I haven't heard much of anything from the prosecutor. Most of the information I learned actually came from the psychiatrist that I talked to, which was actually an idea of a public defender.

I had wanted to plead guilty within the first 90 days of me being in county. But I ended up spending 20 months there. Well, the thing is, is like I, I think you're doing the right thing by wanting to plead guilty. I just wonder if it's first degree, because you know, unless they're thinking that you're lying about the knife.

'Cause you actually lawyered up in the video. You lawyered, you lawyered up. So did you tell your attorney like, "Hey, I didn't have the knife. She did." Or, or I mean, she, it just doesn't seem like first degree is what I'm getting at. I don't believe it was first degree. I never went, I never intended to do things that I did.

Yeah, if I could take it back, I really would. Well, I mean, and unless you're, and it's very possible you're lying about everything. I mean, that happens, but if everything you're saying is completely accurate, then it just, I, and again, I'm not an attorney, but it just doesn't seem like first degree. It's, I thought first degree is where you, "I'm gonna show up here with this knife, and when I get here, this is what I'm gonna do.

A, B, and C." And, and A, B and C is killing them. You know, it's, I don't know. But what I was explained from my court defender was that all they have to do is prove that there was any single moment where I could have stopped what I was doing. Now that's, and that's why you, I think you just educated me because I think that that does say it right there is the length of time you are having that time to reflect 20, just like I just explained that.

Now I feel kind of silly because that does make it seem like it is first degree now that I think about it. Yeah, that was the way it was explained to me is that, that during those 20 times I could have stopped. Okay, that makes sense. What time did you find out that she's actually pregnant? When they read me off my charges, after I had got arrested at my arraignment, I was very confused that there was a second degree on there and I had asked the judge why there was a second degree, and he told me that there was an unborn fetus.

And that was the moment that I knew I'd be pleading guilty. You know, you grew up going to church and things like that, which obviously I would assume that you're a Christian then and now. Do you feel like your God is going to put you in hell now? I believe that I'm going to have a chance to be judged and to give my side of the story, I guess, even though he knows my side, but at least plead my case to my creator.

And whatever he chooses, he chooses, and that's the state that I, I deserve. He knows everything. He knows all. Listening to how Damion talks about this case, I get the impression that he's accepted his punishment. Now that he's behind bars, he's embraced his Christian faith and shown a great deal of courage in owning up to his crime.

To his credit, he has never denied killing AmethySt in fact, he came clean early on in the police investigation and pled guilty instead of taking the case to trial. At the time, Damion's defense lawyer praised Damion's attitude, telling the press that he had flat out refused to negotiate a plea deal for a lighter sentence.

Even though he knew he would be given life without parole. To quote his lawyer, "I have never known a client to do that, to be so willing to give up their own life to try to atone for what they've done. There's a lot of good in Damion." Undoubtedly, Damion has made some bad choices with bad consequences, and prison might just be the opportunity he needs to get his life Back on track.

Still, for somebody who has a long history of mental illness, prison can be a dark and lonely place. Before wrapping up this interview, I wanted to find out how Damion, a man who once couldn't handle a life in the military has coped with a life behind bars. More on that after the break.

How's your time in prison since you've been in there? Well, in the beginning, I didn't really do a whole lot. I just kind of sat around. I only had a TV, so I watched TV, read the Bible a lot, but now I'm trying to use my time productively to you know, influence other people. I work in an ECU wing, which is for patients who have any kind of disabilities or disorders or anything like that.

So I help them. A lot of them are in wheelchairs, you know, so try to get them someone to talk to. And, you know, because they don't get to see their families a lot. Do you ever get in fights in there? Yes. I've been in one fight since I've gotten to this camp with someone who actually knew Amethyst. It was over that?

Yeah. What happened? What did they tell you? They approached you and said, "hey, you're going to have to fight me" or they just jumped on you? They told me that I should basically pay somebody for protection and I said, I'm not doing it. Gotcha. You did the right thing. And I'm sure that after that's happened, you've never been asked to pay again, right?

No. Yeah, so that's how that works. What do you think separates you from a person that has multiple occasions where they try to kill themselves and then end up having a moment where you couldn't control your emotions and just run and you ended up stabbing somebody 40 times? What sets you apart? Why do you think you're like that?

I think what sets me apart is my mom and my dad. They keep me grounded. If it wasn't for them, and if it wasn't for the slightest possibility that I would get to see my daughter again one day, I probably wouldn't be here right now. Have you tried to commit suicide in prison? I have not. Do you still think about it a lot?

Not so much anymore. I try to focus more on other people and being a positive influence in their life. How do you resolve yourself to being, you know, you're going to die in prison, you're such a young person? You know, I really try not to think about it. That's, I think that's probably the biggest thing that helps me is just not thinking about the next step.

I'm literally living in the wing that I'm going to die in. Well, the crazy thing is, you know, you already suffer from mental illness, obviously, because of what's happened. I mean, that's, that's not normal. Now you're putting to a situation where this can create more mental illness. You understand that, right?

Yeah. I mean, you're going to have a hard time trying to keep a hold of reality. And I imagine, you know, especially starting off so young. So I talk to people that are really desperate by the time they're 50, 60, want some kind of, you know, some kind of way out of there. And they have the same situation where it's life without.

It's so unfortunate. Actually, actually, I have a patient in here who he's been in here for 33 years. He's got life without, and him and I have a lot in common. So, I would say that it's, the people that you keep around, you know, that kind of make it what it is in here. Sure. Well, I appreciate you reaching out to me and let me ask you all these serious questions.

I, I can tell that you're remorseful. You know, you had some issues growing up, obviously. I wish that you could have got help, which, which also, also promised me to ask you if somebody's out there in your situation where they're, you know, having these episodes where they're committing suicide and doing things that, you know, are illegal,

or getting in trouble like you, what do they do? Find a mentor and get mental health help. Find somebody to help you. Cause there, there's somebody out there that can. I just, it took me coming to prison to find that, to realize that. Just give them help. Yeah. Well, Damion appreciate you reaching out to me and hope you do your time

well. Let me know if you need something. All right. Yeah. Thank you so much, Toby. I appreciate what you're doing for these guys. All right, man. Take it easy. You too. All right. Bye bye. Bye.

On the next episode of Voices of a Killer. You're actually not convicted as a killer yet. You're just blamed for being one. Wow, man. You got some crazy stuff ahead of you. I had blood covering my face, a couple, couple cuts on my head. Yeah. And I was freaking out. So everybody knows somebody that's died for cancer.

It's like everybody knows that somebody that's either gotten a DWI, going to prison for it, or killed somebody in a wreck. Usually if someone is hurt or killed and you're driving, you're going to prison. I've seen it a lot. The front end was, was smashed in on the passenger side pretty bad. Whenever you went over there, what was the condition of that driver?

Well, he was right over on the passenger seat and he wasn't moving. That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. I want to thank Damion for sharing his story with us today. His ability to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special. If you want to listen to these episodes weeks in advance, you can now do so by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/voicesofakiller. There you will get access to raw interviews, unseen news coverage, and unique correspondence with the guests of Voices of a Killer. Head over to patreon.com/voicesofakiller to support the podcast. Your support is what keeps us passionate about bringing these stories to you.

A big shout out to Sonic Futures, who handled the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast if you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at voicesofakiller.com. There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and additional information about the podcast.

Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in.

I'm your host Toby and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.