Background: The area near Summit Lake in Greenbrier County, West Virginia (Google Maps). Inset left: Staci Wind (West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority). Inset right: Ayla Wind (GoFundMe).
A mother in West Virginia is accused of killing her daughter as the younger woman was preparing to move away — and then reporting her missing despite knowing what had happened to her.
Staci Wind, 50, is in the Central Regional Jail and Correctional Facility without bond, according to jail records reviewed by Law&Crime.
She has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 26-year-old daughter Ayla Wind, regional ABC and Fox affiliate WCHS reported.
Ayla Wind was "preparing to move back to Utah," according to a GoFundMe set up for her family. Though she was reportedly in West Virginia with her mother when she was "tragically murdered," the younger woman was heading west to be with other family members, the fundraiser adds.
On May 18, Staci Wind reported her daughter missing, West Virginia State Police said in a news release. Investigators reviewed phone records showing Ayla Wind had texted with her mother saying she was getting snacks at a gas station, according to local NBC affiliate WSAZ.
Four days later, law enforcement was called to a scene at Summit Lake in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Human remains had been found in a shallow grave there, and the victim was identified as Ayla Wind.
Investigators believe she had been burned.
Authorities did not indicate what led them to pursue Staci Wind as a suspect, but she was arrested and booked into jail. It is unclear when she is due to appear in court.