Two arrested on murder charges in death of woman reported missing on Christmas Eve
A woman who was reported missing on Christmas Eve was found dead in the trunk of her car Thursday in a southeast Wichita neighborhood. Wichita police say her death is a homicide.
A co-worker of 41-year-old Melinda Sprague reported that she didn’t show up for work on Christmas Eve, Wichita police said Friday. Officers were contacted about her missing at around 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a news release from the Wichita Police Department.
Police found Sprague’s car behind a business in the 1500 block of East Harry, near Hydraulic, at around 11 a.m. on Thursday.
Sprague’s body was inside the car, Wichita police Capt. Brent Allred said.
The car was parked behind a business building up against a residential fence. The building has signs for a spa and heating and air conditioning businesses.
Sprague was last seen Monday, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse.
Ahmad K. Bey, 39, and Vanessa Waner, 34, were both arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with the case, police said Friday. Authorities are planning to present their investigation to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for formal charges, police said in the news release.
Allred said Sprague and Bey were in a “dating relationship” and that her death was “not a random incident.”
Bey is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond, according to the jail’s online log of inmates. Kansas Department of Corrections records show he is currently on parole for a 1999 murder in Crawford County. He was paroled to Barber County on July 1 but moved to Sedgwick County within weeks. He’s been in the Wichita area since July 22, KDOC records show.
Waner is being held in lieu of $100,000 bond in the homicide case, according to online jail records.
Wichita has had more than 40 homicides so far this year, at least 35 of which are considered criminal in nature. The others were deemed justified, accidental or self-defense killings.
Sprague’s death is Wichita’s fourth domestic-violence-related homicide of 2019.
This story was originally published December 27, 2019 at 11:28 AM.
