Wichita woman killed while pregnant had looked forward to second chance at being a mom

Naomi Oglesby was excited to be a girl mom.

She had saved up and bought all the needed supplies to be a first-time mom, but Yazmyn Rayne Oglesby-Criscenzo died of sudden infant death syndrome on Aug. 3, 2024, just over six weeks after she was born, family said.

As part of the grieving process, she kept all of her firstborn’s clothes and supplies. Then she found out she was having another girl.

The 20-year-old Wichita woman was 37 weeks pregnant when she was killed May 25.

Doctors were able to deliver her baby, but she is not expected to make it either, the baby’s aunt, Ashley Stewart, said Friday.

Zy’nia Rayne Oglesby was born at 5:03 a.m. May 25 weighing 6 pounds, 7.7 ounces and at 19.5 inches long.

“She’s a little chunk,” said Stewart.

Zy’nia suffered brain damage from the lack of oxygen after her mother was killed.

The man charged with first-degree murder in Naomi Oglesby’s death is the father of both of her children.

Oglesby is survived by her two sisters and her stepfather as well as her daughter. Friends have planned a balloon launch for 7 p.m. Friday at Skyline Park.

A celebration of life is planned for a later date.

Family remembered Naomi Oglesby, the youngest of three sisters, as hard-headed, a jokester and someone who overcame a great deal in a short amount of time.

“She was happy,” Stewart said of her sister. ”She always looked on the bright side of things.”

She had long worked in the food industry, but took online courses and was saving up to take a certified nursing assistant test, Stewart said.

Childhood outings

Naomi Oglesby spent her early years in south Texas. She and her sisters were often outdoors, fishing and hunting, with her stepfather, her sisters’ father, John Pape.

Pape was in the U.S. Navy there before being transferred to McConnell Air Force Base. They moved to Derby when Oglesby was around 10.

He continued hunting and fishing. The girls often went too.

While her sister Christina Pape eventually picked up a gun to hunt too, Oglesby just went and helped retrieve. Pape said Oglesby was an expert at finding downed doves, rarely ever losing one.

“She was a big animal lover,” Stewart said, adding she had two cats, one named Bubbles and the other Butters, who have now been adopted by her friends.

It took until her teens, but she finally started calling Pape her father when she was around 15.

“It was great when she finally started calling me dad,” he said.

Shaila Canoot, Oglesby’s mother, died by suicide in 2016, Stewart said. It hit all of the family hard. They grieved and kept on, going to therapy to help, Pape said.

Oglesby had gotten in some trouble in school growing up, but still managed to graduate from Derby High School in 2023, Stewart said.

“She was a little spitfire,” Stewart said. “She was funny. Always cracked jokes. She was stubborn … strong headed.”

John Pape added: “She got that from her mom.”

As a teen and just hitting entering her 20s, “friends were her world,” Stewart said.

Violent relationship

Police were called at 4:28 a.m. May 25 to a report of a shooting in the 700 block of South Laura, near Kellogg and Washington. Oglesby had been shot. She was taken to the hospital where she died.

Oglesby had her bags packed and planned to leave the home of 19-year-old Matthew Criscenzo’s father where he and she had stayed the night before when she was killed, Stewart said.

Stewart said it had been a violent, on-and-off again relationship.

“It was one of those relationships where (she had) trauma bonded,” Stewart said.

Criscenzo was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Oglesby and aggravated battery to someone who is listed only by initials for what happened on May 25.

Criscenzo, when he was arrested Sunday, was also arrested in a case from Jan. 25. A police report says that the suspect left visible injuries on his girlfriend and also on a male. A request was issued for police to arrest the suspect, the report says, but jail records show he had not been arrested in that case until Sunday.

Family members were able to view part of Naomi Oglesby’s body Thursday, but not all of it because of its condition after the shooting. At their request, Oglesby’s tattoed arm was exposed so they could touch their loved one.

“It was brutal,” Stewart said.

Meeting her niece

Stewart came up from Texas after getting the call from her father about her sister being killed. She had just gotten out of church and was feeding her infant when she got the news.

“It was almost like a fever dream,” she said, adding it seemed unreal.

Zy’nia looks like her mother, Stewart said.

Stewart was able to hold her for the first time on Thursday and also gave Zy’nia her first bath.

“She didn’t stiffen up during the bath so I think she liked it,” she said.

On Thursday, doctors gave them grim news about Zy’nia’s brain damage and future.

Stewart went into the bathroom at the hospital.

“And I just as soon as I closed the door, I fell down to the ground and just started sobbing,” she said. “I just feel like I failed (Zy’nia) … We’ve been getting prayers and prayers and prayers from all over yet, this is still the outcome. It feels like failing.”

She added: “It never gets easy. You just learn how to cope with it.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help with costs around the death. It can be found at shorturl.at/sEmo6.