In early February 2021, the life of 18-year-old Kaylah Blackmon, a White/Caucasian female from Wichita, Kansas, was tragically cut short, leaving a community in mourning and her family with a void that could never be filled. Blackmon was a recent high school graduate who had earned her diploma a semester early and was working as a paraprofessional with plans to attend beauty school.
She was a vibrant young woman known for her ever-changing hair color and tattoos that held deep meaning, representing her love for her family.
The distressing story began to unfold on February 1, 2021, when a passerby discovered the body of Blackmon’s 17-year-old boyfriend, Michael Beasley, in the grass next to an abandoned church. He had been shot to death. Following the discovery of Beasley's body, Wichita police grew concerned for Blackmon's safety and issued a public alert, seeking help in locating her and her grey 2005 Ford Escape. The search for Kaylah ended in heartbreak on February 4, 2021, when a police lieutenant on patrol found her vehicle in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Tragically, Blackmon was found deceased inside her car. It was later determined that she, too, had been a victim of gunshot wounds, and that both teenagers had been killed inside her vehicle.
The investigation into the double homicide moved swiftly, and just two days after Blackmon's body was found, police arrested 22-year-old Dontenize L. Kelly in connection with the murders. Kelly, who had a prior felony conviction and was on probation at the time, was known to be an acquaintance of Beasley. The motive for the killings was not definitively released, but it was suggested that Kelly and Beasley had a falling out. The investigation revealed the heartbreaking detail that the word "HELP" had been written in the dust on the dashboard of Blackmon's SUV.
In October 2022, Dontenize Kelly pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Kaylah Blackmon and Michael Beasley. The following month, he was sentenced to 48 years and 10 months in prison for the murders, with an additional 35 months for a parole violation. The sentencing brought a measure of closure to a case that had deeply affected the Wichita community and left a family to grieve the senseless loss of a young woman on the cusp of her future.
