Missing Missouri teen Kayla Huff found dead, homicide probe widens

A week after 16-year-old Kayla Huff vanished from Moberly, Missouri, her body was found in the Rudolf Bennitt Conservation Area, and a missing-person case snapped into a homicide probe. Randolph County Sheriff Andy Boggs said the discovery was devastating for the community and for Huff’s family, as investigators shifted from searching for a teenager to building a murder case.

Huff was reported missing by her parents on May 6, 2026. Investigators said she was last seen around 10:18 a.m. that day walking with a 17-year-old juvenile suspect. The search that followed stretched across the 3,500-acre conservation area, where dozens of volunteers looked on foot and horseback while officials used drones and boats. By around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13, a Randolph County resident found Huff’s body there.

The case moved fast once her death was confirmed. On May 13, Alayna Mason was charged with first-degree kidnapping, while Hunter Ames and Christopher Hull were charged with kidnapping and felony evidence tampering. Julian Mason was later charged on May 14 with felony evidence tampering. Then, on May 15, prosecutors amended the complaint to charge Alayna Mason and Hunter Ames with first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. Ames also faced an additional tampering-with-evidence count in the amended filing.

The probable-cause statement laid out disturbing allegations, including that one suspect said the group took Huff to the conservation area with an unknown person in the trunk, where they beat and shot her, while another allegedly admitted the group killed her. Prosecutor Stephanie Luntsford said her office was reviewing new evidence carefully and had not ruled out additional or upgraded charges, including murder charges, depending on what the facts supported.

Law enforcement has not said the investigation is finished. ABC17NEWS reported that preliminary autopsy findings existed, but the final autopsy report had not yet been completed, leaving the cause of death still to be pinned down in the formal record. For investigators, the conservation area was not just the search site, but the place where a missing-person hunt ended and a homicide case began.

The impact spread quickly through Moberly. More than 100 people gathered for a vigil for Huff on May 16, and the city’s schools and church community organized a Day of Healing at Immanuel Baptist Church with licensed counselors, social workers, and a crisis incident team. Parents in the Moberly School District also started a memorial scholarship in Huff’s name, with the first award planned for a student in the Class of 2028, as the case headed back into court.