Pregnant Houston woman found dead, boyfriend charged in murder case

Ashanti Allen was eight months pregnant, considered high-risk, and already at the center of an urgent search when Houston police found her body in southwest Houston and moved quickly to charge Kevin Faux, the father of her unborn child. What began as a missing-person case for the 23-year-old became a homicide investigation in real time, with investigators still looking for Faux after the discovery at 11655 Chimney Rock Road on April 16.

Allen’s family first raised the alarm after she vanished earlier in the month. Her relatives told officers she was last seen leaving her apartment on April 8. Her mother later received a text message that said Allen was leaving and would not be coming back. When the family checked the apartment, her car was gone, but her belongings, including items for the baby, were still inside. That detail sharpened fears that something far more serious had happened than a simple disappearance.

Texas EquuSearch, the volunteer search-and-recovery nonprofit founded by Tim Miller in 2000, joined the effort as the case widened across Houston. Its flyer listed Allen, 23, as last seen leaving her residence near the 8700 block of Main Street on April 10 and identified Houston Police Department case number 26-2780. Local reporting also placed her last known area near McNee Road and Main Street near NRG Stadium. A $5,000 reward was being offered for information while she was still missing.

Investigators eventually pinged Allen’s phone to the park where her remains were found, a grim example of how quickly a digital clue can become the turning point in a disappearance case. Once the body was discovered, police charged Faux, 24, with murder and said he had not been taken into custody. Later reporting said the charge was upgraded to capital murder in at least some accounts, intensifying the search for him.

Faux’s history with Allen had already drawn investigators’ attention. He had been arrested in September 2025 on a family-violence assault charge involving Allen, and reports said he later pleaded guilty weeks before her death to a reduced misdemeanor family-violence assault count. One outlet reported he was sentenced to 280 days in county jail and received credit for 143 days served.

For Allen’s family, the shock has been devastating. Multiple reports said they were preparing for a funeral instead of welcoming a baby. Her father, Edward Allen, spoke publicly after learning of her death, as the case settled into the painful frame that now defines it: a domestic-violence tragedy that began with a missing pregnant woman and ended with a capital murder hunt.