Missing Mother-of-Two Found Dead, Police Charge Man Who Led Them to Body

A Virginia man was charged with the murder of a missing mother after leading investigators to her body Thursday.

Alvin B. Keyser, 23, is charged with first-degree murder and concealing a dead body in the death of TerriLynn St. John, WTVR reports. Middlesex County investigators says there could be more charges.

St. John was last seen and heard from on Tuesday. Her father reported her missing when he learned she never showed up to work.

On Thursday, Keyser led investigators to a woman's body about a mile from St. John's home. It had been lightly covered in leaves and left in a patch of woods 20 feet off the side of the road, Middlesex Sheriff's Major Michael Sampson said. The body was later identified as St. John.

"Keyser stated to detectives he confronted St. John at her residence about statements that were made about Keyser. Keyser stated that St. John struck him, and he struck her back he then pushed her out of the van Keyser was driving," Sampson said in a statement.

St. John willingly got into the van, investigators say. Her children, age three and one, were inside the home at the time. Investigators say Keyser admitted that he pushed St. John out of the van, continued to hit her, and strangled her until she stopped breathing.

"Keyser then stated he loaded her in the van and put her body in the woods down from her residence," Sampson said.

Keyser is being held without bond at the Middle Peninsula Regional Security Center and will make his first court appearance on Monday, March 5.

The morning of her disappearance, St. John's father, Terry, stopped by St. John's home to check on her, where he found the door open and her children alone inside. He called the sheriff's office.

Terry told WTVR that he believed his daughter had struggled with someone in her front yard as she was getting ready to drive her children to daycare.

"They looked through the woods and you could definitely tell there has been a struggle beside my daughter's car," he told the station. "Jewelry was all around, like it had been broken off, her cell phone was found in the bushes."

Police are still investigating how St. John died, Sampson said Thursday. Her body has been sent to the medical examiner's office in Richmond where an autopsy will be completed.

Detectives reached out to Keyser Wednesday night after seeing social media posts, Sampson said. He would not comment about what the posts contained but said Keyser has been cooperating with investigators.

Thursday morning, Keyser called detectives and led them to St. John's body.

He is an acquaintance of St. John and the father of her two children. Sampson said he lives in the area. St. John's father is believed to have not been in the Middlesex area at the time of St. John's disappearance.

"The closure on this is not good closure, but it is closure," Sampson said.