Shaliyah Toombs, 23, was seven months pregnant at the time of her murder. (Image courtesy of Facebook)
Three suspects have been arrested in the murder of a pregnant woman whose body was found in a pickup truck parked alongside an interstate outside Oklahoma City last month.
Before her killing, authorities say 23-year-old Shaliyah Toombs sent what her mother called a “disturbing” text in the early hours of April 29, suggesting she might be in danger.
“They gonna kill me mom. Help me,” the text message read.
Investigators were alerted to Toombs’ body later on that day after suspect Daniel Vasquez approached an officer inside a local convenience store, telling him his pickup truck had run out of gas and that there was a body in the back, NewsOK reported.
Toombs mother, Twyla Taylor, told station KFOR she reported her daughter missing on April 29 after she was unable to reach her by phone and social media. Toombs, a mother of two, was seven months pregnant at the time.
According to a court affidavit, Vasquez visited Toombs’ Oklahoma City apartment around 1 o’clock that morning. The two other suspects, Joshua Finkbeiner, 30, and Staci Harjo, 42, arrived shortly thereafter looking for a book bag Toombs allegedly stole.
Joshua Finkbeiner and Staci Harjo were arrested in Arkansas and will face murder charges after their extradition to Oklahoma. (Image courtesy of the Cleburne County, Arkansas, Sheriff’s Office)
Vaquez told police he found out Toombs had borrowed Harjo’s car, which had a backpack that contained a hard drive that belonged to Finkbeiner’s employer. That’s when Vasquez claimed Harjo and Finkbeiner forced him and Toombs into the truck at gunpoint. He said the pair drove them around for hours until they reached a farm, NewsOK reported.
It was just before 5 a.m. when Taylor said she received the alarming text from her daughter.
“It was disturbing and it was like, she’s in trouble,” she told to KFOR.
At some point, the group left the farm and began driving again. Police said Finkbeiner then choked Toombs for nearly twenty minutes and then instructed Vasquez to “finish her off.” Vasquez told authorities the young mother already appeared to be dead before he began choking her.
The three suspects then discussed dumping Toombs body in a lake and then torching the truck, according to NewsOK. Vasquez said Finkbeiner instead handed him $60 for gas and instructed him to drive off.
Police later located Harjo and Finkbeiner in Arkansas, where they were arrested on May 5. The pair are expected to be extradited back to Oklahoma to face murder charges. As for Vasquez, he was arrested on a charge of accessory to a homicide, the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation said.