Christina Rentchler, St Louis, Missouri pregnant mom shot dead by Vanier Jones in front of her 4 kids after man asked her children to lead him to their mother. Second woman survived by playing dead.
A pregnant Missouri mother and her unborn child were shot and killed last month in an execution style murder after the alleged murderer asked the victim’s four children to lead him to their mother.
Christina Lynn Rentchler, 35 years old and expecting a baby, was killed on April 23 while standing just feet away from her four daughters and another child.
The mayhem occurred on the afternoon of April 23, when Vanier T. Jones, 28, a man with a criminal record, approached the girls at home in the St Louis neighbourhood of Fairground Park and asked them, ‘Where’s your mother?’
Second St Louis woman survived by pretending to be dead
The children pointed her out — and that’s when things turned into a nightmare.
Police say Jones went upstairs and pulled out a gun and shot Christina in the back of the head — right in front of the children. The youngest 2 years old and the eldest, 10 years old.
She died at the scene. So did her unborn baby. The expectant mother was shot multiple times in the back of the head, First Alert 4 reported.
Prior to shooting the expectant mom, Jones had shot another woman, a 43 year old un-identified woman who was in the home. The woman who suffered gunshot injuries, survived by pretending to be dead.
She later told police that Jones had been staying at her place and that he became angry before the shooting.
As the second victim played dead, she heard Jones asking the children where their mother was, before shooting her dead moments later.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police were called to the shooting and arrived to find Rentchler ‘not conscious and not breathing,’ the agency said in a release.
Responding cops found Rentchler shot multiple times, including in the back of the head. Medical examiners arrived at the scene and discovered that the victim was in the second trimester of pregnancy.
Why was pregnant St Louis, Missouri mom targeted?
The unborn child died as a result of the injuries to the mother, police said.
KDSK reported the expectant mom had lived with the surviving mom at the home for a month prior to the tragedy. The surviving victim told police, Jones had also being staying at the home.
Not immediately clear is how Jones came to be staying at the home, his relation dynamics to the first woman along with why and how he came to target the pregnant mother.
‘Chrissy stayed home with her kids most of the time, and she loved her kids. She did everything with her kids,’ Rentchler’s sister Angelina Anderson told KDSK.
Rentchler was excited about her future because she was expecting a new baby.
‘She was telling her friends she was having a girl, and she was ready to be a mom to her fifth child,’ Anderson said.
‘All I was doing was breaking down in tears,’ said Christina Rentchler’s brother Shawn Rentchler. ‘I’m crushed. I’m torn apart. I now don’t sleep well at night.’
Jones has a long criminal past, including an assault conviction in 2023.
Christina Rentchler GoFundme
At the time of this shooting, Jones was on parole for second-degree assault when the crimes occurred. According to a criminal affidavit, Jone had ‘absconded from his federal supervised release at the time of the homicide.’
Jones who was taken into custody last week and is now in jail without bail, faces 17 charges, including: two counts of first degree murder, attempted murder of the second woman, along with 5 counts of child endangerment, assault along with illegal gun possession.
