Relatives said the 26-year-old was preparing to return to Utah before police found her remains in West Virginia.
RICHWOOD, W.Va. — Ayla Wind was preparing to leave West Virginia and return to family in Utah before police say her mother killed her, burned her remains and buried her near Summit Lake.
The charge against 50-year-old Staci Leann Wind has left investigators sorting through two timelines at once: the family’s plan for Ayla Wind to move west, and the police account of how a reported disappearance became a murder case. Ayla, 26, had been living in Richwood, a small Nicholas County city near the Monongahela National Forest. Family members said she expected to go back to Utah, where relatives were waiting. Instead, police said her mother reported her missing May 18, three days after she was last said to have been seen.
Relatives said Ayla was not someone who would vanish without checking on her child or partner. That concern shaped the early search after May 15, when family members said she was last seen. One family account said she had stopped for snacks at a gas station. Another said she had talked about going to a lake with friends. Police later said phone records showed she had exchanged texts with her mother and said she was getting snacks. Those ordinary details became important because they were among the last pieces of information tied to Ayla’s movements before the missing-person report. When Staci Wind went to Richwood police on May 18, she said her daughter had left with someone she may have met online. Richwood Chief Deputy Shane Boggs later said the report gave officers little to verify because Staci Wind could not say whether that person was male or female, could not describe the vehicle and did not know where they were going beyond a possible lake.
For the family, the report came as Ayla’s planned move was close. A fundraising page later said she was preparing to move back to Utah and that relatives needed help returning her ashes there after her death. Local reports said she was expected to pick up a rental car on the same day her mother reported her missing. The plan to move gave the case a second public frame: a young woman trying to leave one place for another, then becoming the subject of a homicide case before the trip could happen. Police have not said whether the move is connected to a possible motive. They have also not released a complete account of Ayla’s final hours, leaving relatives and investigators to work from phone records, statements and evidence found in two counties.
The missing-person case changed on May 22, when troopers responded to the Summit Lake area in Greenbrier County after a report of human remains. The lake area is rural, wooded and separated from the Richwood home where Ayla and Staci Wind had been living. Investigators said they found a shallow grave holding a body later identified as Ayla. Nearby, police said they found a burn pit with human bones, debris and a yellow cellphone matching the description of Ayla’s phone. Troopers also reported finding charcoal and wood chips at the scene. The grave itself contained a burned tarp and what appeared to be a sheet with blood on it. Two ferns had been placed over the burial site, a detail police later connected to items found in Staci Wind’s truck.
The next part of the case moved back to Richwood. State police searched the Riverside Drive home on May 23. Investigators said chemical tests indicated human blood stains in several parts of the house. They said they found blood in Ayla’s room and bloody handprints on a wall. They also reported finding a mattress that had been cut up and had blood on it, even though Staci Wind allegedly told investigators that Ayla’s mattress had been given away. Police also searched Staci Wind’s pickup truck. According to the complaint, two plant baskets in the truck bed matched the size and shape of ferns found on the grave. A manual for a booster seat in the truck matched a booster seat tied to the burial area, police said. Those findings became part of the probable-cause account supporting the murder charge.
Staci Wind also gave investigators an account of her own trip to Summit Lake. Police said she told them she bought charcoal, wood chips and lighter fluid before going to the lake on May 16, one day after Ayla was last reported seen. She said she camped in her truck there, according to the criminal complaint. Investigators have not publicly said whether anyone else was at the lake with her. They also have not said when they believe Ayla died. The complaint leaves several questions open, including the exact manner of death, whether the burning happened before or after the remains were moved, and what police believe was the reason for the killing. Sgt. Douglas Gordon said investigators were still examining a possible motive and expected more work in the case.
Staci Wind was arrested May 23 at a Riverside Drive residence and taken to Central Regional Jail. Early jail records listed her as being held without bond. She was charged with first-degree murder, and later reports of online court records said the case also included a second-degree murder count. She pleaded not guilty. The first court step that could have tested probable cause in public testimony did not happen because Staci Wind waived her preliminary hearing. That moved the case to Nicholas County Circuit Court, where prosecutors can present the matter to a grand jury. A grand jury could indict her on the same charges, different charges or no charge. If indicted, the case would move closer to trial, where prosecutors would have to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case has also drawn attention beyond Richwood because the family’s roots stretch back to Utah. Reports from Utah and Idaho outlets described the Winds as a family originally from Utah and said relatives had expected the move back west. The fundraising page said donations would support travel and memorial costs and help relatives care for those left behind, including a young child. It also said Ayla had been “tragically murdered” while in West Virginia with her mother. The public statements from family have focused on bringing Ayla home, remembering her and supporting her child. They have not claimed to know why she was killed. Police, too, have avoided publicly naming a motive while the case remains active.
The contrast between the planned move and the police evidence has become the core of the case. Ayla Wind was described by relatives as someone preparing for a new start. Police described a trail that moved from a missing-person report to a burn site, a grave, a blood-marked home and a truck with items they say linked the two places. Boggs said Staci Wind seemed concerned when she made the report, but “wasn’t frantic or anything like that.” That observation is now part of the public record surrounding a case in which the first call for help came from the person police later arrested. For investigators, the case now depends less on the first story told at the police department and more on the physical evidence gathered after Ayla’s remains were found.
Authorities have not released a final cause of death, and the motive remains unknown. As of June 21, Staci Wind’s case is pending in Nicholas County Circuit Court, with grand jury action expected as the next major step.
Author note: Last updated June 21, 2026.