A Minneapolis realtor was abducted and murdered by a drug dealer in retaliation for a dispute he had with her boyfriend.
Police say Monique Baugh, a 28-year-old mother of two, was shot and killed in an alleyway on Jan. 1, 2020.
Baugh, a real estate agent, was lured to an empty Maple Grove home under the pretense of showing the house on New Year’s Day.
Two men rented a U-Haul truck for a friend Cedric Berry, a drug dealer who paid them in heroin.
Surveillance video from across the street shows Baugh arrive and park at the home around 3 p.m. in a black BMW. She was seen going inside the house to prepare for the showing.
According to an affidavit, the U-Haul passed the house and a person was seen walking into the home.
The U-Haul then pulled up to the house and backed up to the garage doors. Two men were seen walking out of the garage “and appeared to be closely, if not forcibly, holding onto a third person,” according to the affidavit.
Two people were seen getting into the back of the U-Haul at about 3:20 p.m., and a third person drove it away. Police later found Baugh’s BMW still parked at the empty Maple Grove house.
The U-Haul was abandoned in an alley where Baugh’s body was found. The truck “smelled strongly of ammonia,” according to the complaint.
The U-Haul truck was traced to the men who rented it, and they gave up Berry’s name. Berry was arrested on Jan. 2.
A search warrant was executed on Berry’s vehicle. Police found 13 bags of marijuana. And a black mask.
Berry was charged with kidnapping and second-degree murder in Baugh’s death. Baugh’s boyfriend, a rival drug dealer, was also shot on New Year’s Day, but he survived the shooting.
Berry is also charged with second-degree murder for attempting to kill Baugh’s boyfriend, the father of her two children.
The boyfriend told police a man entered his home using a key, and shot him several times in the torso. The children, ages 1 and 3, were inside the home at the time. They were not injured.
A GofundMe account created to help Baugh’s children raised over $30,000 in donations.
