Somali man sentenced to 30 years for kidnapping resulting in death

Thursday May 7, 2026

Missouri (AX) — A Somali national has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after being convicted in the kidnapping of a woman whose body was later found in a roadside ditch in Missouri, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Mahamud Tooxoow Mahamed, 44, received the sentence from U.S. District Judge Megan B. Benton in a case that ended with the death of a woman identified in court records as J.M.

According to prosecutors, J.M.’s body was discovered on July 29, 2019, near Missouri Highway 59 after a passerby noticed a pink suitcase in a ditch with feet sticking out. Authorities said the woman’s body was badly decomposed and lay beside the suitcase.

Investigators later connected Mahamed to the killing through DNA evidence. Court filings said J.M.’s blood was found on multiple items recovered from a vehicle used by both the victim and Mahamed.

Authorities said J.M. was last seen alive on July 16, 2019, when police responded to a disturbance at her apartment. During a 911 call, J.M. told dispatchers that Mahamed had held a knife to her throat and tried to force her into sex. She also said she feared for the safety of her three young children, who were in the apartment with him at the time.

The next day, J.M. and her children were reported missing after relatives and others could not reach her. The children were eventually found on Aug. 8, 2019, at a home in Des Moines, Iowa.

Prosecutors said Mahamed left the children in Iowa and then fled the United States. He remained at large until Guatemalan authorities expelled him to the United States on July 27, 2021.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller and investigated by the FBI, the McDonald County Sheriff’s Department in Missouri, the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota and the Des Moines Police Department in Iowa.