Local News

Elsa Segura Charged With Luring Slain Real Estate Agent Monique Baugh Into Home

January 17, 2020 / 4:37 PM CST / CBS Minnesota

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A woman who had worked as a probation officer is accused of luring a real estate agent to a Minnesota house before the agent was kidnapped and killed on New Year's Eve, prosecutors alleged Friday.

Elsa Segura, 28, of Fridley, was charged Friday in Hennepin County court with one count of kidnapping. Segura is accused of luring 28-year-old Monique Baugh to a home that was for sale. Two men are accused of kidnapping Baugh in a rental truck.

Segura allegedly tried to lure Baugh to the Maple Grove home on Dec. 30, but Baugh with with another real estate agent.

Baugh was found fatally shot, her hands bound by tape, in a north Minneapolis alley on Dec. 31. Her boyfriend was shot in the couple's Minneapolis home with their two young daughters present but survived.

Two men are accused of kidnapping Baugh from Maple Grove, a northwestern Minneapolis suburb, in a rental truck. Cedric Berry, 41, was charged earlier this month with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and kidnapping. Another man, Berry Davis, 40, of Brooklyn Park was charged late Thursday with one count each of second-degree murder and kidnapping for his alleged role in the case. Davis was charged by arrest warrant and is not in custody.

Segura does not have an attorney listed for her case. A phone message left for Berry's public defender for comment was not immediately returned Friday.

Hennepin County authorities confirmed to a local newspaper that Segura had worked as a county probation officer. Court records also show that Segura was a child survivor of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis in August 2007 that killed 13 people and injured 145 others.

According to the charges against Segura and Davis, Baugh received a voice mail from an unknown phone number on Dec. 29 from a woman named "Lisa" who requested a showing for a home. The caller said she wanted the showing "maybe tomorrow morning."

Baugh later received several calls from the number and "found this very odd," the charges said.

"She expressed to others that she did not know how this person obtained her personal phone number," according to the complaint..

Police traced the phone number to Segura, whose voice was "verified by law enforcement personnel who were personally familiar with her."

A search warrant executed on the phone found that it was purchased on Dec. 29. It was not used for any other calls between Dec. 29 and Jan. 3, 2020. Video showed that Berry purchased the phone, the charges said.

Jon Collins, a spokesman for the Hennepin County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said Segura worked for the county from June 2014 to Dec. 18, 2019.

The charges did not specify a motive, but search warrant affidavits tied Baugh's killing to a suspected drug rivalry between her boyfriend and Berry. Baugh's boyfriend said in a interview that he did not know Berry.