MERAUX, La. — An Arizona man who briefly worked for the Arizona Department of Child Safety is in St. Bernard Parish jail, after allegedly killing an 18-year-old woman who he met while she was receiving assistance from DCS. 

According to WWL-TV, the deceased woman, Angela Molden, was a resident of Meraux, Louisiana and deputies say she was stabbed to death by 31-year-old Dexter Muntongerwa. 

Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann says the deadly stabbing took place in Muntongerwa's car outside of Molden's mother’s home in the 3300 block of Nancy Drive.

Molden’s mother, Andrea Porter, says her daughter was beautiful and had a big heart.

“She loved everybody...she especially loved her family,” Porter said. “She was a typical 18-year-old. She was just trying to get her life together. Just bought a car two weeks ago and was getting a job. We were so proud of her.”

Sunday night around midnight, Kenner police responded to a single car accident on I-10 near the Loyola Drive exit.

They found Mutongerwa with a cut on his hand and Molden in the back seat with multiple stab wounds.

“The initial statements he made was to the Kenner Police Department and a subsequent interview by our detectives,” Sheriff Pohlmann said. “He also confessed to our detectives about his involvement in the death of the 18-year-old victim.”

Molden moved to the Phoenix area with her father after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

She returned home to Meraux two years ago.

Porter said her daughter knew Mutongerwa well as he'd met her while he was employed by the Arizona Department of Child Safety.

Though Porter identified Mutongerwa as her daughter's former case manager, Arizona's Department of Child Safety maintains that Mutongerwa was never a case worker, and had only been employed with the agency for a brief time.

A representative of Arizona's DCS told WBRZ, "Angela Molden was in DCS custody in 2019 for under 96 hours after she showed up at a local DCS office indicating she had no caregiver locally. DCS arranged transportation to return her to her guardian in Louisiana. Arizona DCS cross reported the incident to child services in Louisiana."

Despite Molden's very brief interaction with Arizona's DCS, which is apparently when Molden and Mutongerwa met, Porter says Mutongerwa remained in touch with her daughter. 

“He always kept in contact with her and he was infatuated with her,” Porter said. “Always would send her money. Always text her, call her at least three or four times a week.”

According to Porter, this wasn’t the first time Mutongerwa drove from Arizona to visit her daughter.

The mother added, he wasn’t happy that she was dating someone.

“I think he just snapped,” Porter said. “I think he just couldn’t get what he wanted and he snapped. He wanted more of a relationship. She did not. He didn’t want to accept that.”

Porter hopes Muntongerwa now gets what he deserves in prison.

If convicted of second-degree murder, he would face a mandatory life sentence.

“Clearly a violent, a very violent encounter between the suspect and the victim,” Pohlmann said. “Cases like this are unusual here in St. Bernard Parish.”

Anyone with information regarding this murder is asked to call the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Bureau’s tip hotline at (504) 271-TIPS or 8477 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.