- Asia Maynard died after going on a
date with a man she met at a gas station, her family said. - Kansas City Police said they are looking into the case as a
death investigation, and no foul play was suspected.
Growing up in Kansas City,
"She loved family. She loved her kids. She loved to cook. She was a real down-to-earth person," Maynard said about the mother of four. " She was always the person that tried to talk to you and resolve the issue if you had one."
Asia died on Saturday, Feb. 19, following a date with a man she met at a gas station, her sister said, which has raised a number of questions for her family, and has renewed broader conversation about how deaths of Black women are handled by authorities.
Maynard said the last time she spoke with her sister was the night before when Asia told her she was going on a date with a man — who identified himself as "Elijah" from Florida.
She said her sister planned to come over the next day, but no one had heard from her. According to Maynard, Asia's oldest daughter tried to contact her mother for hours, and her phone eventually started going straight to voicemail.
When she realized she couldn't reach her, Maynard tried to file a missing person's report with the Kansas City Police Department, but it was less than 72 hours. An officer then came to her home, who she said also told her she needed to wait before filing.
During this time, she said, she reached out to the hospitals in the area to see if her sister was admitted while the officer checked for her name in the database. However, Maynard said she later learned from police that Asia was found "in a friend's house" and "she passed in her sleep" from natural causes.
"I didn't feel like it was correct because I'm like she's still young to die of natural causes," she told Insider, emphasizing that her sister had no health issues. "She was only 29 years old. So how did she die of natural causes? I didn't believe it."
She added, "All her belongings were in her car. Her keys, her purse, and her phone were in her car. And I was trying to figure out why was I her belongings in the car if she spent the night with this guy?"
Maynard said she initially wasn't allowed to identify her sister's body until she called the funeral home. The family had no contact with the man she went on a date with, but she did have a photo of him that Asia sent her before she had a date with him.
Maynard then posted the picture online in a desperate attempt for information. She told Insider she received a deluge of information from people — much of it conjecture and unsubstantiated allegations — but, she said, at least she was getting somewhere.
The family has hired a lawyer and created a GoFundMe to hire a private investigator and conduct an independent autopsy into Asia's cause of death.
Police told Insider 'no foul play was suspected,' and Asia's manner of death is considered 'accidental.'
Kansas City Police told Insider that the case is considered a death investigation and that the medical examiner ruled the manner of "death as accidental."
"Detectives investigated the death as well as any other individuals potentially involved, and there has been no change in their evaluation that there is no foul play suspected," a spokesperson said.
A copy of the medical examiner's report obtained by Insider said that the cause of death was "combined fentanyl and ethanol intoxication." The report also noted "no signs of injury or trauma."
Maynard, however, disagrees with how authorities have investigated the case.
"They never told us anything...how they're handling this whole situation is not appropriate," Maynard said. "If I wouldn't have ever had that picture, we wouldn't have even got as far as we got now with the gentleman. We'd never know as much information as we know now because the police wouldn't give us none of that information."
Asia's death spotlights the unique harm Black women face
Last year, the FBI released data that revealed that roughly four Black women and girls were killed per day in 2020. And a 2020 study by The Institute for Women's Policy Research shows that Black women are more likely to face harm from men compared to their counterparts.
Asia Maynard's case came to light following the call for justice for other Black women — Lauren-Smith Fields and Brenda Rawls, both of Connecticut — whose families say they died under suspicious circumstances after dates with men.
Smith-Fields, a 23-year-old social media influencer, was found dead in her apartment on December 12 after going on a date with "an older white man" who she connected with on Bumble. Rawls,53, died on the same day as Smith-Fields after her family said she went to a man's home down the street from where she lived. Like Asia, both families criticized the police response to their loved ones' cases.
"I really miss her. It's just really messed up," Maynard said. "And she had four beautiful kids that would never be able to see their mom ever again."