A Jefferson County grand jury has indicted a Birmingham man accused of killing the mother of his child more than two years ago, reopening a case that began with a missing woman and ended with her six-year-old daughter losing her mother. Maria Sebastian Juan was 27 when she was last seen in Birmingham's Southside area, and her body was found a day later inside a south Birmingham apartment.
According to WBRC, Juan was last seen around 8 p.m. on September 19, 2024, before she was reported missing by authorities. The following day, Birmingham police responded to a welfare check at The Hillside Apartment Complex on 17th Street South and found Juan dead inside an apartment there.
Birmingham police arrested Tremayne Dawon King on September 24, 2024, and charged him with intentional murder in Juan's death, the station's report states. King and Juan shared a child together, according to AL.com, and that child was only six years old at the time her mother died.
What Court Records Say About the Cause of Death
Court records cited by the same WBRC report say Juan died from strangulation and a blunt force injury. AL.com, reporting separately in the days after the killing, said court records made public at the time indicated Juan died of blunt force trauma and/or strangulation. The exact wording of the medical findings has not been resolved in the available reporting.
Juan's mother told WBRC she had warned her daughter that King would kill her. She said she was devastated because she believed her fears had come true, a statement that underscores the toll the case has taken on the family in the two years since Juan's death.
A City Grappling With a Violent Stretch
Juan's killing came during an especially violent period in Jefferson County. The AL.com report on Juan's killing was published September 25, 2024. At the time, the county had recorded 139 homicides, with roughly 100 in Birmingham. That tally was a snapshot from the days just after Juan's body was found, not a final count for the year or a reflection of current crime trends.
The indictment marks a new legal step in a case that has stretched well beyond its initial headlines. No information is available in current reporting about King's plea or the status of his case moving forward, leaving the next steps in the prosecution still to play out.
