Ice Cold Killers on ID is investigating the 2013 murder of Kira Steger in her home by husband Jeffrey Trevino, who, after murdering his wife, then dumped her body into the Mississippi River near their home in St. Paul, Minnesota.
On February 24, 2013, Trevino reported that his wife was missing; he telephoned the St. Paul police when her coworkers became concerned that she hadn’t turned up for work the previous day. He told the cops that Steger had left for the gym two days beforehand on the morning of the 22nd, and she hadn’t been seen since.
Steger’s car was found abandoned at a mall parking lot, and chillingly, her blood was located in the trunk. A bloody trunk liner was also discovered on an embankment near the car. Tellingly, the investigators also found blank divorce papers.
Steger’s family and friends embarked on an extensive search for the 30-year-old, but their worst fears were realized when 11 weeks later, her remains were found floating in the Mississippi River by a barge in downtown St. Paul.
She was identified using dental records. And an autopsy revealed she’d been in a struggle; she had a broken finger and large cuts to her face.
The investigators learned that the relationship between Steger and Trevino had hit a rocky patch. Steger had told family and friends that she wanted to leave. She had even asked her father to help her out with the rent on a new apartment. She was also having an affair with another man.
The pair had persevered and had even gone on a date night on February 21. On their return home, Steger had sent a text message to her boyfriend and was not heard from again.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelThe evidence mounted against Jeffery Trevino in Kira Steger murder
The police concluded that Trevino murdered her. He admitted to taking Steger’s car out for gas in the middle of the night on the 21st, but surveillance footage showed him driving the car in the opposite direction to home on leaving the gas station. The investigators believe he had Steger’s remains in the trunk.
Steger’s car was then recorded the following morning, arriving at the mall parking lot where it was abandoned. A taxi then returned to the Trevino/Steger home. The police concluded that Trevino was driving the car, so they arrested him for murder.
Trevino has always maintained his innocence. His attorney argued that Steger’s occasional marijuana use might have caused her to run afoul of a drug dealer. But the jury wasn’t buying this argument.
In the fall of 2015, a Ramsey County jury found Trevino guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, but he was acquitted of intentional murder. He was sentenced to 27.5 years. His shameful treatment of Steger’s remains after she died influenced the judge in deciding a sentence.
District Judge Leonardo Castro said: “Jeffery Trevino, it is my belief on some level that you probably did not set out to kill Ms. Steger,” but the way he treated her remains was “dishonorable, depraved and malicious.”
More from Investigation Discovery
Follow the links to read about more murders profiled on ID.
Investigators began to get suspicious when the women in Steven Catlin’s life began mysteriously dying. They learned that he’d poisoned two of his wives and his mother and is suspected of killing his father.
Theophilus Brooks brutally murdered Erica Vassell after a Super Bowl party in Clewiston, Florida, in 2011. He then dumped her remains by the side of the road in a neighboring county.
Ice Cold Killers: Ice Breaker airs at 8/7c on Investigation Discovery.