NEW ORLEANS -- It's been one month since police found 16-year-old Kaylan Ward's dismembered body on Interstate 10 in New Orleans East.
There have been few leads until Monday. That is when New Orleans police announced they were looking to question Kwan Allen, 46, about the case.
"I'm just in shock. This is someone that we knew," said Kaylan Ward's mother, Kenisha Martin-Nelson.
Allen's wife runs Studio G Dance and Gymnastics Company in New Orleans East, the same studio where Kaylan Ward danced for years.
"No, he is not a suspect, but it just raises a red flag for me for them to want to question him," Martin-Nelson said. "What is it you could know or lead them to believe that you know?"
Police say Allen contacted investigators by phone on Tuesday. He told detectives he has an attorney, and on the advice of his attorney, he would not come in to talk to police.
"Why wouldn't you want to go down there and talk to them if you have nothing to hide?" Martin-Nelson said. "Especially for someone you say you love."
Ward's mother said her daughter was good friends with Allen's daughters and niece, but she said Allen's relationship with her daughter went beyond that. She said he gave her money and often gave her rides.
"I didn't like his relationship with teenage girls," Ward's mother said.
However, Allen tells a much different story.
"My relationship with her mother is a tarnished relationship. To me she fabricates things," Allen said. "I didn't have a relationship with Kaylan to the point where I was giving her anything but what a parent would give a child, love, and if she called, advice."
Allen said he was with his family and kids around the time Kaylan was killed and denies having any information about her death. He said he doesn't know why police want to talk to him.
"I'm innocent. I didn't do nothing to the child," Allen said. "I don't have more information relating to the child, her whereabouts or whatever happened to her in her last days."
Still, Ward's mother remains skeptical.
"It doesn't sense. How would you know what time she was being killed?" her mother said. "Because I don't. No one ever said that to me."
Police say they do not have the evidence or information to name anyone as a suspect at this time, including Kwan Allen.
However, Allen said the damage is done. He said he's received threats and that it's tarnished his reputation, as well as his wife's business.
