Authorities have made an arrest after they found the remains of two people who were murdered and stuffed into suitcases on a beach in West Seattle.
Killed by their landlord
According to KING-5, the 62-year-old suspect, Michael Dudley, was arrested last week on suspicion of shooting the 27-year-old victim Austin Wenner and 35-year-old victim Jessica Lewis.
The authorities stated that ten days before their remains were found, the neighbors reported hearing shouting and gunshots from the home of the suspect. But when the authorities arrived, he did not answer the door.
Back in June, a couple of teenagers were filming a TikTok video at Duwamish Head in Seattle when they found a suitcase. They opened it to find plastic bags inside.
After the witnesses called the police, investigators confirmed that the bags contained human remains and they found another bag of remains in the water.
According to KOMO News, the autopsies showed that Wenner had been shot in the torso and Lewis had been shit multiple times.
KING-5 was able to get a copy of the court documents showing that the victims had been renting a room from Dudley at his home, and a dispute over rent resulted in a double murder.
The suspect is now being held on a $5 million bail for double homicide.
Similar incident
In June 2020, the body of 25-year-old Christina Gribbin was found inside a suitcase dumped on a Kensington street. According to the police, the woman was dead at the scene.
At the time, authorities said that the victim is white, but did not specify anything else. No age or even immediate cause of death was given. Police called the death suspicious.
In July 2020, an arrest was finally made. The murderer, Aaron Mosher from New Jersey, was arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy, tampering with evidence, abuse of corpse and obstruction of justice.
An attorney representing Mosher, Jef Henninger, said that his client did not kill the woman and he argued that based on the information that was gathered, the woman died of natural causes and not at the hands of Mosher or anyone else.
Gribbin had two sons, and she lived in Honey Brook. She graduated from Twin Valley High School and studied LPN nursing at Columbia College of Missouri.
In July 2020, a tenant decapitated his landlord after a rent dispute. The 42-year-old Jerry Thompson was arrested after the authorities found the decapitated body of his roommate, Victor King.
The two had a dispute over rent, and King called 911 to report that Thompson had been threatening him and terrorizing him with a sword. According to a warrant, King gave the officers Thompson's cell phone number, but it did not say if the police talked to Thompson at all.
According to CNN, the police received calls from a neighbor and from King's friend who were concerned about his safety. The police entered the residence, and they found King's body on the floor.
The medical examiner investigator's preliminary observations suggested that the victim's injuries were caused by a massive edged weapon that caused lacerations to his right arm, upper chest and across his neck, causing decapitation.
Thompson is now detained with a $2 million bond.
