warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
police are at the morning tree park apartment complex after reports of a dead body in the area.lying next to the dumpster is a body with multiple stabwounds,so brutally beaten that it’s nearly unrecognizable.
officers immediately suspected that one of the tenants in the complex was the killer ,but they would be horribly wrong.a violent , unpredictable teen killer was on the loose and police needed to find him before he murders again …
in the early morning of july 30,2023, lakewood police received a caller reported finding something next to a dumpster,describing it as gruesome.
officers wereq quickly dispatched to investigate.
while dumpster diving, ted had come across blood leaking out from under the dumpster .when he looked inside, he found an elderly man lying lifeless, bloodied and beaten until his face was no longer recognizable.
officers now needed to identify both the victim and the person responsible.
fortunately , there was someone at the complex who could help them with the former.this is ryan. the apartment complex manager and he’s going to be vital in finding out who the victim actually is.
the officers finally had a name, leonard .but that doesn’t solve their biggest problem.
leonard suffered from extreme paranoia and refused to have any form of identification associated with the government.
without proper identification, the investigation would soon become a lot more challenging. still, officers would search their system, hoping something might come up.
while officers continued searching the database for possible matches, others went to check the supposed victim’s apartment and with help from the manager,they quickly got the key.
after a quick look around the apartment,leonard was nowhere to be found.
at the same time,officers had just just matched the victim’s face to leonard’s image using police database , to there was no doubt now.
the victim was 64 year old leonard williams.
neighbors and staff described leonard as a friendly and compassionate person allthough he often kept to himself,he was known to be extremely kind to fellow residents .
but the investigation was far from over.officer still had to determine who was behind the brutal attack and why.
back at the scene ,one officer had discovered some crucial evidence that would bring the police one step closer to the killer.
this officer just picked up on something crucial ,the area around the dumpster was extremely messy and blood was leaking from it.
any person would have easily spotted that,let alone an officer.
turns out just 12 hours earlier ,police had been dispatched to that same apartment complex on a noise disturbance complaint.the call was made around 8 :00 p.m. and the responding officers dash cam shows him returning to his vehicle by walking through the side path.
the exact one that leads up to the dumpster where leonard was found.
the officer didn’t notice any leaking blood or hear suspecious commotion,which means that whatever had occurred had happened after the officer left.
from this,the timeline of the murder was vastly narrowed .but more importantly,the disturbance call that the officer responded to had been made about a group of teenagers from the apartment complex unit J54.
according to the manager ,this group was well known for partying several days of the week and not paying their rent on time.
however, little did they know that the police would catch on to what they were doing at last night’s party….
and why there was a dead body just a few feet away from their apartment.
as this was the only lead the police had, a search warrant for unit J54 was issued and officers quickly arrived at the residence looking for any signs of foul play.
when officers arrived ,elina, jayden were found inside the apartment. one of the teens named Ty seemed to have fled when officers arrived.
and was nowhere to be found in the unit. his friends claimed he went to the corner store to buy some snacks, but officers would soon discover that was a complete lie.
for now though, officers decided to interview the group , unaware one of them was about to confess to the gruesome details…
…of lenoard’s murder.
officers were about to interview the teens who remained in the apartment,suspecting they know more than they’ve let on.
with these two new crucial statements, police now had two suspects at large ,”chubbs” and “Ty”with their primary focus being on 17 year old brody chubbs.
according to elina,brody had two bottles of tequilla and was also high on marijuana the previous night.to make matthers worse, he had a reputation for getting violent when drunk.
at some point ,he briefly stepped outside the apartment and happened to cross paths with leonard in the parking lot.
leonard may have confronted him about the loud music,or given his paranoia, he might have simply been talking to himself.either way brody likely saw him as an easy target , and leonard became the victim of his violent outburst.
elina, was also the first to mention something even more disturbing.brody had recorded the entire thing on snapchat. he filmed himself beating and stabbing leonard to death, then sent the video to friends at the party.
with brody as their prime suspect,officers remained on high alert,going so far as to request airsuport in search for him.in the meantime ,police were notified about a mail who was running around the morning tree complex.
he was identified to be trey christel, or ty,the one who fled from elina’s apartment when the officers had arrived with a search warrant.
shortly after confirming his identity, he agreed to speak with detectives.detectives needed to determine whether Ty had played any role in the murder.
and if he knew where brody was hiding.
according to Ty , he fled the apartment out of fear.although Ty’s statement aligned with those of other witnesses,police couldn’t definitively rule him out due to his suspicious behavior.
but for now , their priority was finding brody.
while the search was still ongoing,officers interviewed everyone who knew brody to find out where he might have fled,including two of his best friends,miguel ventura and dakota johnson.
while officers continued interviewing witnesses, brody had just been located hiding in his family home 40 minutes away in the city of Yelm.a SWAT team quckly descended on the residence, ready to take brody down if he made any wrong move.
brian and jeff,the first two to come out were brody’s friends,staytng in the apartment with him. the two claimed they didn’t have any knowledge of what was going on or why brody was being arrested.
the next one to come outwas their priamry target,brody himself.brody was finally escorted from the house and delivered into the hands of justice.
he was charged with assault and homicide in the first degree. he had originally plead not guilty,receiving a bail of$ 1.5 million.
neither Ty nor anyone else at the party was charged, as the snapchat video clearly shows that brody acted alone, consistent with witness statements.
althoug the exact motive for the murder remains unclear,brody’s extreme intoxication and welldocumented issues with aggression led to the tragic death of a kind and gentle person.
following his initial hearing ,brody returned to court and changed his plea to guilty.
he received the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.