Landlord found guilty of killing tenants in US mutilating their bodies before disposing of remains in suitcases
Dec 9, 2022 7:07 am
(updated at 08:06)
The bodies of Jessica Lewis and Austin Wenner were found in two suitcases by teenagers
Photo: BBC News Brazil
A landlord has been found guilty of the murders of two tenants across the United States in a case that made headlines when TikTok refused to remove video of the victims’ bodies being discovered.
Michael Dudley, 64, has been convicted of the murders of Jessica Lewis, 35, and Austin “Cash” Wenner, 27.
In June 2020, he shot victims and mutilated their bodies before disposing of their remains in two suitcases.
Later that month, three teenagers filming videos for TikTok on a Seattle beach found the bodies.
While they were talking on the promenade, they saw a pair of suitcases lying on the rocks. When they opened them, they found the bodies.
The teens posted the video on TikTok, which quickly went viral.
In the pictures, they are fascinated by what is in the bags. Then one of the suitcases appears open and one of the girls calls the police because of the strong odor being exhaled. There are no pictures of the bodies.
The discovery video has been viewed more than 30 million times, but TikTok initially said the content didn’t violate its policies “because it didn’t include images of the remains.”
Pressured by the victims’ families, the company removed the video from the platform a few months later although it is not known whether it was deleted by TikTok or by the teenager who posted it.
The three teenagers called the police after finding the bags, leading to the murder investigation.
A neighbor testified in a Seattle court that he heard gunshots and a man pleading for his life.
The police first went to the house, but no one answered. Dudley was later arrested.
Court documents show that Lewis and Wenner had a dispute over an unpaid rent with Dudley, in whose house they lived.
Dudley’s sentence will be announced in March he faces life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
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