The man pictured above, Brady Oestrike, is suspected of murdering an eight-months-pregnant teenager and decapitating her boyfriend in a Craigslist sex arrangement gone horrifically wrong.
It is an unbelievably awful story. According to law enforcement officials in Michigan, 18-year-old Brooke Slocum connected with Oestrike through a Craigslist sex advertisement earlier this month.
Slocum and her boyfriend, Charles Oppenneer, reportedly left her Grand Rapids apartment to meet with the 31-year-old Oestrike in a park in Wyoming, Michigan at around midnight on July 12.
A few days after the encounter, police investigating Oppenneer’s abandoned car found his headless body in the park and declared Slocum missing.
Combing through Slocum’s Internet history, officials zeroed in on Oestrike, who worked as an electrical lineman, and executed a search warrant for his home in Wyoming. Oestrike fled his house, crashed his vehicle, and then shot and killed himself before cops could arrest him.
Slocum’s body was discovered in his trunk…
Investigators have now recovered material from Oestrike’s house suggesting that he held Slocum captive before murdering her.
A number of “assault-type” firearms were also reportedly discovered on the premises.
On Monday, Slocum’s family spoke publicly.
“We want to express our extreme love for Brooke… and Audi (Slocum’s unborn daughter), the truly innocent creation that was already so loved,” said the family in a statement. “We have no doubt that they are now dancing with Jesus.”
“Yes, Brooke had made previous mistakes within the world that is online, including those that led to her involvement… in this situation. Yes, the family tried to curtail, inform, protect and advise against the evils that this tragedy has brought forward. But God gave each of us free will, and that is something that no one can control. The secret part of Brooke’s life that none of us knew about is a testament to that.”
