A Wisconsin teenager was arrested in Iowa, more than 800 miles from the house where his mother and stepfather were found killed, the authorities announced on Tuesday.
The minor was arrested for leaving a stop panel in Wakeneney, Iowa, at 11:25 p.m. on Friday, Wakeney’s police chief Michael Romero said in a statement.
“The subject was placed in police custody without any other incident. The subject was identified and was discovered as a wisconsin minor,” added Romero. “The subject is a person interested in a double homicide that this office of the Wisconsin sheriffs always investigates.”
Romero refused to appoint the driver, but the Waukesha county prosecutors identified the teenager as a student from Waukesha West in 17 years.
Friday afternoon, the boy’s mother and her husband were found fatally slaughtered in their home in Waukesha when local authorities made a social protection check.
The woman’s face “was blackened with decomposition with dried blood on the ground around her”, according to the criminal complaint filed against the adolescent.
The woman’s husband was also found at home “covered by a heap of clothes” with “an obvious injury at the back of” her head, said the complaint.
The teenager was accused of having taken his Volkswagen Atlas stepfather and a firearm.
The victims were identified as Donald Mayer and his wife, Tatiana Casap, who was the mother of the teenager, said Mayer’s mother at NBC News.
Donald Mayer, 51, and Casap had been married for nine years after their online meeting when she lived in Moldova, said mother Judith Mayer.
“Donald had no other children, so when he got married, he liked to have a son, and they made father-son stuff,” said Judith Mayer. “They went in all kinds of places, to the beach, to the ball games, to all these kinds of things.”
Judith Mayer said that she was impressed by the speed with which Casap’s son had picked up English from scratch and that she does not remember tensions between him and his son.
The adolescent had a perfect attendance before not running for lessons for two weeks, which caused the request for social protection check for school officials, according to the criminal complaint.
“He did very well at school, has obtained good marks,” said Juidth Mayer. “He was calm and polite. The teachers never mentioned that there was something wrong.”
A family neighbor saw the 17-year-old driving her stepfather Volkswagen on February 23, the complaint said.
The mobile phone pings have shown that he had left Waukesha around 10 am on February 24 and “took a general route through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado,” said prosecutors.
He visited the largest truck in the world in Walcott, Iowa, from 2:250 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. the day he left Waukesha, said the mobile phones records said.
Nearby security cameras have shown that the teenager, accompanied by the little black dog from the family, driving the Volkswagen Atlas, said a justice document.
The files found at the victims’ home showed that Mayer had a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, which the police did not find at home.
The weapon, the driving licenses of the victims and the shells of shells spent were all found in the Atlas, prosecutors said.
Judith Mayer said her son had the pistol to protect himself but knew no threats in progress.
Mayer and her stepson both had green thumbs and liked working outside together.
“He (Mayer) loved the flowers,” said Judith Mayer. “There was always a lot of planting of flowers and trees. Each time he was going to do anything, he always asked (Casap’s son) to come with him and that they worked together.”
