KEY POINTS

  • Michael Lee Dudley is facing murder charges for allegedly killing two individuals in June
  • The remains of Jessica Lewis and Austin Wenner were found stuffed inside a suitcase
  • Charging documents said Dudley and the couple got into an argument after they failed to pay rent
  • The couple rented a room from Dudley during the city's quarantine times
  • The suitcase was discovered by a group of teenagers at Duwamish Head

A Washington State resident is facing murder charges after authorities made a grisly discovery on the deaths of two individuals in June.

Michael Lee Dudley was arrested at his home in Burien last Wednesday, June 19, for allegedly killing 35-year-old Jessica Lewis and 27-year-old Austin Wenner. The couple rented a room from Dudley amid the city's quarantine period, Fox News reported.

The 62-year-old Dudley was then involved in a dispute with the couple when they failed to pay rent. While no motive was established by the police, charging documents said Dudley was also furious at the couple for “bringing potential criminal activity to the Ambaum home.”

Dudley was interviewed and booked into the King County Jail after his arrest. His bail was then set at $5 million.

Handcuffs
The representational photo shows a handcuffed man at the police headquarters in Lille, northern France, Nov. 29, 2018. Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images

The remains of Lewis and Wenner were discovered after a group of teens noticed a suitcase while on a scavenger hunt at Duwamish Head. Q13 Fox said they opened the bag and found plastic trash bags containing human remains.

The teens then called the police and reported what they saw. The outlet added that they waited for several hours before authorities arrived and that the suitcase was nearly towed back to sea.

Seattle Police homicide detectives and the King County Medical Examiner's Office later identified the remains as Lewis and Wenner.

“I couldn't believe that was their story because I'd been it trying to look for them... Not in a million years did I think that was them. I want to believe they didn't suffer,” Gina Jaschke, Jessica's aunt, told Q13 Fox.

Jaschke added that she was initially told that the couple was shot to death, but later succumbed to the macabre truth at how they really died.

The suitcases belonged to Dudley, detectives said, while the Medical Examiner's Office ruled the couple's deaths as homicide. Both died from gunshot wounds.

A witness who was moving into Dudley's home in June told the Seattle Times that she noticed Dudley had broken eyeglasses and had scratches on him when he helped her with her belongings. Police reports also said she saw “heaps of clothing” in the middle of the room with a “hand sticking out from underneath.”

Dudley was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, the paper added.

RELATED STORIES