Teens find bodies while filming a TikTok video

In short
On 19 June 2020 two girls filming a TikTok video at Duwamish Head, Seattle, found a suitcase containing human remains. They belonged to Jessica Lewis, 35, and Austin Wenner, 27. The couple had been killed by their landlord, Michael Lee Dudley, who was sentenced in 2023 to more than 46 years in prison.

Two Seattle teenagers were filming a video for the popular social network TikTok when they made a gruesome discovery.

The discovery at Duwamish Head

On 19 June 2020 two young girls set out to film a video for TikTok, a sort of scavenger hunt of the kind that was trendy at the time with apps such as Randonautica. They went to the Duwamish Head waterfront, the northernmost tip of West Seattle overlooking Elliott Bay, where they spotted a suitcase wedged among the rocks, giving off a foul smell.

While one girl filmed, the other opened it with a stick. Inside were plastic bags, and when they opened one, decomposing human remains appeared before their eyes. The two immediately called 911. Next to the suitcase police also found a duffel bag with more remains, and a few days later sheriff’s deputies recovered a third bag from the Duwamish River. The bodies had been dismembered.

The girls’ video went viral, passing 30 million views. Fortunately, the two had nothing to do with the crime and were quickly ruled out of the investigation.

The victims

On 30 June the King County Medical Examiner identified the remains. They belonged to a Washington couple, Jessica Lewis, 35, a mother of four, and her partner Austin “Cash” Wenner, 27. They had been together for about eight years. Both had been shot dead. Jessica’s family described her as a ray of sunshine, Austin’s as a young man with a big heart who loved the outdoors, country music, campfires, dogs and his Jessica.

The landlord

At first there were no suspects, and the families appealed to anyone who knew something to come forward. The breakthrough came on 19 August 2020 with the arrest of Michael Lee Dudley, 62, of Burien. Lewis and Wenner rented a room in his home. On 24 August he was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and held on $5 million bail.

According to prosecutors, on 9 June 2020 Dudley shot the couple in the back, then dismembered the bodies, packed them into a suitcase and several bags and dumped them in Elliott Bay and the Duwamish River. That day neighbours had heard gunshots and a man’s voice begging to be allowed to leave.

Trial and sentence

After a two-month trial before Judge Aimée Sutton and a day and a half of deliberations, on 8 December 2022 the jury found him guilty of both murders. On 7 April 2023 Dudley, by then 65, was sentenced to 560 months in prison, more than 46 years. In court he kept claiming his innocence, while Jessica’s aunt called him a coward for shooting two young people in the back.

It’s hard to imagine what those two girls felt opening that suitcase, perhaps expecting some kind of treasure. Their video, though, meant that Jessica and Austin were found and that their killer did not go unpunished.

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