WYOMING, Mich. – On Wednesday, police found the body of 25-year-old Charles Oppenneer in a wooded area off Gezon Court.
The search began when officers noticed his abandoned car sitting for several days.
Police immediately labeled the death a homicide, saying Oppenneer’s body may have been in the wooded area since Sunday.
"We’re covering all of our bases and we’re locating any evidence that could lead us to the person responsible," Captain Kim Koster of the Wyoming Department of Public Safety said at the time.
Then on Thursday, panic set in as police revealed Oppenner’s girlfriend - 18-year-old Brooke Slocum - had been missing as long as her murdered boyfriend.
"Obviously we’re very concerned because she was the last one who was seen with Charles," Koster said.
Even more frightening - Slocum was 8 months pregnant.
Her family joined in the desperate search.
Then around 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, police chased the suspect in a high-risk traffic stop.
"As we were waiting for a search of the home of that suspect, he did leave," Wyoming Police Chief James Carmody said Friday morning.
That chase ended in a crash in Grand Rapids - and the suspect taking his own life.
"The body of Brooke Slocum was found in the trunk," Carmody said.
He identified the deceased suspect as 31-year-old Brady Oestrike, a man Slocum had met on Craigslist.
"We want to be assured of a couple things," Carmody said at the Monday press conference. "First and foremost, that no one else acted in concert with him and that we have no other victims."
That investigation continues at Oestrike’s Wyoming home, where several police agencies have been working around the clock.
"We believe that`s going to take some time," Carmody said.
Now serious questions as to what’s inside Oestrike’s home that has kept police there every minute since Slocum’s body was found. What has Oestrike done in the past? What was he planning to do in the future?
And there's curiosity as to why police remain so tight-lipped - still not revealing when Slocum, Oppenner, and their baby were killed, what their conditions where when they were found or how they died.
"This is a tragedy of the worst kind. We had three victims," Carmody said.
The Wyoming Department of Public Safety plans to update the case again on Tuesday.
