Couple Killed After Meeting Stranger Through Craigslist

A pregnant Michigan teenager was strangled and her boyfriend was decapitated after apparently connecting with a stranger through Craigslist for a sexual encounter, police said yesterday. Emails indicate that Brooke Slocum, 18 and eight months pregnant, connected with the suspect, 31-year-old Brady Oestrike, through a Craigslist ad and arranged a sexual encounter where her boyfriend, Charles Oppenneer, 25, would be present, according to investigators. Oppenneer was found decapitated in a park Wednesday; Slocum, who police say was held captive before her death, was found Thursday in the trunk of Oestrike's car.

Police got a search warrant for Oestrike's home after finding Oppenneer's body, and the suspect fled. He fatally shot himself after crashing his car, after which police found Slocum's body. The police chief in Wyoming, a Grand Rapids suburb, says it has been a "hellish environment" for officers as they investigated the various crime scenes, including Oestrike's home. Oppenneer's head has not been found. It's likely he died of some kind of head trauma, but that couldn't be determined without his head being found, police said. (In Kansas City, a couple was shot while looking at a car they found on Craigslist.)