A 19-year-old woman was found dead in the trunk of her boyfriend’s vehicle in front of his north Wichita apartment near Wichita State.
The Wichita Police Department (WPD) has arrested 22-year-old Alexander Lewis on a first-degree murder charge resulting from a domestic violence incident that fatally injured the victim.
Police spokesperson Juan Rebolledo said the police are not releasing the victim’s name until notifying her family.
According to Rebolledo, 911 dispatch received a call from a 911 operator from North Carolina reporting a possible homicide in the Wichita area; the North Carolina operator had received a call from a woman who said her son may have harmed his girlfriend.
According to The Wichita Eagle, Wichita police responded at 11:08 a.m. and were dispatched to the 3900 block of East 17th Street N, where the victim lived, and 7600 block of East 21st, where Lewis lives. According to KAKE, the locations were based off of information given to the North Carolina operator by a family member of the suspect.
Police arrived by 11:27 a.m., found Lewis at the 21st Street address and located the victim in Lewis’s vehicle’s trunk in front of his apartment.
Rebolledo said the victim displayed no obvious signs of trauma. Police performed CPR on the victim until EMS arrived; she was pronounced dead by EMS around noon.
According to the WPD, investigators are still trying to fully determine what led up to the fatal incident.
This appears to be Wichita’s 30th homicide this year, based on The Eagle’s database on homicides reported by police; there were 27 homicides at this time in 2022.
Students can find resources on domestic violence at WSU’s website and the WPD’s page.
