WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — New documents detailing the investigation into the 2014 Wyoming Craigslist killings help explain why police waited five hours outside Brady Oestrike's home, not knowing victim Brooke Slocum was inside.
Wyoming Police Chief James Carmody told Target 8 Thursday that the wait did not make a difference in the outcome because he believes Oestrike had already killed Slocum and her unborn child.
"There's only one person responsible for Brooke Slocum's death and her baby's death and that's Brady Oestrike. Period," the chief said.
He said there was no way police could have known that Slocum, who was eight months pregnant, had been held and abused for five days in Oestrike's home on Taft Avenue SW.
"Had we known that she was in there, we would have gone through that door in a heartbeat," Carmody said.
DOCUMENTS DETAIL INVESTIGATION TIMELINE
Target 8 filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the case file more than two years ago, hoping it would answer some of the unanswered questions. Wednesday, Wyoming police released hundreds of pages of documents, along with videos and photographs.
The records provide a timeline that started the day before, on July 16, 2014, when police discovered Charles Oppenneer's decapitated body in Gezon Park.
"It's a full-court press from the very beginning," Carmody said. "We start out with the body. We knew no circumstances, nothing about the person that was involved."
>>Photos: The first crime scene
Police quickly learned that Slocum also was missing and learned from the victims' roommate that they had sold sex through Craigslist, leading to a search warrant for Craigslist records.
Computer searches led them to a customer, email addresses, a fake Facebook name, then finally to Brady Oestrike. That was on July 17, the day after Oppenneer's body was discovered.
"Once we have that, that's not the end of it, now we've got to ID where he's at," the chief said of Oestrike.
Records show that by 4:45 p.m. July 17, police had identified Oestrike as a suspect. By 5 p.m., they were staking out Oestrike's home on Taft, along with his parents' home.
"It appeared to us at that point in time to be vacant," the chief said of the home on Taft. "Grass was overgrown, shrubbery was overgrown, mail was coming out of the mailbox."
>>Photos: Inside Oestrike's home
By 6:15 p.m., the department called for its tactical team for a "high-risk" search warrant at the home on Taft. And by 7 p.m., a ping on his cellphone showed he was, indeed, there.
It's not clear when police started working on a search warrant for Oestrike's home -- one of several search warrants in the works.
"It's not like television," the chief said. "It doesn't take place in 45 minutes. The reality of it is we have to be very detailed because if we don't, what we gain in that search warrant we can lose in court."
Search warrants routinely take more than two hours, he said, requiring approval by a prosecutor and then a judge.
"If the suggestion or implication is that there was a delay in getting that, I'd say absolutely not," he said. "I can't say there's frustration. I'd say we've worked in the process so long we expect those delays. We want to make it right the first time. We don't get a second shot at this."
At 9:15, the tactical team was at the police department, preparing for the raid, while an officer was waiting for the judge to sign the warrant.
"I shudder to think had we gone into that house what the outcome would have been," Carmody said. "He had more guns in there than I've seen in most houses ever, and ammunition, and obviously he had an intent to use them."
Before that could happen, Oestrike drove away, leading to a chase, a crash, his suicide and the discovery of Slocum's body in a suitcase in the trunk of his car.
Police believe he had strangled her shortly after he had stopped videotaping her assault. The last video end just before 1 p.m. that day, several hours before police had identified him.
"It gets very emotional," Carmody said. "That's why I am very sensitive to the suggestions that maybe a delay might have caused something here. You weren't there standing over that suitcase looking over that young girl who's now dead and knowing she had an 8-month-old baby who's now dead, who had no choice in this matter. That stays with you. That haunts you."
>>Inside woodtv.com: Complete coverage of Craigslist murders
CHIEF: GRISLY IMAGES 'IN OFFICERS' HEADS'
Chief Carmody said he believes Oestrike was on his way to bury Slocum's body. Police found a trench shovel in his trunk.
"Had we not had surveillance on that house, we'd probably still be looking for a body," he said.
He said he doesn't expect police will ever find Oppenneer's head.
"We've done everything we could do," he said. "We walked within a mile of that park, we looked into every Dumpster, we crawled into Dumspters that were still full looking through the garbage, trying to find something."
He praised his officers and said they've gone through a lot -- a case involving decapitation, a pregnant woman's body in the trunk of a car. Some had to watch hours and hours of video showing the abuse.
"That's some of the stuff that our officers still have to settle up with. Their eyes have seen it. It's in their head, so they have to process that," he said.
The chief didn't want to dwell on Oestrike or his motive.
He was asked if it was just evil.
"Yeah, I think for lack of a better word," Carmody said. "His intent was very specific. I don't want to give him any more recognition than he's already got. He's dead and that's the end of it."