Two young women — one who is still a teen — have been accused of murdering a 53-year-old man so that they could use his severed thumb to buy weed, alcohol, and Uber rides.
The grisly crime took place in April, when police discovered Fasil Teklemariam's dead body in his Washington, DC apartment. Along with "blunt-force fractures to his head" and stab wounds, he was missing his right thumb.
At least one of the suspects, 22-year-old Tiffany Taylor Gray, had called the victim her "sugar daddy," according to The Washington Post. Her sidekick, 19-year-old Audrey Denise Miller, also knew Teklemariam — he was seen in video footage with her on the day of his murder — but it's not clear what their relationship was.
From The Washington Post:
The doctor determined that Teklemariam had been killed two to five days before police found him and that his thumb had been severed shortly before or after his death. …
The witness told police that the group of people [Gray, Miller, and two men] involved in the attack had cut off Teklemariam's thumb and said they had observed Gray using Teklemariam's severed thumb to steal money from his account.
While surveillance footage referenced in court records places the suspects in and around Teklemariam's apartment in the days surrounding the killing, the records do not contain more information about the alleged attack itself.
The last time Teklemariam was seen alive on surveillance footage was on the evening of April 1, according to court records. He is seen in footage going to meet Miller outside his apartment and then going back inside with her, the records say. He exited about 20 minutes later and returned shortly after with three cans of soda, according to court records. After that point, according to police, footage shows the suspects exiting his apartment. Cellphone data shows that Teklemariam's phone left the area of his apartment late that night, according to the charging documents.
And according to NBC4 Washington:
The suspects used the victim's key fob to get in and were seen carrying items out of the apartment, investigators said.
There also was evidence suggesting cleaning products had been used to conceal or remove evidence.
Investigators got a break in the case when they learned of a complaint Teklemariam filed with D.C. police last year claiming Gray had taken his phone and used it to steal $1,800 his finance app, police said. Then investigators learned Teklemariam's cellphone last pinged from a tower in College Park, Maryland, not far from where Gray rented an apartment. …
Both women have been charged with first-degree murder and armed felony murder.
The thumb and the man's electronics are nowhere to be found.
Previously: Employee of organ donor organization finds three severed heads on his desk
