A Kansas City man who murdered his girlfriend and their preborn child searched the internet for various ways to murder someone and also searched for abortion information before carrying out his crime.
Alexander Lewis was charged with capital murder in the death of Zaiylah Bronson, a 19-year-old Wichita State University student. Bronson, who hoped to become a math teacher, was 16 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. According to police, the night before murdering Bronson, Lewis’ search history included things like “stun guns, lethal weapons, and ‘weapons that can kill.'” Terms like “choke holds” and “snapping necks” were also found, along with several abortion-related searches.
On April 26th, Bronson was seen alive as the couple walked their dog through the courtyard of their apartment complex. Security footage later showed Lewis moving his car closer to the door of their apartment complex, and got a backpack which police said contained duct tape, bottled water, clothes, flashlights, towels, and trash bags. In less than 15 minutes, he was seen carrying a bundle of blankets with feet dangling out of it. He dumped Bronson’s body into his trunk and drove off, but police were soon alerted and in less than an hour, arrived at the couple’s apartment.
The Wichita Police Department found Bronson’s body in the trunk, as well as an axe and a shovel. Police tried to perform CPR, but EMS pronounced her dead when they arrived on the scene.
Lewis admitted to police that he killed Bronson, but framed it as an impromptu action in the heat of the moment.
“I got scared. I was over at her place; I didn’t know what to do,” he said, explaining that Bronson had broken up with him the night before. When he arrived at her apartment, he said she was on the phone with another man, so they argued. “He wanted her to stop talking so he ‘grabbed her’” around the neck with his arm and squeezed “until she stopped moving,” the affidavit said.
Bronson’s mother, Taronza Rowe-Bronson, told KSN-TV that she and her daughter spoke nearly every day.
“Her compassion for others just helped her through whatever she may have been going through,” she said. “We were close, but like I said, obviously not close enough,” Rowe-Bronson said. “I don’t know what led to this. What were the signs?”
