A University of Alabama student, her friend and a dog were found dead inside the home they were pet-sitting — after the homeowner saw a suspicious person in her yard on her security cameras.
Jazmine Alexis Bates, 22, and her pal Jose Felix Alvarez-Duenas, 31, were allegedly killed by De’Kendrick Crawford, 24, in Brookwood, Ala., on Monday, WIAT reported.
Their bodies were found after cops swooped on the home — located east of Tuscaloosa — to carry out a welfare check when Alvarez-Duenas, a restaurant worker, hadn’t answered his phone calls or text messages.
Alvarez-Duenas, a single dad to three children, had been looking after a colleague’s dog as she was out of the US, and she became concerned when she hadn’t heard from the pet sitter.
The woman spotted a suspect on her back porch when she checked her home security cameras, raising her suspicions.
Brookville police discovered Bates, Alvarez-Duenas and the pooch’s bodies when they arrived at the home. “Immediately upon opening the front door, there was a deceased male lying on the floor that was identified as the person that was house-sitting for her,” Jack Kennedy, of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, told reporters Tuesday, according to the outlet.
Investigators combed through the home, where they found Chicago-native Bates – who worked with Alvarez-Duenas at the restaurant Buffalo Phil’s Wings.
“Upon clearing the residence, they were able to find a second deceased individual, a female,” Kennedy said. “She was in the back bedroom in a closet.”
Bates, a business administration and management student, was just five months away from graduating.
Crawford bolted to a relative’s apartment in Northport – around 22 miles from Brookwood – and was arrested 10 hours after the restaurant staffers’ bodies were found.
Crawford was caught hiding in the home’s attic.
“After four hours of tactical operations including drones, tear gas, walls and doors being breached and attics being searched with K-9s, yeah, he never gave up. He cared more about himself than the victims,” Kennedy blasted.
Cops were mystified why the two restaurant workers were targeted as the motive behind the shooting is unknown.
“We don’t know why he targeted them,” Kennedy said.
“They were not doing anything wrong. They had done nothing wrong to him. None of his acquaintances know why this occurred.
“Nothing in our investigation has found that these victims in any way contributed to this; the motive is unknown.”
But the homeowner knew the victims as well as Crawford through work, Kennedy said.
Crawford was charged with capital murder of two or more persons – an offense that carries a sentence of death or life imprisonment in Alabama.
Tributes were paid to the two restaurant workers after the tragedy.
“He was the best dad to those babies, always putting their needs first and making sure they felt loved and safe,” Alvarez-Duenas’ friends and family said in a fundraiser.
“He was also the best friend to many, a wonderful son, and a caring brother to his six sisters.
“Felix never met a stranger and would help anyone in any way he could, always offering a hand or a kind word to those in need.”
Juana Gutierrez Salas, Alvarez-Duenas’ sister, told WBMA, “He was always there for anyone however he could be. He was a charismatic light. He was so full of life and love.”
“To know Felix was to love him! He wasn’t easily forgettable. He had a passion for life. He was dependable, responsible, thoughtful and fun to be around.”
The restaurant said Alvarez-Duenas was “one of the hardest-working people you could ever meet” and said Bates “had a bubbly personality that could light up a room.”
“She had so much life ahead of her and her loss is truly heartbreaking,” it said.
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