The family of a 19-year-old Kansas woman has been left devastated after they received news that their loved one – who was expecting her first child – was killed by her boyfriend.
Zaiylah Bronson’s body was discovered in the trunk of her car Saturday. Her boyfriend, Alexander Lewis, 22, has been named a suspect in her killing and is charged with first-degree murder, according to the Wichita Police Department.
Police say officers responded to a call at approximately 11:00 AM from a 911 operator in North Carolina. The operator had tipped police that there was a possible homicide in Wichita and that authorities had received a call from a member of the suspect’s family.
“Wichita police went to two different locations to check on the victim. At one of the locations, officers talked to Lewis and found Bronson in the trunk of his car,” according to a USA Today report. “Police pulled her out of the trunk and tried to save her until EMS arrived. She was later pronounced dead.”
Detectives are now trying to piece together clues that led to her murder.
The chief attorney for the state’s Death Penalty Defense Unit Mark Manna told USA Today via email that his office has no comment.
Taronza Bronson, the victim’s mother, said she went to a women’s gathering Saturday when she received a call from her husband, who asked her if she spoke to the police.
“I immediately dropped everything in my hand, my purse and everything, and just fell to the floor,” she remembered. “It was very, very, very devastating. It is still that. It is still hard.”
According to Taronza, her daughter dated Lewis for at least a year, and added that he seemed “well-spoken and was in the U.S. Air Force. He seemed like a smart guy, she said. She wonders if she just wasn’t around enough to notice that something was wrong,” according to the report.
“We saw nothing,” she said.
Her daughter is the oldest of three children and was born while her father was stationed at Fort Campbell military base. When the victim was in elementary school, her family moved to Kansas where she would eventually become a manager at the popular clothing chain, Citi Trends.
“We were close,” her mother said. “She would contact one of us at least every day. She would have two days off and she would come down … just to see us and spend time.”
