MOORE, Okla. – Four people are now facing multiple charges in connection to the murder of two men, their bodies found last week in a metro pond and court documents say the bodies were dismembered.
Brett Boettler, 16, was charged in Cleveland County this week with two counts of second-degree murder, unlawful removal of a dead body, and desecration of a corpse, as well as a felony firearm possession charge.
Boettler’s brother, 22-year-old Kevin Garcia-Boettler, was also charged Wednesday with felony accessory to second-degree murder and unlawful removal of a dead body.
The two were arrested April 17 at a property on Oklahoma City’s northeast side after attempting to flee the area, along with their mother and her boyfriend.
Moore police had traced Brett Boettler’s phone to that location, after finding “communications” between Boettler and 21-year-old Alize Ramon Smith, whose body was found in a pond on the Sooner Rd. property, along with the body of 21-year-old Jarron Moreland, according to an affidavit filed in Cleveland County on April 25.
As law enforcement searched the property on April 18, family members of the two men waited along the roadway for updates from police.
“We’re just glad that we get some closure and we found him,” said Moreland’s uncle, Anthony Anderson, as Moreland’s grandmother sobbed into Anderson’s chest.
“We needed this,” said Anderson. “We needed this.”
Moore police are not commenting on the case at this time. However, newly filed court documents detail what officers discovered on the Sooner Rd. property.
In a search warrant filed in Oklahoma County Thursday, Moore detectives observed a White Chrysler Town and Country van as they approached the residence on April 17, matching the suspect vehicle description and saw “cleaning products and a power washer around the vehicle,” “dried blood spatter on the ceiling of the van” and “a bucket of water with a chainsaw bar inside and soaking in the water along with several jigsaw blades.”
According to the warrant return, police found spray bleach in the bottom half of a shop vacuum. Inside were pliers, hatchet and chainsaw parts.
The bodies, according to a probable cause affidavit, “had been dismembered.”
Court documents said Boettler had arranged to purchase a gun from Moreland in a grocery store parking lot in the 1300 block of N. Eastern in Moore on April 14. Family of the men reported their possible abduction Saturday.
Garcia-Boettler was driving the white Chrysler minivan, with Boettler in the passenger seat and Smith seated behind Boettler, according to court documents. Moreland arrived and began to enter the back seat of the van when Garcia-Boettler told police he heard the cocking of a gun and his brother “immediately turned around and fired approximately four shots from a pistol,” according to an affidavit.
“There was apparently going to be a sale of a gun, possibly off of Craigslist when the two victims entered the vehicle,” said Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis on April 18. “The suspects claimed they heard a gun being racked or cocked. At that point, one of those individuals fired at the two victims that entered the van and killing them both at that time.”
Garcia-Boettler told police he got scared and sped out of the parking lot and believed Moreland and Smith to be dead. Witnesses at the scene described seeing one black male with blood covering his face and hair, and another being pulled into the van or hanging out as it drove off. A bloodied handgun and sandal were recovered at the scene.
The brothers then called their mother, Crystal Boettler, who told them to drive to her location at her boyfriend’s family’s property in the 5100 block of N. Sooner Rd., according to a probable cause affidavit. Court documents say when the brothers arrived, the boyfriend, Johnny Shane Barker, saw Moreland and Smith dead in the back seat of the van.
Court documents say the brothers, along with Barker, removed the bodies, covered them with tarps and attached cinder blocks around them with chains. That’s when the younger Boettler and Barker loaded the bodies onto a trailer and dumped them into a pond. Barker also confessed to removing parts of the vehicle interior to remove blood evidence. Court documents say Barker told police he believed the victims’ clothing was removed and possibly burned in a burn barrel next to his house.
The three men also said that Crystal Boettler, 40, helped in cleaning Moreland and Smith’s blood from the interior of the van. According to court documents, Crystal Boettler was interviewed with her attorney and “When cleaning the van came up, the defendant’s attorney advised they did not want to discuss her involvement in that.”
Barker and Crystal Boettler were also charged Wednesday. Barker is facing accessory to second degree murder, unlawful removal of a dead body and desecration of a human corpse. Crystal Boettler is charged with one count of accessory to second degree murder. Court dates for the four have not yet been set.
