Left: The murder of Alexis Shuler is being investigated by Maryland cops, allegedly killed by Devontae Gray. Right: Gray (Prince George’s County Police Department). Inset: Shuler (Metropolitan Police Department).
A man from Maryland is currently in custody for reportedly murdering the mother of his child, placing her body in a container, filling it with concrete, and constructing a wall to hide his crime.
The family of Alexis Shuler informed the police in Washington, D.C., about the disappearance of the 29-year-old mother of three on Jan. 14 after not being in contact with her for a couple of days. They suspected she was with her sometimes on-and-off boyfriend, 30-year-old Devontae Gray, at his residence in Capitol Heights, Maryland. Upon visiting the house, the police detected an unusual odor but observed nothing questionable and found no trace of Shuler, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by local Fox affiliate WTTG. However, over the next few days, surveillance footage confirmed her presence in the residence, as disclosed by Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz during a press briefing on Tuesday.
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Video also reportedly showed Gray going in and out of the home on Jan. 12 and 13 carrying construction equipment such as cement, cinder blocks, chemicals and large storage containers. When police executed a search warrant on the home on Sunday, they found a newly constructed wall. Cops broke through the wall where they found a bin under a stairwell with Shuler’s body “entombed” in concrete and covered with a large amount of soil and hay, the affidavit said, according to NBC affiliate WRC. She had been shot to death, cops said.
It took some three hours to recover her body, WTOP reported.
“Evidentially some major construction work was going on inside that house,” Aziz said at the press conference.
Aziz said Gray admitted to murdering Shuler during a dispute. They shared a child and Shuler had two other children. Her family was present at the press conference and issued a statement.
“Although the outcome is not what we had hoped, we take solace in knowing that Alexis has been found, and we now have the closure to lay her to rest in peace,” her cousin Derrick Felder said. “Alexis will be deeply missed, and there is a void in our family that can never be filled. Her three children will no longer feel their mother’s embrace or hear their mother’s voice.”
Gray is at the Prince George’s County Jail on a murder charge without bond. His next court date is scheduled for Feb. 19.
