A Wisconsin teenager was arrested in Iowa, more than 800 miles from the home where his mother and stepfather were found slain, authorities said Tuesday.
The juvenile was stopped for running a stop sign in WaKeeney, Iowa, at 11:25 p.m. CT Friday, WaKeeney Police Chief Michael Romero said in a statement.
“The subject was taken into custody with no further incident. The subject was identified and found out to be a juvenile wanted out of Wisconsin,” Romero added. “The subject is a person of interest in a double homicide that this Wisconsin sheriffs office is still investigating.”
Romero declined to name the driver, but Waukesha County prosecutors identified the teen as a 17-year-old Waukesha West High School student.
The boy’s mother and her husband were found fatally shot at their Waukesha home on Friday afternoon when local authorities conducted a welfare check.
The woman’s face “was blackened from decomposition with dried blood on the floor around her,” according to the criminal complaint filed against the teenager.
The woman’s husband was also found at the home “covered by a pile of clothing” with “an obvious wound to the back of” his head, the complaint said.
The teen has been charged with taking his stepfather’s Volkswagen Atlas and a firearm.
The victims were identified as Donald Mayer and his wife, Tatiana Casap, who was the teenager’s mother, Mayer’s mother told NBC News.
Donald Mayer, 51, and Casap had been married for nine years after they met online when she was living in Moldova, mother Judith Mayer said.
“Donald didn’t have any other children, so when he married, he enjoyed having a son, and they did father-son stuff,” Judith Mayer said. “They went to all kinds of places, to the beach, to ballgames, all that kind of stuff.”
Judith Mayer said that she was impressed with how quickly Casap’s son picked up English from scratch and that she can’t recall any tensions between him and her son.
The teenager had perfect attendance before he failed to show up for class for two weeks, prompting the welfare check request from school officials, according to the criminal complaint.
“He did very well in school, got good grades,” Juidth Mayer said. “He was quiet and polite. Teachers never mentioned that there was anything wrong.”
A neighbor of the family saw the 17-year-old driving his stepfather’s Volkswagen on Feb. 23, the complaint said.
Cellphone pings showed that he left Waukesha at about 10 a.m. on Feb. 24 and “took a general route through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado,” according to prosecutors.
He visited the World’s Largest Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa, from 2:25 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. the day he left Waukesha, prosecutors said the cellphone records showed.
Nearby security cameras showed the teenager, accompanied by the family’s small black dog, driving the Volkswagen Atlas, court document said.
Records found at the victims’ home showed that Mayer owned a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, which police didn’t find at the house.
The gun, the victims’ driver’s licenses and spent shell casings were all found in the Atlas, prosecutors said.
Judith Mayer said her son had the gun for protection but didn’t know of any ongoing threats.
Mayer and his stepson both had green thumbs and enjoyed working outside together.
“He [Mayer] loved flowers,” Judith Mayer said. “There was always a lot of planting of flowers and trees. Whenever he went out to do anything, he always asked [Casap’s son] to come with him and they’d work together.”
