The Kansas man accused of strangling his pregnant girlfriend before throwing her lifeless body in the trunk of his car searched for “snapping necks” and abortion tactics before carrying out the vicious murder.
Alleged killer Alexander Lewis’ cellphone web browsing history also included searches about stun guns, lethal weapons and murder, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Witchita Eagle.
Lewis was charged last month with capital murder in the death of Zaiylah Bronson, a 19-year-old Wichita State University student who was studying to become a math teacher. She was 16 weeks pregnant.
Investigators claim Lewis started his demented internet searches on Aug. 25, the night before killing Bronson in her apartment.
The couple, who had been dating since January, had spent the night fighting, prompting Lewish to browse for information regarding “stun guns, lethal weapons, and ‘weapons that can kill,’” the documents state.
Bronson was last recorded alive on surveillance footage at 8:13 a.m. the next morning when the couple took a dog out to the courtyard — during which time Lewis made searches for “snapping necks,” “choke hold,” several for abortion and others for murder, the affidavit says.
He allegedly followed through on the deranged searches just two hours later.
Lewis was seen on video at 10:15 a.m. leaving the apartment alone to move his parked car closer to Bronson’s door after retrieving a backpack filled with duct tape, bottled water, clothes, flashlights, towels and trash bags, police said.
He then returned lugging a blanket-wrapped bundle with feet dangling out, which he dumped in his trunk, before driving out of the complex, according to the documents.
Lewis wasn’t free for long, however — police showed up at his nearby apartment after a family member discovered the teenager’s body in the trunk, along with an ax and a shovel.
He allegedly told police his pregnant girlfriend’s body was in his trunk.
“I got scared. I was over at her place; I didn’t know what to do,” the affidavit says.
Lewis claims Bronson broke up with him during their night of arguing and spent time talking “on the phone with another male.”
“He wanted her to stop talking so he ‘grabbed her’” around the neck with his arm and squeezed “until she stopped moving,” the affidavit says.
He told police he panicked and checked for vital signs before wrapping her body in a blanket he took from her bed, the affidavit says he told police.
Lewis faces second-degree murder charges and is being held at the Sedgwick County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
Bronson’s family said there was no indication their loved one would become a victim of domestic violence.
The student was excited to give birth to a baby boy and was looking forward to starting her second year at WSU, her mother said.
The case has raised concerns over the surge of domestic violence in the city, with the Wichita Family Crisis Center noting that it has seen a 60% increase in women seeking shelter from their abusers over the past year.
The most recent available data from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation shows that of the 22,596 domestic violence incidents reported in 2021, more than 25% occurred in Sedgwick County.
