Have you ever wanted to go on a road trip? Something small, spur of the moment, with no real destination in mind? Did you know that there’s an app for that? Meet Randonautica, the app that lets you set a distance radius, and then gives you random coordinates. It’s up to you whether you want to take the trip, and for many during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a way to pass the time when everything was closed. For one group, heading out to those random coordinates ended with a grisly discovery.
On June 19, 2020, a group of teens set out on a Randonautica adventure. Their set of random coordinates led them to a beach in the 1100 block of Alki Avenue SW, in Seattle, Washington. Using TikTok to record their adventure, they spotted a black suitcase on the rocks near the water. They can be heard laughing, and thinking it could have money in it, one girl is encouraged to go open it up.
The area already had a foul smell, but once she unzipped the suitcase, it only got worse. “As soon as she opened it, the smell was overwhelming,” said one of the captions on the video. Using a stick, she pushes it open and discovers a black garbage bag.
That’s when they picked up the phone. “Okay, so she’s calling the police so we can see if it’s actually a dead body or if it’s just food,” the user @ughhenry can be heard saying. The next clip shows the group driving away, the area surrounded by police and fire trucks. You can see their full video here.
Police confirmed that the garbage bag in the suitcase did, in fact, contain human remains. “Our first reaction was to reach out to the teenagers to make sure they were doing alright. We sent a message letting them know the intention of Randonautica is not to find something disturbing like this.”
Further search of the area turned up another bag, this time in the water, with yet another body.
The King County Medical Examiner’s office identified the deceased as 35-year-old Jessica Lewis and 27-year-old Austin Wenner. Jessica had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and Austin died of a gunshot wound to the torso before being dismembered and stuffed into garbage bags, and into the suitcase. Their time of death was identified as June 16, just three days prior.
The investigation into their murders led investigators to their landlord, 62-year-old Michael Dudley. His motive? A dispute over rent money.
Charged with two counts of first-degree murder, Dudley is being held in the King County Jail on $5 million bail. On September 8,2020, Dudley entered a plea of not guilty. His fate is yet to be decided.
As of March, 2021, Dudley remains in jail. His defense attorneys, Bradley G. Barshis, and Harry S. Steinmetz with Newton and Hall attorneys at law PLLC from Kent Washington, requested his bail be reduced from $5 million to $500,000, and that upon his release from jail, he be put on house arrest. The prosecuting attorney, Mary Barbosa argued against this, citing the atrocity of the crime, and the fact that not all of their body parts have been recovered.
Despite numerous letters attesting to his good reputation, the prosecution produced witnesses who said otherwise. According to Charlene Scranton, Dudley “has demonstrated he’s a very violent person. He went to great lengths to hide this crime. He is being charged with a horrific, also unimaginable evil crime. We believe a reduction in bail or a release from jail will place our lives and the lives of others in great danger. We feel he will tamper with the case and heis flight risk due to the fact that he does have outside contacts with this state. He’s demonstrated that he seeks the weak, he’s manipulative, controlling and a danger to us all. Our families believe this would be a great injustice if he were to be released. We have suffered traumatic emotional pain. His request should be denied not only but revoked. This man should not be let out to put anybody else through what we’ve been through.”
Then Jessica Lewis’s aunt made a statement for the court.
“I am Jessica Lewis’s aunt. I’d like to make a statement on my family’s behalf.
Medical Examiners concluded more than 1 person had helped assist the disposal of my niece and her boyfriend. To date, nobody else has been charged, except Mike Dudley.
The week he was arrested somebody contacted me. They were crying and absolutely petrified, that Mike Dudley was going to get out of jail and come kill them. I convinced them to contact the Detectives on the case.
Mike Dudley’s affluent family has already tried to sell his house as an undisclosed location, where less than 4 months prior, was the scene of these horrific murders. To help him make bail.
He has family & close ties to California, and upon his arrest, an ex-girlfriend voiced her concerns of him getting out of jail, as he was quote “well connected”.
Besides the safety and possible intimidation of potential witnesses or accomplices, his history of telling others how he wants to kill his neighbors, or other people, should be enough to make sure he is not released back into the community.
As there are too many uncertainties needing to be addressed, before the truth of Whom, or how, Other’s- indeed helped him, carry out this horrific crime.
Most of all it’s for my family’s sake, and her children’s sake, that this man remain in jail. He has already bestowed so much pain and sorrow to my family, but to Austin’s family, and even his own. Please don’t risk another family becoming victims, for the sake of Mike Dudley’s accounts of fairness. As it’s not fair he took 2 young lives away, scarring and forever hurting everyone who knew and loved Jessica, and Austin.
There are reasons why people are scared to death of this man. Possibly more afraid of him, and what he’s capable of, than telling the truth to police.
Thank you for your consideration.”
As for the TikTokers, they have said the event changed their lives. “The moment I got back home, I broke down. I still can’t sleep” said user @ughhenry. What’s interesting is this isn’t the only time Randonautica has led to something creepy.
One user reports that she set her intention to “something that I needed from the universe,” and was led first to an area with a dead face painted on it, then to a tree with someone’s initials in it. When she looked up, there was a noose. Another user claimed it led him to the gravestones of two of his relatives. Then there’s the user who reported that it led her to a man who’d just been shot.
Randonautica: coincidence, or creepy? You decide.
If you liked this story, check out Bianca Devins, Murder Gone Viral
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