A Wisconsin teenager arrested 800 miles from where his parents were found slain has been charged with murder, with prosecutors alleging he lived with their dead bodies for weeks.
Nikita Casap’s parents, Tatiana Casap, 35, and stepfather, Donald Mayer, 51, were found dead in their home on February 28, The Independent previously reported.
Now the teen, 17, is facing a slew of new charges in Waukesha County, including multiple counts of first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse, theft of more than $10,000, and misappropriating an ID to obtain money.
A Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department statement read that the teenager was formally charged after police obtained “new evidence and findings” in the ongoing investigation.
Waukesha County District Attorney Lesli Boese has accused Casap of shooting his mother at least three times — twice in the stomach and once in the neck on February 11 — two weeks before police attended the home, reports NBC News.
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Prosecutors allege that Casap killed Mayer by shooting him in the back of the head before attending school the following day.
The teen then reportedly continued to live at home with his parents’ dead bodies for nearly two weeks until February 23, when he fled with “$14,000 in cash” and contacted another person to obtain fake plates, said Boese.
In another twist, Casap also allegedly filmed his stepfather’s dead body a week after the alleged murder, according to a video police obtained from a camera memory card.
At one point, Casap stood leering over his stepfather’s corpse, preparing to take a picture, while another camera filmed him doing so.
Then he was heard in the clip saying, “So you can see him there. I can literally see the ******* rotting body,” reports NBC News.
Casap is also believed to have contacted a person in Russian or Romanian. The suspect is originally from Moldova and has relatives overseas.
“The charges are a result of meticulous investigation efforts emphasizing our dedication to community safety and justice,” the department wrote in its statement.
Police first became aware of the pair’s deaths after Casaps’ paternal step-grandmother, Judith, called to request a welfare check for Mayer on the morning of February 28.
She told them she hadn’t heard from her son in weeks but received a flurry of suspicious messages from her son’s phone on February 23.
School authorities also shared that Casap failed to show up for classes two weeks before his slain parents were discovered, despite a “perfect school attendance.”
On February 28, police entered the home to find Tatiana lying on the first-floor hallway, with “her face blackened from decomposition [and] dried blood [was present] on the floor around her.”
A blanket and a towel had been draped over her body. Casap’s father, on the other hand, was found covered by a pile of clothing at around 5 p.m. in the office of the home.
His body was described in the complaint as “a male with a gray beard” found with a gunshot wound to the head.
Shockingly, Casap had fled the home and driven almost 800 miles to WaKeeney, Kansas, in Mayer’s Volkswagen Atlas, with the family’s little black dog in the passenger seat.
When he was caught by police, just 12 hours after his parents were found, they also found his stepfather’s missing Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum firearm in the car.
The teen was charged that day with operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent and a second count of theft of movable property — a gun.
Casap remains in police custody.
Police urged community members to contact the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department with any additional information relevant to this case.
Anyone with additional information or leads about the case should contact Detective Sam Yanke at 262-896-8117 or 262-548-7128.
