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Tennessee Man Accused Of Killing Roommate, Stuffing His Body In A Suitcase
Earlier this month, police found the body of a man stuffed inside a suitcase. Now his roommate is facing multiple charges — including murder.
A man is Memphis, Tennessee is accused of killing his roommate, stuffing his body into a suitcase, and trying to toss it in a dumpster.
On Dec. 12, Memphis police were called to the scene after a suspicious item was reported in an alley behind a bank parking lot. Police found a suitcase and discovered a body inside, according to reports by local television stations.
The victim “was struck with an object by a known suspect,” Memphis police tweeted the day the body was discovered.
On Dec. 20, the body inside the suitcase was publicly identified as Bruce Jeffries, 63, according to WREG.
His roommate of about two years, Julian Summers, 30, has been charged with second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Summers is being held at the Shelby County Jail on a $750,000 bond.
A witness told police that he saw a man dragging a suitcase to a dumpster on the same morning the suitcase was discovered, police said. The man and the suitcase were also captured on surveillance video.
The man was then seen trying to throw the suitcase into a dumpster, but it was seemingly too heavy, a witness told police, according to WMC.
The man, apparently suspecting that he was being watched, then abandoned the suitcase and fled the scene, the station reported.
A trail of blood from the suitcase led police to an apartment complex where Summers and Jeffries shared an apartment, according to an affidavit on which multiple television stations reported.
The trail ended at the entrance of an apartment that still had the keys in the lock and no sign of forced entry, according to an affidavit reviewed by WHIO.
After obtaining a search warrant, police went inside the apartment and found broken glass, blood, a broken mirror and blood-covered clothes sitting in a washing machine, according to the Independent.
They also found another, similar suitcase smaller than the one the body was discovered in, but the smaller one contained clothes and papers belonging to Summers, according to the television station.
Investigators believe that Summers dragged the suitcase from the apartment complex first to another location before taking it to the alley behind the bank, WHBQ reported.
Police have not revealed a motive for the murder.
Summers has a court appearance scheduled for Thursday morning.
