WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — Videos released to Target 8 show Brady Oestrike, who was responsible for the gruesome murders of a man and his girlfriend in July 2014, preparing his Wyoming home for his victims.
Wednesday, Target 8 obtained hundreds of pages of documents, videos and photos from the Wyoming Department of Public Safety through a Freedom of Information Act request first filed more than two years ago.
The videos are from four surveillance cameras that Oestrike had set up inside his Taft Avenue home and were recorded in the days and hours leading up to the murders.
The first video is dated July 5, 2014, the weekend before 25-year-old Charles Oppenneer was killed and 18-year-old Brooke Slocum abducted. In it, Oestrike is in the basement, hanging ropes from his ceiling. He also holds a whip. At one point, he walks by with a chain and padlock. Later, he carries another chain. He lays out undergarments.THE DAY OESTRIKE MET VICTIMS
Another video was timestamped 11 p.m. on July 12, 2014. Fully dressed, he mills about his basement and bathroom.
It was only an hour before he met up with Slocum and Oppenneer at Gezon Park. Court records show they arranged a meeting through Craigslist for Oestrike to pay the couple to have sex with Slocum, who was eight months pregnant. Her family later said she had been the victim of sex trafficking.
Charles Oppenneer, Brooke Slocum, Wyoming Craigslist murders
Police say Oestrike killed Oppeneer a short time after meeting the couple, then decapitated him.
For the next five days, Oestrike held Slocum in his home. Police reports say he videotaped much of his assault on her and it appeared he had convinced her that Oppenneer was alive. The last tape ends just before 1 p.m. on July 17. In it, Slocum is still alive, according to a police description of that video — which was not released.
Police discovered Oppeneer’s decapitated body at Gezon Park on July 16.
The next day, they identified Oestrike as a suspect through interviews and computer analysis.
Police were preparing to raid his home when Oestrike drove off, leading to a brief chase that ended in a crash on the Burton Street bridge over US-131 and his suicide.
Police then discovered Slocum’s body in a suitcase in the trunk of his car. She had been strangled that day. Her unborn child, a girl already named Audi, did not survive.
More than 280 photos released with the FOIA request show what police found later during a search of Oestrike’s home. Among the things they show is a map of the U.S. hung on the wall, decorated with push pins — four of which were over West Michigan. Sources say that’s part of the reason the FBI was called in to help on the investigation.
He apparently told a one-time girlfriend that the pins represented locations where he had stored food and supplies in the event of the apocalypse.
The photos also show there were guns and ammunition everywhere, swords, a medieval mask and chainmail gloves, handcuffs, medical gloves and syringes. There were bloody clothes in the washing machine.>>Photos: Inside Oestrike’s homeWarning: Viewers may find these photos disturbing.
There were knives, a rusty ax and cable cutters. Next to swords on a wooden rack was a cattle prod. There were a couple of whips. There was a baby doll with a noose around its neck. There were several collars and suitcases filled with women’s clothing.
Flash drives, discs and tapes were scattered round the house.
In a food cabinet, there were several pages of notebook paper. The words are difficult to make out in the photo, but the words “obey and please my master,” “pleasure I must earn it,” and repeated mentions of “master” can be seen.
There was a sippy cup on the floor of a bathroom, as well as a pacifier and a sex toy on the counter. In another bathroom, adult diapers were spilling out of the small trash bin.
Poems were taped to mirror. One of them read:
“Pain helps us learn
Pleasure helps us forget
Pain helps us think
Pleasure kills the mind
Pain builds comradeship
Pleasure destroys it
People don’t desire pain
People desire pleasure.”
Another poem was crossed out with the word “dead” written over it in red ink.
There were also some court documents with Charles Oppenneer’s name on them.
Additionally, police found a receipt from the afternoon of July 13 for a shackle lock. Oestrike had paid $22.99.