A Wisconsin teenager was arrested 800 miles from home after officials discovered his parents dead at their Iowa residence.
Officials stopped the teenage boy after he ran a stop sign in WaKeeney, Iowa, at 11:25 p.m. CT on Friday. WaKeeney Police Chief Michael Romero said that the suspect was taken into custody without further incident.
Teenager Arrested 800 Miles From Home
He added that the teen was identified and found out to be a juvenile who was wanted out of Wisconsin. Romero said that the boy was a person of interest in a double homicide case that the Wisconsin sheriff's office was still investigating.
The WaKeeney police chief refused to name the teenager, but Waukesha County prosecutors identified him as a 17-year-old Waukesha West High School student. The suspect's parents were found fatally shot at their Waukesha home on Friday afternoon after authorities conducted a welfare check.
The criminal complaint filed against the teenager said that the mother's face was "blackened from decomposition with dried blood on the floor around her." The father was also found inside the residence "covered by a pile of clothing" with "an obvious wound to the back of" his head, according to NBC News.
Officials have charged the teenager with taking his stepfather's Volkswagen Atlas as well as a firearm. The two victims were also identified as Donald Mayer and Tatiana Casap, who had been married for nine years after meeting online while the mother was living in Moldova.
The man's mother, Judith Mayer, said that her son did not have any other children, so he enjoyed having a son when he got married to Casap, focusing on doing father-son stuff. She added that they went to various places, such as beaches, ballgames, and others.
Killing of Mother and Stepfather
The case began when Judith called the police because she had not been in contact with her son for weeks and received suspicious messages from his phone on Feb. 23, 2025. School authorities added that the 17-year-old, identified as Nikita Casap, had not attended classes for two weeks, the Independent reported.
Mayer's sister had lost contact with the teenager on Feb. 18, 2025, after he told her that he had been feeling "pretty sick and was going to take some time off social media." A few days before the victims' bodies were found, a neighbor spotted the teen driving his stepfather's vehicle by himself.
Officials revealed that cellphone pings showed that Nikita left Waukesha at around 10:00 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2025. They said he took a general route through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado.
Prosecutors added that the suspect visited The World's Largest Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa, the day he left home. Additionally, nearby surveillance cameras showed him accompanied by the family's small black dog, as per Yahoo News.
