On Christmas morning of 2020, a welfare check at a home on Lakeside Lane in the Spanish Lake area of St. Louis, Missouri, led to a grim discovery. Inside, law enforcement found the bodies of 28-year-old Charese Garvin and her 23-month-old daughter, Alayah Butler. Both mother and child had been fatally shot. The St. Louis County Police Department's Bureau of Crimes Against Persons immediately began a homicide investigation into their deaths.
The investigation quickly zeroed in on Timothy
Brown, the 30-year-old ex-boyfriend of Charese Garvin and the father of her two older children. Witnesses reported seeing Brown's car in the driveway of the home on the morning of the murders. It was also revealed that Brown had a history of threatening Garvin's life. Based on this and other evidence, authorities issued charges against Brown for two counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
The search for Timothy Brown culminated in a tense, hours-long standoff with police at a residence in Velda City just days later. As officers attempted to make contact, shots were fired from within the home. Law enforcement surrounded the location, and after a period of unsuccessful negotiations, a police robot was deployed inside the house. The robot discovered Brown deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death brought an end to the immediate investigation into the tragic deaths of Charese Garvin and her young daughter, Alayah Butler.
