In the winter of 2017, the life of 23-year-old Brandy Morrison was tragically cut short. The young woman from St. Louis, Missouri, was reported missing by her family on January 28th of that year. Their concern grew after receiving phone calls that ominously pointed to a house on Laura Avenue. A fire at that same location on the following Monday further fueled their fears that something terrible had happened to Brandy.
A heart-wrenching discovery was made on Tuesday, January 31, 2017.
Following a trail of refuse, St. Louis homicide detectives traced a garbage collection route from the North St. Louis neighborhood to a landfill in Marissa, Illinois, about 50 miles away. There, with the assistance of cadaver dogs, they found Brandy Morrison's body. An autopsy would later reveal that she had died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The investigation into Brandy's death led authorities to two men who lived in the 6100 block of Laura Avenue, the very house her family had been alerted to. Paulren H. Stepter, 51, and Courtney Williams, 40, were taken into custody. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office charged Stepter with first-degree murder, abandonment of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and armed criminal action. Williams was charged with tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse, though some reports indicated he also faced charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. It was believed that Morrison was killed sometime between Friday, January 27th, and Monday, January 30th, before her body was discarded.
