On the Fourth of July in 2015, the holiday celebrations were shattered by a grim discovery in a wooded area of West Rock Ridge State Park in Hamden, Connecticut. Law enforcement responded to reports of an explosion around 11:00 a.m. and found the body of a deceased White male, later identified as 39-year-old Edward Brooks of West Haven. The initial investigation at the scene was horrifying; Brooks’s body had been wrapped in plastic garbage bags, bound with rope, and showed signs of three
gunshot wounds. An explosive device, believed to be a pipe bomb, had been detonated near the body in a gruesome attempt to destroy evidence.
The investigation quickly led police to a residence at 59 Front Avenue in West Haven, where Brooks had been living with several other people. This home was already the subject of an ongoing narcotics investigation, and the threads of the murder and the drug activity soon became tightly interwoven. Investigators determined that Brooks was shot three times with a firearm equipped with a silencer inside the basement of the West Haven home in the early morning hours of July 4th. His housemate, Christopher Miller, was identified as the man who pulled the trigger.
Following the murder, Miller enlisted the help of another housemate, Maurice Wearing, to dispose of Brooks's body. The two men wrapped the victim in plastic and drove him to the state park in Hamden. There, they placed a pipe bomb that Miller had constructed underneath the body and detonated it. The subsequent police search of the Front Avenue residence uncovered materials for making pipe bombs consistent with those found at the crime scene, along with crack cocaine, methamphetamine, and a DVR surveillance system that captured video from eight cameras around the property.
The joint investigation involving local, state, and federal authorities, including the FBI, resulted in the arrests of Miller, Wearing, and several other housemates on various charges. Christopher Miller was charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and numerous federal offenses. In March 2017, he pleaded guilty to the murder of Edward Brooks, as well as criminal possession of a firearm and tampering with evidence. He was ultimately sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for the drug-related murder and the attempt to destroy the body with an explosive device. Maurice Wearing also pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and possession of an explosive by a convicted felon for his role in the crime. The investigation also led to federal convictions for other residents of the home, including Miller's mother, Deborah Miller, on drug trafficking charges.
