In the late hours of a Thursday evening in Topeka, Kansas, a call for an unknown medical issue brought police to a home in the 1200 block of N.W. Polk. It was just after 10 p.m. on June 24, 2021, when officers arrived on the scene to a grim discovery. Inside the residence, they found 51-year-old Bradley Bellinder, a male, suffering from a gunshot wound. Despite any efforts to save him, he was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The incident was quickly investigated as a homicide by the Topeka Police Department.
The investigation into Bellinder's death led authorities to a suspect. A few days later, on a Sunday, law enforcement located and arrested 38-year-old Marshall Stewart IV of Topeka. Stewart was taken into custody and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections. He faced charges of second-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting of Bellinder.
In an unexpected turn of events, the legal proceedings against Marshall Stewart IV came to an abrupt end. In September 2021, while still in custody at the Shawnee County Jail, Stewart suffered what was described as an apparent heart attack. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. His death was investigated by the Shawnee County Department of Corrections and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
