In the autumn of 2015, the life of 16-year-old Anastasia LaShawn Butler was tragically cut short in what police would describe as an act of targeted violence. A student at South Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Anastasia was found deceased on the morning of Friday, October 23, 2015. She and 21-year-old Larry Devon Washington Jr. were discovered shot to death inside a parked SUV on East Wayne Street.
The Allen County Coroner's Office subsequently ruled both of their deaths as homicides.
The discovery of Anastasia and Larry's bodies was intricately linked to another killing that had occurred just a day prior. On Thursday, October 22, 2015, Larry's 20-year-old brother, Brandon Terrell Washington, was found shot and killed inside a home on Plaza Drive. Fort Wayne police quickly connected the three deaths, suggesting they were not random acts of violence but rather related incidents.
In the wake of the triple homicide, investigators began to piece together the events that led to the deaths. The investigation into Brandon Washington's murder led authorities to a suspect, Hozyfa H. Sultan. Believing Sultan had fled the state, law enforcement tracked him to Snellville, Georgia, where he was apprehended on November 9, 2015, by the FBI and Gwinnett County Police. Sultan was charged with the murder of Brandon Washington and the attempted murder of another individual who was present at the time of that shooting.
Hozyfa H. Sultan was extradited back to Indiana to face trial. In March 2017, a jury found him guilty of the murder of Brandon Washington and the attempted murder charge. He was subsequently sentenced to 110 years in prison. Despite the conviction of Sultan for the murder of Brandon Washington, no suspects have ever been publicly identified or arrested in connection with the deaths of Anastasia Butler and Larry Washington. At the time of the initial investigation, the coroner reported that police had no suspects in their shooting. The case surrounding the death of the teenage girl and her companion remains unresolved, leaving a lingering sense of unanswered questions for their families and the community.
