The 17-year-old son of an Indianapolis man reported missing last week was charged with murder Wednesday for the suspected death of his father.
David Perry was arrested Saturday in connection with the death of his father, Brandon Perry. The Marion County Prosecutor's Office charged him as an adult with murder and dangerous possession of a firearm.
On Wednesday, May 29, Indianapolis police posted on social media that Brandon Perry, 35, had been missing since Sunday, May 26, "under suspicious circ*mstances."
Brandon Perry left his home in the 9500 block of Vandergriff Road on Sunday in his pickup, according to the May 29 post. The following day his flatbed trailer loaded with tools was found abandoned in the 7200 block of East Thompson Road near Thompson Crossing Elementary School. His truck was found three days later, roughly 2.5 miles away near the intersection of East Thompson Road and Emerson Avenue.
Perry worked for Good Guys Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing, according to a now-deleted Facebook post from the business.
At the time, Indianapolis police officers believed Brandon Perry left his home in his truck. But the probable cause affidavit reveals that might not have been the case.
A trailer blocking traffic raises questions
On Monday, May 27, a little past 11:30 a.m., Indianapolis officers were called to the 7200 block of East Thompson Road after a resident in the area reported a black trailer blocking the turn lane of East Thompson Road, according to court documents. The resident told officers he had heard loud noises just after midnight.
When the resident looked out his window, he described seeing a truck with oversized tires and front passenger headlamp out backed up to the back door of the black trailer belonging to Brandon Perry, according to the probable cause affidavit. The witness told officers he watched a "small and thin build male with jeans and dress shirt take something out of the trailer and put it into the back of the truck and then leave."
The back and side doors of the trailer were open. Police could not contact the trailer's owner, so officers had it towed away, according to the affidavit.
Brandon Perry is reported missing
On May 29, around 2:45 a.m., Brandon Perry's sister reported him as a missing person to Indianapolis police. According to court documents, she told officers that her brother was last seen on May 26 at his home in the 9500 block of Vandergriff Road, where he lived with his son, David.
She said that David Perry told her that Brandon had left home for a job in Westfield at 7:00 a.m.
His sister also told officers that Brandon owned a black Dodge Ram pickup truck. She said he did not typically take his trailer off his truck. Later that morning, she told Indianapolis police she had found her brother's truck in the parking lot of Mikie's Pub at 5135 South Emerson Avenue. This vehicle was also towed.
Indianapolis officers called Brandon Perry's cell phone and work number but were unable to reach him. They contacted hospitals, the Marion County Coroner's Office and the local jails.
His sister told officers he never showed up for work the Sunday he disappeared.
A bloody mattress, a burn pit and a missing trash can
The morning of Thursday, May 30, Indianapolis police were called to Brandon Perry's home on Vandergriff Road. Perry's sister had flipped over his mattress and found "what she believed to be a large amount of blood" according to court documents.
Using a chemical which can detect blood not visible to the naked eye, officers discovered "signs of possible blood" in parts of Perry's bedroom, other rooms and the stairs to the basem*nt.
An officer led a cadaver dog, who can detect human remains, around the home. The dog alerted officers of a burn pit in the side yard of the residence, according to the probable cause affidavit. Brandon Perry's driver's license was found inside the pit, along with credit cards that "had suffered extreme thermal damage" and part of a business card that matched those belonging to Perry.
Brandon Perry's sister told officers there had previously been two large blue Republic trash cans at the home on Vandergriff Road. But, according to court documents, one was missing.
Matching handguns
David Perry told family and officers that he saw his father leave home in his truck between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 26. He did not report his father missing and family members only heard of his disappearance after Brandon's sister, called to ask if David had seen him.
David Perry told officers that Brandon owned a handgun which was missing from his truck, but which he believed had been stolen about a week before his disappearance, according to court documents. David told officers that he had a handgun which "looks just like the one his father had" in a safe inside his blue Ford Mustang. He said his father had given him the gun on his birthday when he turned 13 years old.
After officers recovered the firearm, they learned that Brandon Perry purchased the handgun in 2016, when David was eight years old.
Nearby surveillance footage paints a picture of a suspect
Video footage from Mikie's Pub from May 27, showed "a skinny male who is not Brandon Perry" walking away from Brandon Perry's Dodge Ram. According to police, this person looked similar to David Perry. He was wearing "a tan hat, a black t-shirt and brightly covered pajama pants with a white design of some sort on them."
'My brother is in the White River'
According to court documents, Brandon Perry's sister called officers on Friday, May 31, and told them, "My brother is in the White River."
After that, she said she was on her way to the Homicide Office with David Perry. Once she arrived, she stated during an interview with police, "My brother is in the White River in a trash can" but declined to answer any questions that were not related to the location of his body. She told police that "once she was told this information she did not want to hear additional details."
David Perry agreed to answer some questions from police but refused to answer others without an attorney present. David refused to say the last time he saw his father and said that he could not help police locate Brandon Perry without consulting an attorney, according to court documents.
During the interview, officers observed that David was "wearing a tan hat and black t-shirt which look to be the same or similar to the ones being worn by the individual seen on video walking away from Brandon Perry's pickup truck" at Mikie's Pub.
After obtaining a search warrant, officers searched David Perry's blue Ford Mustang of David Perry and found "a pair of brightly colored pajamas pants with white design," "a muddy/wet pair of jeans from the trunk," "a safe containing a handgun" whose description matched the one previously belonging to Brandon Perry and $1,000 in cash.
According to court documents, in a follow-up interview with police, Brandon's sister stated that a neighbor told her that they saw "David walking back and forth" from the house on Vandergriff Road to the fire in the side yard on Sunday, May 26 at around 1:15 p.m.
According to court documents, David Perry's grandmother told officers that he had tried to hand off a "single fired cartridge casing" to her and his aunt sometime before police searched the home on Vandergriff Road on Thursday, May 30. When she asked where he got it from, he told her he had fired his gun out back.
Cell phone location leads to the White River
Location data from David Perry's phone revealed that a little past 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 26, about the same time David told police he last saw his father, the phone was at the Walmart at 4650 South Emerson Avenue.
Video footage showed, David Perry entering the Walmart several times that Sunday, first to buy a red dolly, then "a dust buster, small fan, seat covers, a candle, a belt and a small gun safe." That gun safe was found in his blue Ford Mustang along with the handgun matching his father's and $1,000 in cash, according to a probable cause affidavit.
On May 27, David's phone was in the 7200 block of East Thompson Road around the same time the resident in that area reported seeing "a skinny male in a pickup truck."
In the early morning hours, his cell phone was where the White River crosses under I-69 near New Harmony Road, according to police.
Finally, Indianapolis police noticed that from 6:03 a.m. to 6:06 a.m. on May 27, David Perry's cell phone was located near Mikie's Pub, the same time that video footage from the bar showed Brandon's truck being dropped off by "a male who matches stature" and walking style of David Perry.
The search for Brandon Perry's body continues
Indianapolis police officers searched the area near New Harmony Road and I-69 south and discovered wheel marks and boot prints leading down to the river. After taking casts of the wheel marks, officers determined that they matched the size of wheels of a Republic trash can, "the size of which was missing from the home of Brandon and David Perry," according to court documents.
Brandon Perry's body has still not been found, according to Indianapolis police.
David Perry's jury trial is currently scheduled for August.
