That answer stunned investigators. By Wade’s own description, KJ had been unable to eat, drink, walk normally, or care for herself, yet he had left her alone in a bathtub and later failed to summon medical help when she appeared lifeless. Detectives began to suspect that the supposed accident was a cover story for something much darker.
The evidence being processed inside Wade’s apartment made detectives even more certain that his account was incomplete. Officers documented rope, cords, trash bags, female belts, women’s shoes, and other items that might become relevant to the investigation. The large cooler that Wade had been so reluctant to open had changed the direction of the case, but investigators still needed to understand when KJ died, what happened before her death, and why Wade concealed it.
A second important witness was Wade’s close friend, Steven Ryan Russ. The anonymous caller who sent police to Wade’s apartment had not been a stranger at all. It was Steven.
Steven told detectives that Wade had contacted him privately and said he had done something he could not discuss with anyone else. Steven reassured him that they were like brothers and that he could talk to him. Wade then said KJ had died and admitted that he had not reported the death to police.
The disclosure quickly became more disturbing. Steven said Wade wanted help moving KJ’s body using a car. Steven and another family member refused. Steven initially told Wade he would keep the secret, but the information frightened his family so badly that people were losing sleep. Eventually, Steven decided he could not remain silent and called Central Dispatch.
“Did you place that call?” an investigator asked.
“Yes, I did,” Steven answered.
Steven knew that speaking to police might eventually become part of a court case and that Wade would learn who had reported him. Even so, he explained that the situation had gone too far. His decision was the reason officers had arrived at the apartment that night.
Wade seemed to understand that Steven was probably the caller. During his interview, he referred to one friend whose conscience had likely caught up with him and said he would not be angry about it. He also tried to explain why he concealed KJ’s death. He said he was afraid that whatever he told authorities would be misunderstood and that he would immediately be treated as guilty.
“I didn’t do the right action,” Wade admitted. “I probably should have reported. I should have done something.”
Yet his next decisions made it difficult to view the concealment as panic alone. Wade acknowledged that KJ remained inside the apartment after her death. Steven later said Wade offered to show him the body, but Steven refused. He did not want to see it and already felt deeply uncomfortable simply being inside the apartment.
When detectives asked Steven why Wade would keep a dead woman in his home, he gave a simple answer: Wade did not have a way to get rid of the body. Wade, however, described his own thinking differently. He claimed that he wanted KJ to receive a proper burial and talked about wanting to know where she would eventually be buried so he could visit her.
Those statements suggested an unusual need to maintain control over what happened to KJ even after her death. Investigators would later hear far more troubling allegations about control during the final weeks of her life.
For now, detectives returned to the timeline. Wade said that after discovering KJ dead in the bathtub, he kept her body there. He described periodically running cold water and said he believed, based on things he had seen on television, that keeping the body cold might slow decomposition. He told investigators that he would enter the bathroom, check on her, and even speak to her despite knowing she had died.
He described watching the physical changes that occurred over the following days. Investigators did not need the graphic details to understand the implication: KJ remained in his bathroom for an extended period while Wade continued living in the apartment and told no authorities what had happened.
About six days after KJ’s death, Wade said, he purchased a large cooler along with air freshener and heavy trash bags. His plan was to move KJ from the bathtub into the container. He soon realized the cooler was not large enough.
The detective asked what Wade meant when he said he later needed a second cooler. Wade explained that he originally wanted to keep KJ’s remains together in one container, but he could not position the body to make it fit. Eventually, he admitted that he cut her legs so the remains could be separated between two coolers.
The interview became quiet as Wade described the decision in a matter-of-fact way. He repeatedly said it had been horrible and disgusting, but he still framed it as a practical problem caused by the size and condition of the body rather than as evidence of what investigators suspected had happened before KJ died.
Police later learned that Wade had tried to borrow a saw from Sherry. He told her he needed it for an unusual household task involving a mattress. When he was unable to obtain one from her, he purchased his own saw from a local store.
After using it, Wade did not keep the tool. He contacted another acquaintance from the shelter community, a man named Bill, and arranged to trade the saw for a DVD player. Wade described the exchange as casual: Bill needed a saw and Wade wanted a DVD player.
Bill remembered it differently. He told police that Wade was unusually insistent that he take the saw immediately, even when Bill suggested waiting until he had the DVD player ready. Bill said Wade pushed him to take the tool right then. When investigators later asked whether anything about the saw looked unusual, Bill recalled material lodged near the blade. Testing indicated a possibility of blood, although the source did not establish every forensic detail with certainty.
Bill also remembered the smell inside Wade’s apartment. Before knowing what police would eventually discover, he had assumed Wade had a severe hygiene problem or perhaps an animal had died nearby. After Wade’s arrest, Bill realized that the odor he had noticed was connected to something much worse. He had even sat on one of the coolers without knowing what it contained.
The search team at the apartment documented the two large coolers. Officers approaching them understood that whatever was inside could be deeply disturbing. They opened the containers and found what they believed to be KJ’s remains separated between them. One held most of her body; the other held her legs.