King County prosecutors say a 46-year-old Kent man went to “extraordinary and terrifying lengths” to destroy evidence that he killed and dismembered a man inside his apartment nearly four years ago in an apparent drug-and-cash rip off.
Brian Mares was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder, accused of killing 36-year-old Austin Leming early on Dec. 8, 2021, dismembering his body with an electric saw and hiding his remains, which have never been found.
Mares was arrested in Des Moines on Monday and remains jailed in lieu of $5 million bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 24.
Witness statements, DNA evidence, cellphone records, bullet casings, a .380 pistol and a Rolex watch helped investigators build a case against Mares, who allegedly stole 5,000 blue fentanyl pills, a pound of meth, Xanax bars and thousands of dollars in cash from Leming, according to the charges.
Leming’s mother reported her son missing to Puyallup police on Dec. 12, 2021, charging papers say.
Ten days later, a man contacted Kent police to relay his suspicions that Mares had killed Leming after Mares called the man, saying he’d been shot and needed help, the charges say.
The man told police he went to Mares’ apartment in Kent on Dec. 15, 2021, where he found Mares with wounds to his arm and torso from a single gunshot, charging papers say. He saw that the vinyl flooring in Mares’ apartment had been torn up and packages of chicken and beef were thawing in pools of presumed blood on the concrete subfloor, according to the charges. The torn up floors and animal blood were presumably to get rid of and taint blood evidence.
The man heard rumors days later that Leming had gone missing after picking up 5,000 fentanyl pills and a pound of meth — the same amounts Mares had told the man he’d given to the man’s daughter, the charges say.
Suspicious, the man called Mares and asked if he’d seen Leming because Leming had the man’s Rolex watch and Mares told him, “You’re not going to see Austin no more” and “I got your watch,” charging papers say.
The day after the man contacted police, detectives got a search warrant and arrested Mares at his apartment on a state Department of Corrections felony warrant, according to the charges. Investigators noticed his injuries and Mares confirmed he’d been shot but refused to say who had shot him, the charges say.
At the SCORE Jail in Des Moines, a nurse removed a bullet from Mares' back and Mares called two men, asking one of them to get a Rolex watch back from the other, the charges say.
In a search of Mares’ apartment, blood was found in every room and samples taken from the spare bedroom, dining room and living room all matched Leming’s DNA, according to the charges. A baseball bat and two spent casings — one from a .380 caliber pistol and one from a .223 caliber rifle — were also found in the spare bedroom, the charges say. The flooring in both bedrooms, the hallway, the dining room and a portion of the living room was missing and investigators did not find any drugs, cash, guns or Leming’s body, according to the charges.
Leming’s cellphone records revealed that he called his 10-year-old son almost every day but the calls immediately stopped after Dec. 7, 2021, the charges say. Location data from his phone showed he was in the South Hill area of Puyallup that night before arriving in the area around Mares’ apartment a little before 1 a.m. on Dec. 8, according to the charges.
One witness had seen Leming with a .380 caliber pistol and a blue Rolex watch two days before he went missing and was the last person to speak to him on his device in a 5-minute phone conversation that ended at 2:52 a.m., charging papers say. After that call ended, the device ceased all data connections and there were no outgoing calls or text messages.
Location data from Mares’ cellphone records show he was in the area of his apartment during the same time frame, the charges say.
While searching Mares’ girlfriend’s cellphone, detectives found pictures of Mares’ apartment from Dec. 5, 2021, showing the vinyl floors intact, according to the charges.
Two people who separately visited Mares' apartment told police they saw Leming's .380 caliber pistol, and one of them reported seeing Mares clean blood and tissue from an electric saw in the kitchen sink, charges say.
One of the people who visited reported they took the gun and sold it. Kent police later recovered it and sent it to the State Patrol crime lab for testing. Leming’s DNA was found on the grip and the gun was matched to the bullet removed from Mares’ back and the casing found in his spare bedroom, the charges say.
Police also recovered a broken blue Rolex watch from one of the men Mares had called from the SCORE Jail, charging papers say.
As of last month, Kent police — with help from King County search and rescue teams and other state and federal law enforcement agencies — “has conducted multiple searches and followed up on numerous tips over nearly four years of investigative efforts,” the charges say.
“To this day police have been unable to locate any remains belonging to Austin Leming.”
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