LENEXA, Kan. — Johnson County, Kan. prosecutors released a court document that shows the two men found dead inside their home in Lenexa last month were stabbed multiple times and apparently died as a result of the significant blood loss and trauma.
The document also outlines the evidence in their case against Alex W. Brune, 27, facing two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the July 9th double homicide.
On Wednesday, July 9 police received a call shortly after 10 p.m. from a man who had been shot in the stomach, but said he was unsure of his location. Police pinged his phone and determined he was in the 8500 block of Hallet Street in Lenexa.
When police arrived, they located Brune on the front porch, shot in the right side of the stomach, and telling them two people were dead inside the home. They have been identified as Brian Baskind, 47, and Clifford Preston, 79, who were related as stepfather and stepson.
In the affidavit released to the media, police described that when they arrived at 8536 Hallet, the front door was open, lights and televisions were on and the basement window was open.
They found Baskind and Preston in the basement, in the back bedroom.
Both suffered and died from multiple knife wounds and they had numerous defensive wounds, police say. Beside their bodies, officers observed a large knife and handgun, which police believe belonged to Preston.
There were large amounts of blood on the walls and floor.
Officers saw that a basement window was open and there was a lot of blood around it on the floor and walls.
That night, police contacted Brune’s wife, Heather, who told them he got out of their bed at about 8:45 p.m. to go sleep on the couch. Then, when he came out of surgery, Brune told police he was kidnapped from his home at gunpoint by a ‘young guy’ who knocked on the back door at the Brune home.
“Don’t make any noise and your family won’t get involed,” Brune told police the young, white man said while pointing a gun at him.
Brune claimed the man forced Brune into his own white work van and said an older white man in a convertible was parked in front of the van.
Brune said after arriving at the house on Hallet Street, he was forced into the basement by both men who were armed with handguns.
Brune said he noticed a long knife on the side table and grabbed it to try to use it to escape, but he said the men struggled with him; he stabbed them and during the struggle, Brune said he was shot by the older man.
In an effort to verify Brune’s story, police used surveillance video and interviewed neighbors to establish a timeline. They say evidence shows Brune’s white van was seen by several different surveillance cameras at HyVee and at CVS near 87th & Plumm.
They also say a witness believes it was Baskind, in his black Mercedes, whom he saw in a drive-thru at Burger King at about 9 p.m.
Police also say evidence shows Brune’s white van and Baskind’s Mercedes were in the same location near Candlelight Lane and 87th Street at approximately 9:08 p.m.
Then, at 9:10 p.m., a neighbor reports seeing a white van parked south of the address where the murders occurred.
Police also presented as evidence a black spray-painted air soft pistol, apparently hidden behind a television in the basement area where the bodies were found. There was also a full face mask and a magazine clip belonging to the air soft pistol, along with black gloves next to the victims’ bodies. Police say similar gloves with the same brand name were found inside Brune’s van.
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