Michael Dudley Case: Alki Beach Suitcase Murders and 46-Year Sentence

The Michael Dudley suitcase murders refer to the June 2020 killings of Jessica Lewis and Austin Wenner, a couple who rented a room from Dudley in Burien, Washington. Dudley shot them at his home, dismembered the bodies, and packed the remains into suitcases that were later found on Alki Beach in West Seattle and in the Duwamish Waterway. A King County jury convicted him of two counts of second-degree murder in December 2022, and in April 2023 he was sentenced to 560 months in prison. The Washington State Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction in August 2025.

Who Jessica Lewis and Austin Wenner Were

Jessica Lewis, 35, was a mother of four. Austin Wenner, 27, sometimes called Austin “Cash” Wenner, was her partner. The couple had been renting an upstairs bedroom in Dudley’s Burien house since December 2019 for $1,500 a month.¹ Prosecutors said Dudley grew angry with the couple over unpaid rent.²

The Killings and the Suitcases on Alki Beach

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that both victims died on or about June 9, 2020. Lewis was killed by multiple gunshot wounds and Wenner by a gunshot wound to the torso.¹ A neighbor later testified that on the evening of the killings he heard gunshots and a man begging for his life.³

Ten days later, on June 19, 2020, teenagers filming a TikTok video on Alki Beach in West Seattle spotted a large suitcase that had washed ashore. A strong odor prompted them to call police. The tide had nearly pulled the suitcase back out to sea by the time King County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, but they recovered human remains from it. On June 22, a second suitcase containing remains turned up in the Duwamish Waterway.⁴ The teenagers’ TikTok clip of the find went viral, eventually racking up more than 30 million views.⁵

How Detectives Zeroed In on Dudley

Once the remains were identified as Lewis and Wenner, investigators traced them back to Dudley’s rental. On August 19, 2020, detectives served a search warrant at the Burien house. Inside the bedroom where the couple had lived, they found bullet holes, bullet strikes, spent rounds, and blood. Some of the bullet damage had been recently patched and painted over. Dudley was arrested the same day.⁶

A witness named Jennifer Leon, who had been staying at Dudley’s house, told detectives that on the night of June 9 she saw Dudley with broken glasses and scratches on him. She said she noticed a bloody hand poking out from a pile of clothes in one of the bedrooms. When she pointed it out, she said, Dudley told her to leave because he needed to “clean up a mess.” She later watched him lay large sheets of plastic on the basement floor, where she also saw shell casings and ammunition. According to Leon, when she asked what had happened, Dudley said: “Let’s just put it this way, his gun misfired and mine didn’t.” Photos of the bedroom were recovered from her phone.⁷

Another acquaintance with a key to the house, identified in court records as K.W., reported seeing foul-smelling garbage bags in the back of Dudley’s truck. When she asked about the couple, she said Dudley told her she “did not have to worry about them anymore.” A separate acquaintance told investigators Dudley had shown her cell phone photos of a dismembered body.⁷

Prosecutors also obtained cell phone records covering May 26 through August 20, 2020. The data showed Lewis’s phone stopped sending texts the night of the shootings and placed Dudley near Alki Beach the day before the first suitcase was found.³

The Trial

Dudley’s trial ran roughly two months in King County Superior Court before Judge Aimée Sutton, with closing arguments on December 6, 2022. Prosecutors had no direct eyewitness to the shootings and no DNA tying Dudley to the killings. They called their case a “cascade of evidence,” listing more than 20 facts and telling the jury the combination could not be coincidence if Dudley were innocent.⁸

The defense argued that Dudley, 62 at the time of the murders, was physically incapable of killing, dismembering, and moving two bodies. Attorneys attacked Jennifer Leon’s credibility, citing her heavy drug use, a long history of crimes of dishonesty, and pending criminal charges when she testified. They also accused detectives of shoddy work influenced by the media attention on the case.³ Dudley sought to introduce evidence pointing to other suspects who had allegedly held Lewis and Wenner at gunpoint inside the house and had ongoing access to it, but the trial court excluded that evidence as hearsay.⁹

The jury convicted Dudley of two counts of second-degree murder and found he was armed with a handgun during each killing, which triggered mandatory firearm sentencing enhancements.¹⁰

The 560-Month Sentence

On April 7, 2023, Judge Sutton sentenced Dudley to 560 months, more than 46 years. The term consisted of 220 months on each murder count, at the high end of the standard range, plus a 60-month firearm enhancement on each count, with everything running consecutively.⁶ Dudley was 65 at sentencing, making the term effectively a life sentence.

Dudley addressed the court, saying: “This isn’t really about me. It’s about justice for Austin and Jessica, and when all things are considered, I’m sure the truth will come out.” He added, “In the end they did good, despite their pernicious nature.” His attorney said Dudley maintained “the wrong individual was convicted.”¹⁰

Charleen Kriens, Wenner’s mother, called Dudley “a predator who seeks people out for his own benefit.” Gina Jaschke, Lewis’s aunt, called him a coward. Dean Wenner, Austin’s father, said through a victim advocate that he suffered recurring nightmares about his son’s death. Judge Sutton told the courtroom: “Two human beings were murdered, but I think it’s what happened after that that is challenging to understand.”¹⁰

Appeal and Where the Case Stands Now

Dudley appealed to Washington’s Court of Appeals, Division I. His arguments included claims that prosecutors committed misconduct during jury selection by misstating the reasonable doubt standard and by using his name in hypothetical questions that previewed the case, that the prosecution improperly used his pre-arrest silence against him, that the cell phone search warrant was unconstitutionally overbroad, and that the exclusion of other-suspect evidence violated his right to present a defense.⁹

On August 25, 2025, a three-judge panel authored by Judge David Mann, joined by Judges Leonard Feldman and Michael Diaz, affirmed the conviction on all grounds.¹¹ The panel denied reconsideration on October 2, 2025. Dudley then filed a petition for review with the Washington Supreme Court. As of early 2026, that petition had not been decided, and Dudley remains incarcerated.⁹

1
KPTV. Man Sentenced to 46 Years for Killing Tenants, Stuffing Bodies in Suitcases Found on Seattle Beach
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Westside Seattle. Double Murder Suspect Was Possibly More Violent; He Was Also Accused
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Fox 13 Seattle. Closing Arguments in Trial for Man Accused of Killing Tenants, Stuffing Their Bodies in Suitcases
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Fox 13 Seattle. Man Sentenced to 46 Years for Killing Tenants, Stuffing Bodies in Suitcases Found on Seattle Beach
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BBC News. World – US & Canada
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KOMO News. Michael Dudley Sentenced
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Washington State Courts. State v. Dudley, No. 85199-3-I
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Westside Seattle. Michael Lee Dudley Found Guilty of Murder in Deaths of Austin Wenner and Jessica Lewis
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Washington State Courts. Petition for Review, State v. Dudley
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Seattle Times. Burien Man Sentenced to 46 Years in Prison for Killing Couple
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Washington State Courts. State v. Dudley, No. 85199-3 – Opinion Information Sheet