Police have arrested a man from California for allegedly killing his sister, who was about to give birth, and then setting her corpse on fire in a trash can earlier this week.
According to Fresno authorities, Aaron Jamal Dudley, 41, is charged with two counts of murder because his sister was eight months pregnant. At that stage, her unborn son, who she would have named Noah if she had given birth, was expected to survive after birth because of how far along he was.
Fresno County authorities said the unborn baby boy did not die in the fire. He died because Dudley stabbed his 26-year-old sister, N-Kya Rebecca Logan, multiple times in the uterus.
Logan’s friends had thrown a baby shower for her two days before the fatal stabbing. She was a little over the eight-month mark.
A maintenance crew working near an apartment complex in North Cornelia Street’s 4400 block discovered Logan’s body on Tuesday afternoon and called 911. Police responded to the 911 call about a woman who appeared to have been set on fire on December 13.
Responding officers found Logan’s body in an alley near a dirt access road. They noticed that the burned woman was pregnant. The Fresno Fire Department and police officers saw a melted gas can a few feet from the body. The killer appeared to have poured gas all over her body before setting her on fire.
According to the police, a witness told them they had seen someone on the access road bring a city garbage can to the area and then start a fire. They thought the person was innocently burning garbage, and they didn’t know something more sinister was happening.
Surveillance footage from surrounding houses showed Dudley pushing a garbage can out to the road from the house he shares with his sister. He then lit her body on fire.
Speaking during a press conference, Paco Balderrama, the Fresno Police Chief, said they had several witnesses who saw the fire. One of them took a picture of a man the police believe is the suspect, standing over Logan’s body.
Chief Balderrama said they had surveillance footage of the 41-year-old man pushing a garbage can, which they believe Logan’s dead body was in before her brother set it on fire.
Talking about the gruesome discovery by police, he said they saw the victim had been set ablaze when they arrived.
Police officers executing a search warrant on Dudley’s home arrested him as he was trying to flee the house.
Lisa A. Smittcamp, Fresno County District Attorney, said during the press conference on Wednesday that killing a fetus is murder and that the prosecution would seek the death penalty.
Although the police have not spoken about a motive for the gruesome murder, the Police Chief mentioned that Dudley was previously ruled a danger to his family. Officers responded to his sister’s home on July 28, 2021. The 911 call led to the police placing Dudley in detention for 72 hours.
The Police Chief said Logan feared for her life when she made that call in 2021. He also said the relationship between the two siblings was not good.
Balderrama said that it takes a lot of evil, hate, and planning to stab your pregnant sister and her unborn child to death.
