Austin Kanuch

Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now on true crime, and then together we're going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to cover a little right now in true crime, and then we're going to get into today's case. So, first thing up on some trial updates the case of Amber s Bradlin out of Kentucky. Her life was taken in June of twenty twenty three. She was found deceased in the home of dentist Michael McKinney, and there was a obvious lot of questions about what transpired that led to Amber's death, and in twenty twenty four, Michael McKinney and his son were charged with her murder and another family friend, Josh Mullins, was charged with multiple counts of evidence tampering for trying to cover up the crime. So this trial is set to be again on May eleventh, which is next week, and that's going to start with jury selection and then they are going to go from there. Media is going to be allowed in the courtroom to cover the trial. Mountaintop media is going to be the only one inside of the courtroom with cameras, and they are going to be able to provide audio and video to all of the media who go on and request it. So I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on this one. I am very hopeful that they have enough evidence that this will end in a guilty verdict, but I will be sure to keep you guys updated. Just as for Amber is coming. Corey Richins attempted to get her sentencing moved back, but it is in fact going to be on May thirteenth, which coincidentally, probably not coincidentally, is Eric Richards's birthday. Corey was found guilty of planning and carrying out the murder of her husband, Eric Richins, and on May thirteenth she is going to receive her sentence and I think that that is just a full circle moment and I am very much looking forward to that day. Singer songwriter David real name David Anthony Burke was arrested in la on April sixteenth of twenty twenty six on suspicion of murder of Celeste Revas Hernandez, who was fourteen years old. We have been talking about this case on here for a while since Celeste was found, and there had been a lot of people wondering why David hadn't been arrested yet, just as I suspected, they were in the process of building a case against him, making sure that they had enough evidence that charges would stick enough to hopefully go to trial, and it looks like that's where they're at. So I'm glad that law enforcement has done their due diligence in this one and they finally have made an arrest. And it's unfortunately what we expected all along, that it was going to be David that was arrested. But if this one ends up going fully to trial, the details are going to be probably horrific. Even some of the arrest affidavits and everything that have been released are absolutely horrific. Those are public and you can access them on the internet and read them for yourselves if you're wanting a little more context. But I'm so glad that they have officially made an arrest and hopefully we are well on our way to getting justice for sweet little fourteen year old girl, Celestreuis Hernandez, who has taking advantage of groomed abused. The list goes on and on and on, and ultimately he ended up allegedly taking her life. She was only fourteen, So this one is going to be a really interesting one to follow. I will be sure to stay on top of it, all right. Moving on to some Texas killing fields updates. So her officials with the Galaston County District Attorney's Office they were in the process of doing a search in Baycliffe that was connected to James Elmore Junior and Clyde Hedrick. That has officially ended and her the Galveston County DA. Nothing was found on this property and there are no further searches planned at this time. So if you remember a week before last we talked about these searches, they thought that there might be potential evidence or even remains possibly on this property, so that is why they were so intensively searching it. But allegedly nothing has come up from that search. So I'll be sure to keep you updated on this one because this one is ever evolving and I think there are going to be more updates coming, so I will be sure to bring them to you here. So pretty much the biggest breaking news this week was the fact that the suspect who had been arrested in connection with the Houston Lovers Lane murders. Floyd William Parrott, aged sixty four, has died while in custody in Nebraska. He was a waiting extradition back to Texas for the crimes that he committed, and honestly, that doesn't really surprise me. We have not heard the details about the circumstances surrounding his death, but when I saw the news, I just felt absolute, utter devastation for these families who have waited so long for a suspect to be named, and then he's named, they're in the process of extraditing him back to Texas, and then this happens. He actually did have an extradition hearing scheduled for this week, so I'm sure there's going to be more to come on this one. It has to be so devastating for the families of Andy Atkins and Cheryl Henry. They waited so long for answers. This case happened in nineteen ninety I've gone over it in detail on the podcast here. I did the whole update episode when they arrested Floyd William Parrott, and it's just awful that now they're having to navigate that they might not ever really know what happened to Andy and Cheryl. At least with the suspect alive, there was a chance that things were going to be coming out. Maybe he would fess up, maybe he would confess. There's always so many possibilities when you do have a suspect and you're able to talk to that suspect. But now that he's gone, he has taken yet another thing from these families, and it's just absolutely heartbreaking. As somebody who's grown up in the Houston area, I've always been very familiar with Cheryl and Andy's case, even though I was quite young when the case happened. It's always been one at the top of my must solve list. And when we got the break in the case, it was so such a good feeling. And now this is just again feeling like the whole thing is back at square one. But I am sure there will be more that is going to come out, And like I said during the press conference, they do believe that Floyd William Perrott could have potentially more victims. So they're still asking anybody with information to come forward. If you knew him, if you worked with him, if you just know of him, Please come forward because you might have information that can help police tie more victims to him, or even help them in Cheryl and Andy's case. So, going from one Houston case that is so important to talk about, the Lover's Lane murders, to the episode of this week also happen in the area surrounding Houston in Texas, an important one to talk about and very important to share. So we are going to go ahead and get into this week's episode. All right, guys, we are jumping in to a brand new unsolved case today. In today's episode, I'm going to be telling you about the unsolved homicide of thirty nine year old husband and father Austin Kanye out of Houston, Texas in September of twenty twenty three. The details of this case are chilling and tragic. Austin, his wife, and his young son were inside of their home when somebody came in their house and took Austin's life and then disappeared into the night. Now, nearly three years later, his case remains unsolved and his family is advocating for answers and for justice. I have followed the Justice for Austin Kanye page on Facebook for a while now, and I also did Austin's case for one of my Unsolved Sunday Spotlight posts. But I've had Austin's case on my radar to cover deeper form, and that is what brings me here today. I truly do believe that his case is solvable, and I feel like getting this story out there, getting more eyes and ears on it is exactly what needs to happen to propel it forward, because Austin's family is waiting on answers, and Austin deserves justice and his family as well deserves justice. The person that did this is obviously very dangerous and should not be out walking amongst us. I do want to thank Richard for reaching out to me and asking me to cover Austin's case. I also do want to be very clear that Austin's case is not cold. It is still an active investigation. There are things that I am sure investigators have not publicly released in order to protect the integrity of the investigation. So with that being said, I'm only going to be speaking on things in this episode mode that have been released either in press conferences that involve law enforcement and crime stoppers, in news articles, or that have been provided to me by the team behind Austin's Facebook page. This is still an active, ongoing investigation, and I think approaching this in that way to respect the investigation is really really important. I do want to encourage all of you to go ahead and go to Facebook and like the Justice for Austin Kanye page. I will be linking it below in the show notes as well. But they do a really good job at daily Posts to keep Austin's face and name out there, and hopefully something in that will spark something in somebody and they will come forward. We are going to go ahead and get into Austin's story and case now. Austin Adam Kanye was born on February ninth of nineteen eighty four to his parents, Floyd Way Kanye and Seline Louise Miller, and he was the oldest of two boys. Austin grew up in the Cyprus Copperfield area outside of Houston, Texas, and he graduated in two thousand and two from Langham Creek High School. Austin loved his community and when he eventually had children of his own, he knew that he wanted them to grow up in the same community and attend the same schools that he did. Austin loved sports and music. He sang in choir in high school and even received a choir scholarship to sam Houston State University. He went on to attend college at sam Houston and obtained his BA in broadcasting and journalism. He went on to marry his first wife in two thousand and eight, and together they had two daughters. They did end up divorcing ten years later in twenty eighteen. Austin's daughters were ages of eleven and fourteen. At the time of his death in twenty twenty three. He did have primary custody of his daughters, but they did, however, spend some time with their mother as well. And I know it's different state by state what primary custody means, so I did want to expand a little bit on what exactly primary custody means in the state of Texas. Now. This is according to Google. In Texas, primary custody means one parent. The primary has the exclusive right to determine the child's residence, usually within a geographic restriction. Courts determine this based on the best interest of the child, frequently awarding it to the primary caretaker, and it says that courts typically will favor the parent who manages the daily routine such as school, healthcare, and extracurriculars for the child. The child will primarily reside with the person who is granted primary custody, but the other parent still does get visitation and a time with their child. So that is basically in Texas, primary custody, explained I wanted to explain that because it's different than joint custody, where it's fifty to fifty and both parents are making decisions on a child's education, health, location of their primary residence, and so on and so forth. So Austin was granted primary custody of his two daughters from his first marriage. Austin married his wife Mary in March of twenty twenty, and they had a son together who was only twenty two months old when Austin's life was taken. Austin described Mary as the love of his life and they were planning on forever together. Austin's two daughters primarily did live with Austin and Mary, but like I said, they did see and spend some time with their mother as well. Austin a love to barbecue, play golf, and go to concerts. He successfully worked as an internet sales manager at West Houston Infinity since twenty nineteen. And an interesting fact, Austin actually sold my best friend Katie her car when she lived locally years ago. Austin excelled at his job. He was well respected and one of the dealerships tapt performing salesman. He loved what he did and his job meant a lot to him, but all in all, his family was number one in his life. Austin was an amazing father and husband. He is described as kind and gentle with a big heart. In a video released by the Harris County Sheriff's Office about Austin's case, Austin's mom, Seline Miller, describes him as bigger than life. She said he had a large voice and a big smile. He was everyone's friend and was very charismatic, which makes what happened to Austin even more baffling. And this is one case where the victim is truly everything that he is described as. He didn't have a checker past, he was a peacemaker, He got along with everyone. Austin had a great reputation at work and in the community, and there were customers of his that would return and buy other cars from him. He was just that kind of guy, the kind of guy you meet and you're instantly friends with him, you feel instantly connected. Everything I've seen about Austin just describes him as this amazing guy. And I am very much a believer. And you can tell a lot by pictures of somebody and the Justice for Austin Kanye facebook page. They post pictures daily of Austin and just remembering him and who he was as a person, and you get to see a little bit of his personality in those pictures as well. And I think looking at photos of Austin with his wife Mary and his family, you can just tell that he was a good person, a genuinely good person. And I really want this episode to be focused on who he was as a person, not just the horrible thing that happened to him, although that's important because we need to get justice for him and his family, But he was genuinely a really good person. And everybody that I've listened to in interviews talk about Austin, or talking with my friend Katie about Austin and her interaction with him, he just genuinely was a good hearted human, and that's what makes what happened to him even more puzzling and shocking, because it just doesn't make any sense that this individual who was a peacemaker and who didn't cause any trouble would have their life so tragically taken from them. It just doesn't make any sense. But I did want to lay out and spend some time talking about Austin because I think all of that is so important for the story. So we're going to fast forward to September twenty first of twenty twenty three. This was a Thursday. Austin and Mary had just closed on a new home in Copperfield. This would be the home that they would move into and raise their children together as a family of five. Mary excitedly posted on Facebook it's official we are homeowners, along with two pictures of them. One was after the closing and the other one was an adorable selfie of Austin and Mary with their new home behind them and a SOULD sign on the lawn. Seeing these pictures and how happy they were just absolutely breaks my heart knowing what was going to be happening next. This was a lovely couple who had just closed on their dream home, their forever home. Mary, Austin and the children had been living in a rental home prior to the closing of this home. Home was located on green Leaf Lake Drive in Northmead Village in Copperfield, which is located outside of Houston, Texas, in West Harris County. The home was a three bedroom, two bath, one story home. It was in a typical Houston suburban neighborhood. This was not a place that you would expect anything bad to happen. Austin and Mary were preparing to move out of the rental in the days following closing on their brand new home. This should have been the most exciting time of their lives. On Friday, September twenty second of twenty twenty three, in the early morning hours, Austin and Mary were asleep in their rental home in their bedroom and their son was asleep in his nursery. Austin's two daughters were not at home that night and they were spending the night at their mom's. Around three twenty three am, surveillance cameras captured a person who was described as a thin built, post adolescent individual on a mountain bike. This person is seen traveling north on Spring Green Drive towards West Road. At three p twenty six am, that person on the bike arrives at Austin and Mary's home on green Leaf Lake Drive. So sometime after three twenty six am when this person arrived and before four twenty four am, this unknown bicyclist suspect hopped the fence of the Conyue home, broke into the family home, and with what is described as an edged weapon, began to attack Austin. Austin awoke in the midst of this attack and told Mary to turn on the lights. Once she got the lights turned on, she saw the aftermath of this attack and immediately called nine to one one, so immediately, in fact, that the suspect was still in the process of fleeing the Kanye family property when the nine to one one call came in. And again their mode of transportation to and from the property was the mountain bike, so that is exactly how they ended up leaving the Kanye family home on that same mountain bike that they drove in on. Unfortunately, the injuries that Austin sustained were too severe for him to survive. Around four to twenty four am, the same individual was captured on surveillance leaving the Kanyu home. They then went south towards West Road. At four twenty eight am, the same individual was seen traveling on West Road toward Telgi and then turned back south on Spring Green Drive into the neighborhood where they had first appeared. Mary was not physically injured and their son was also not harmed during this attack. This was an obvious targeted attack on Austin. To wake up from a leap in the middle of the night to an attack like that, it's just terrible the trauma that has to be associated with that. My heart truly is shattered for Mary and for their son, and for Austin's daughters and his whole family. There was nothing taken from the home, so robbery was ruled out as a motive. There was forced entry into the home. Like I said earlier, Law enforcement released this surveillance video in twenty twenty five of this bicyclist arriving at the Conyue home in hopes that somebody would come forward with information about this person. It is believed that this person in the video is the person who attacked and killed Austin, and this very much does not seem random. It was targeted, it was planned out, and it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like I said, there was nothing stolen from the home and there was forced entries. So this person obviously wasn't somebody that was invited in by Austin and Mary, especially in the early morning hours. And this person arrived at the home and spent almost an hour there before this attack occurred. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that this person was inside of the Conyue home that whole time. But one thing in this case that we don't know is what happened in that almost hour time. Was this person basically working up the nerve to break and enter this home and carry out this attack. Were they inside of the home for a while contemplating what they were going to do. Were they casing the house making sure that there was nobody else around before they went in. These are all things that we truly don't know. But the attack did occur right before the nine to one one call came in, and right before the attack hacker fled. Law enforcement did release during one of their press conferences that they did find an edged weapon and it was recovered from the residents. Now, I do want to be very very clear that Mary has been cleared as a suspect in Austin's death. I cannot even imagine what poor Mary has gone through, waking up to something so horrific, trying to process what exactly is going on, and then also having to go and make sure that her son was okay, and then also just processing this whole thing. It's just awful. And the fact that whoever did this is still out there and has yet to be held accountable. She is a victim in this too, and my prayers go out to her in Austin's entire family. So, like I said, Austin's case is very much still open and active law enforcement is actively working on new leads as they come in. And that is the importance of what we do in this true crime community, where we advocate for these cases that locally have gotten attention but nationally haven't gotten as much attention as they need. We cast a broader net when we cover these cases, because the person that could be the key to solving this case could be located anywhere. They could know something and not even realize that they know it. So covering a case like this is so so important and getting the word out there. The power of sharing something like this is what is helping solve cases all the time, whether it's sharing a post or a video on social media, sharing a podcast episode. There really is strength in coming together as a community and trying to get the word out there, not just for Austin, but for his family because they have been living with so much unknown for these last almost three years and they deserve to have answers. And the person that did this does not need to be on our streets. If you can so brazenly get on a mountain bike and go to a home and commit a horrific crime and then drive away on your mountain bike, you are a dangerous person and you do not need to be out walking amongst us. And like I said, this one is just so truly baffling because Austin is exactly who is. Friends and families say he was. Investigators have gone over everything to look for potential motives. There's nothing that Austin was involved in in his past that would have made him a target. He didn't have a secret life, he didn't have anything shady going on behind the scenes. He wasn't involved in anything that could have put him in danger. He didn't have any enemies. Like I said earlier, Austin was considered and called a peacemaker, So it just makes you question why was he targeted? Was is there's somebody out there that could benefit from Austin's death. I cannot imagine ever doing what was done to Austin to another human, a father, a husband, a son, a brother, a friend. I can never do something like that. I hope whoever this person is that did this lives in fear daily that their time is running out, and soon enough the truth is going to come out. Law enforcement, like I said, is still actively working this case, and Austin's family is not going to let up. It's so important right now to make this suspect uncomfortable and talking about it is the way to get answers. It may take time, but I do believe that answers will come. And there's also probably more than one person out there who knows what happened here. I cover cases all the time where decades later, somebody will come forward with what they knew and they've been holding onto secret for such a long time. If that person is you and you are listening to this now, is the time to come forward. There initially was a twenty thousand dollars reward offered for information leading to an arrest. It was offered by Crime Stoppers. In September of twenty twenty five, Texas State Governor Greg Abbott released a statement about Austin's death and stated quote, the Office of the Governor's Public Safety Office is offering a reward of up to twenty thousand dollars for information leading to the identification and subsequent arrest of the person or persons involved in the September twenty second, twenty twenty three fatal stabbing of Austin Kanyu. He went on to say, Cecilia and I continue to mourn the tragic loss of Austin Kanyu after he was brutally stabbed in Harris County, and we pray for his family and loved ones. The State of Texas remains in regular coordination with local law enforcement to provide all necessary resources to ensure those responsible are brought to justice and face the full weight of the law for this heinous crime. I encourage Texans with information relating to this crime to call the Texas Crime Stoppers hotline or submit an anonymous tip online. With the public's help, we will ensure justice is served. End quote. So with that, the reward that is being offered for information leading to an arrest in the case of Austin Kanyu is now at forty thousand dollars. To be eligible for the cash rewards, tipsters must provide information to authorities is using one of the following methods. Call the Texas Crime Stoppers Hotline at one eight hundred two five to two tips. That's one eight hundred two five two eight four seven seven, or you can submit a tip online via crime Stoppers as well. And I'm going to be including that link below in the show notes because I think it is very important. This is how crimes get solved by people that are listening to something, that realize something and they call in with a tip. That little minuscule piece of the puzzle that might not seem important could be something that is going to set off this case being solved. I am also going to be posting the clips of the alleged suspect on my social media. Please take a minute to go over there and look, especially if you live or lived around the area that this crime happened. Although the video clips aren't super great quality. It was obviously dark and the footage is grainy. Somebody knows who did this. Like I said earlier, the suspect is described as a post adolescent with a thin build and average height. This person and could be a male or a female. Investigators have not been able to definitively say one way or the other. They were on a mountain bike, and from what we know, this is a transportation that they use to get to and from the scene. Now, I think the mountain bike aspect of it all is very interesting because we kind of could look at it from a couple of different angles. They either do not have a vehicle and the mountain bike is their only form of transportation, or they use the mountain bike kind of to throw off investigators versus them arriving via car, And obviously if they arrived via car, there would be identifiable features that could lead investigators to them. I think them arriving on a bicycle and leaving via bicycle is deliberate. I think that they did this on purpose to throw off the investigation, knowing that if they were captured on any type of surveillance that the bike wouldn't have any identifiable features. But I personally inserting my opinion here, think that the bicycle part of it could be a potential big clue because I think riding your bike at three thirty in the morning somewhere, it's not something that normally people do. So could this mean that whoever committed this crime lived very close to the Kanye residents, meaning they got up and got on their bike and went to Austin and Mary's home, committed this horrific crime, and then biked home because they did live in close proximity. I'm sure this is something investigators have looked into, and I will be sure to keep you guys updated on any new things that happened to come out about Austin's case. Please go follow along on the Justice for Austin Kanye facebook page. Like I said, I'm going to link that below. Also, I do want to direct you guys to True Crime Unsolved podcast. They did a lot of work with Austin's family and they did interviews and they broke everything down, and I think they did a really good job in this series they did on Austin. So I'm also going to be linking that below in the show notes. I think right now, what we can do as a true crime community is just support Austin's family. Support the Facebook page, share the posts, interact, look at the video of this bicyclist arriving to the Kanye home, and hope and pray that justice is served in this case, because it's two and a half years old at this point, and two and a half years is a really long time to have so many questions and so little answers about what happened to your loved one. So please, I say this every episode, but share this episode, especially if you lived in that area, if you live in the surrounding areas of Houston. I know I have a lot of local listeners. I live outside of Houston myself, and I think this is one that we really can help propel forward. We all just have to be on the same page and be willing to share. So I do want to thank you guys for listening to this episode on Austin, and I am grateful that I have been able to cover Austin's story, grateful for my communications with Richard, and I do want to send one last message to Austin's family. I hope and pray that there is resolution in this case. Sooner rather than later, and I hope that you all realize what an amazing job you were doing advocating for Austin and keeping his name and story out there. It is not something that anyone signs up for when a family member is taken in such a tragic way, but doing what you guys are doing right now, trying to advocate and talk about Austin and talk about his case, is truly what is going to help solve it. So sending you all love and prayers. I know my listeners will echo my sentiments, but I can't wait for the day that Austin's case is solved and there is some justice that is served here. Thank you guys so much for listening. As always, I hope you have an amazing weekend coming up, and stay safe by