Background: Courtroom video of Nikita Casap during his March 27 appearance (Waukesha County Circuit Court). Inset: Tatiana Casap and Donald Mayer (provided by family).
A teenager allegedly shot his mother and stepfather to death at their home in Wisconsin, then fled from the state with plans to go abroad.
Nikita Casap, 17, was arrested on Feb. 28 in Kansas, weeks after police said he murdered his mother, 35-year-old Tatiana Casap, and his stepfather, 51-year-old Donald Mayer. According to a criminal complaint filed on March 26, police believed that based on their evidence, the couple was killed on or about Feb. 11, and Nikita Casap reportedly stayed at the home with their bodies for several days before he allegedly took the family car and fled the scene. Police were alerted to the family’s home on Feb. 28 when the school Nikita Casap attended called Waukesha police to conduct a welfare check after the teenager had failed to show up for class for two weeks.
When police arrived, they encountered a grisly scene.
According to the complaint, police were met with “the odor of decay” and noticed something covered by a blanket in the hallway. Upon removal of the blanket, police found a woman wearing a winter coat. Her face, according to the complaint, was “blackened with decomposition.” She was eventually identified as Tatiana Casap. An autopsy would later reveal that she had four bullet wounds — in the neck, upper torso, abdomen, and wrist.
In the home’s office, police found the deceased body of Mayer with “an obvious wound” to the back of his head. His body was “covered by blankets and pillows.”
Police also said that the family dog was missing, as well as Mayer’s car. The complaint outlined the investigation that tracked Nikita Casap’s whereabouts using phone records, security cameras, and financial transactions allegedly made with his parents’ credit cards. The police timeline tracked Casap’s purchases with his parents’ cards in Waukesha from Feb. 12 through Feb. 23.
During that time, according to the complaint, Nikita Casap responded to texts on his stepfather’s phone to make it appear that he was still alive. One recipient of those texts was Mayer’s mother, who told police in an earlier criminal complaint obtained by local Fox affiliate WITI that she was getting “weird text messages” from her son’s phone on Feb. 23. Mayer’s manager at work reportedly received a text from his phone on Feb. 24 that read, “Due to unfortunate circumstances, I will be out for another week.” Both recipients told police that the texts were uncharacteristic of Mayer.
Nikita Casap was also allegedly caught on cameras inside the house, the complaint stated. In home security footage from Feb. 16 to Feb. 22, the teen was seen entering the rooms where the bodies of his parents were located. Police said that he was allegedly seen lighting candles by his mother’s body and taking photos of his stepfather. Detectives said Nikita Casap could be heard on the cameras by his stepfather saying, “So you can see him there. I can literally see the f—ing rotten body there.”
Police also spoke to a witness who stated in their interview that Nikita Casap had allegedly disclosed that he planned to kill his parents as well as himself. She told police that he told her, “he had a happy childhood, but wanted to know how it felt to not exist.” According to the complaint, the witness repeatedly told the teenager that he needed to get help and reportedly attempted to discourage him from following through with his alleged plans. He told her that if she shared what he said, “it wouldn’t end well.”
After police tracked down Nikita Casap in Kansas and took him into custody, they downloaded the contents of his cellphone. During her interview, the witness told police Casap was reportedly in touch with “a male in Russia.” (Nikita Casap and his mother are originally from Moldova.) Evidence found on Nikita Casap’s phone revealed conversations from January that he had on the Telegram app that indicated he wanted to flee to Ukraine. He allegedly told an unknown recipient, “So while in Ukraine I’ll be able to live a normal life? Even when it’s found out I did it?” During another conversation, when the person he was reportedly communicating with responded in Russian, he wrote, “Also I should probably brush up on my Russian, because I can understand just fine but speaking it is harder lol.”
On Feb. 8, just days before police believed the alleged double murder took place, Nikita Casap’s phone sent a message about money he was receiving that read, “That includes the headphones as well? Quality one to protect from hearing gunshots of a .357 Magnum. Just making sure.”
During his March 27 court appearance, the judge set bail at $1 million. His next court date is April 9.
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