A Michigan man accused of killing his girlfriend and stealing her car was ultimately found in New Mexico and arrested.
Grand Rapids Police found Aleta Lung, 61, dead in her home early Wednesday afternoon after her family contacted a property manager saying they hadn’t heard from her in days, WOOD reported.
An autopsy determined Lung died from blunt force trauma and that she’d been dead for two or three days when she was found.
“Police arrived, we saw what was clearly a scene of what looked to be a struggle. Very suspicious circumstances, there was a lot of blood on scene,” Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said.
Police quickly identified Lung’s boyfriend, 47-year-old Randy Buckner, as a suspect. Winstrom said officers had been called to the home in the past for a domestic disturbance and that an arrest had been made. Buckner, he said, “had a long history of domestic violence.”
Upon learning that Lung’s car and keys were missing, detectives entered her license plate number into a national database and soon learned that Buckner was headed west.
“U.S. Marshal Service, both Oklahoma and New Mexico law enforcement, state police, Albuquerque Police Department, really a team effort to identify where this vehicle had been, where we think he might be going,” Winstrom said.
Buckner was found in Lung’s car near Albuquerque and arrested on an open murder charge. He is now awaiting extradition back to Michigan.
