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Police: Dead man’s severed thumb was used to access bank account

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A woman accused of using her “sugar daddy’s” severed thumb to steal money from his bank account and use it to pay for Uber rides, marijuana and alcohol faces charges of first-degree murder in the man’s death, according to court documents.

Police found Fasil Teklemariam, 53, in his Peabody Street NW apartment in Washington’s Brightwood neighborhood on April 5 with multiple traumatic injuries and a missing right thumb, charging documents say. A doctor who performed Teklemariam’s autopsy found that he suffered multiple blunt fractures to his head, several lacerations and a stab wound. The doctor determined that Teklemariam had been killed two to five days before police found him and that his thumb had been severed shortly before or after his death.

Police are investigating at least four suspects seen on surveillance video entering and carrying items out of Teklemariam’s apartment in the days before police found him dead, according to charging documents. Tiffany Taylor Gray, 22, was arrested in Prince George’s County earlier this month on a warrant for premeditated murder while armed; she will be extradited to Washington, D.C., according to Washington police. No attorney for Gray was listed in online court records.

Authorities have also charged Audrey Denise Miller, 19, with first-degree murder while armed. Surveillance video shows Miller with Teklemariam before his death, charging documents say. Miller was remanded without bail pending her trial, and another court date is scheduled for later this month. According to the charging documents, two men who were seen entering Teklemariam’s apartment are also being investigated by police in connection with the murder.

An anonymous witness told police that Gray and Teklemariam knew each other and referred to him as Gray’s “sugar daddy,” court documents say. The witness told police that the group involved in the attack had cut off Teklemariam’s thumb and that they observed Gray using Teklemariam’s severed thumb to steal money from his account.

While surveillance footage mentioned in court records places the suspects in and around Teklemariam’s apartment in the days surrounding the murder, the recordings do not contain any other information about the alleged attack itself. The last time Teklemariam was seen alive on surveillance footage was the evening of April 1, according to court records. He can be seen in the footage meeting Miller outside his apartment and then going back inside with her, the recordings say. He left the apartment about 20 minutes later and returned shortly after with three cans of soda, court records say. After that, police say, the footage shows the suspects leaving his apartment. Cellphone data shows Teklemariam’s phone leaving the area of ​​his apartment late at night, according to the indictment.

When police filed charges against Miller last month, investigators had still not found Teklemariam’s thumb, cellphone, tablet or other electronic devices, the documents say.

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