Months after a Louisiana waitress was found dead, police reports are revealing that she was killed because of what she knew about another crime.

Brooke Buchler, 25, was reported missing August 22, 2020, then found dead the next day by a squatter at the former Naval Support Activity building.

Investigators said Buchler told several people days before her death that she was raped by a man she knew and that two men had beaten the accused rapist badly when she told them. 

Brooke Buchler, a waitress from Slidell, Louisiana was found dead at an abandoned Navy base  in New Orleans

Pictured: Cody Matthews (left) and Dylan Craddock (right), charged in Buchler’s death 

Buchler, a waitress from Slidell, was found at the base shot in the head. She was found with a large metal pipe caught in her hair, a police report said according to WWL-TV.

‘Lying face down on the ground, the female was unresponsive and had blood on her face and right arm,’ the police report says.

The report also cites ‘one bloody handprint on the door frame where the victim was located.’ 

Dylan Craddock, 27, and Cody Matthews, 33, were charged with second-degree murder in October in Buchler’s death. Both pleaded not guilty and are tentatively set for separate trials next month.

Police said the two men wanted to silence Buchler who knew they nearly beat to death a man they thought raped her. It’s not immediately clear if the beating victim is the same man Buchler accused of raping her. 

Police claim Buchler was with the two men at a hotel in St. Bernard Parish August 21, a day before she vanished. 

‘As a result of the allegation, Dylan Craddock and Cody Matthews severely beat the [man] inside of Buchler’s apartment’ then moved him, police wrote.

Authorities said the 27-year-old beating victim also was stabbed before being dumped in a marshland in Slidell. He managed to survive and make his way to a hospital, but has not been cooperative with police since his release, they said. 

It is unclear why the man was in Buchler’s apartment. The Slidell PD said the beating victim was an ‘acquaintance’ of Buchler, but friends say they were in a short-term romantic relationship and may have been staying together. 

It’s also been alleged that they met on Tinder.  

Police said Craddock’s cell phone records show him talking to Buchler the morning of August 21, as well as being near where she was found later that same night.

The next morning, he texted his mother about ‘making a drop’ and leaving his phone with her, creating an alibi, police say.

But he had photos showing him and Matthews at the abandoned building a week earlier, according to police, suggesting they knew about the building well in advance of Buchler’s disappearance and discovery. 

After Craddock and Matthews were arrested, Matthews made a call from the jailhouse, where he claimed he ‘was present when Craddock killed Buchler,’ police say.

Buchler was found dead inside of an abandoned Navy base in Louisiana

Buchler was found dead inside of an abandoned Navy base in Louisiana

Matthews also allegedly asked for immunity from police in exchange for the location of the murder weapon. 

Craddock and Matthews have been charged with kidnapping and attempted murder in the beating of accused rapist, who has not been arrested. 

Buchler began to reveal a rape on August 20, according to investigators

Craddock is being held on $1 million bond, while Matthews is being held on $625,000 bond.

Both could face mandatory life sentences if convicted of murder, while the attempted murder charge could land them 50 years in prison and kidnapping can land them up to 40 years in prison. 

Buchler’s mother spoke of her daughter’s passing following the funeral. ‘I don’t know if she knew how much she meant to so many people,’ Cristin Naquin told CBS 8.

‘I think we were all kind of blown away by the people that came out,’ she added. both were already in jail as far as I understand for the alleged attempted murder/kidnapping – just new charges

Brennan, a brother, said at the time that she was like a ‘second mother.’ 

‘It was just me, mom and her in the house and mom worked,’  he said.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk

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