Woman, soldier fiancee killed her boyfriend over ‘inappropriate pictures’, wrapped body in ratchet straps and left toddler home to ditch remains: Cops
The quiet suburb of Lakewood, Washington, became the center of a horrific and convoluted investigation when a missing person’s report exposed a deadly web of domestic abuse, infidelity, and cold-blooded murder. What began as a mother’s frantic search for her son culminated in the grim discovery of human remains dumped on a military base.
At the center of the tragedy are 22-year-old Aydee Casado-Dominguez and her fiancé, 22-year-old Humberto Rodriguez-Hernandez, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM). The two stand accused of murdering 28-year-old Caelick Bradley, a Tacoma resident who had been romantically involved with Casado-Dominguez. The case took a darker turn as details emerged of a toddler left entirely alone in an apartment while the couple allegedly moved and concealed Bradley’s body.
The Disappearance of Caelick Bradley
Caelick Bradley was an affectionate son and a loyal friend who was preparing for a massive transition in his life. He was scheduled to begin a cross-country move with his mother, Birgit Kueppers. On June 8, his mother spoke to him for what would unknowingly be the final time. During that conversation, she expressed how proud she was of him. That was the last time anyone heard from Bradley.
When June 10 arrived—the day they were scheduled to hit the road—Bradley never showed up. He failed to answer calls, and his phone went straight to voicemail. His friends and family immediately knew something was terribly wrong. Bradley was not the type of person to cut off contact or vanish without warning, especially when an important move was on the horizon. On June 12, his mother officially reported him missing to the Tacoma Police Department.
As investigators began digging into Bradley’s final days, they interviewed his close friends. These interviews quickly shifted the timeline of a standard missing person case toward something far more sinister. Friends revealed that Bradley had been trapped in a highly turbulent, volatile, and toxic relationship with Aydee Casado-Dominguez. They described her behavior as consistently abusive and noted that she had sent Bradley a barrage of threatening messages. Furthermore, friends told detectives a strange and manipulative detail: Casado-Dominguez had allegedly been trying to instigate a physical fight between Bradley and her other partner—her fiancé, Humberto Rodriguez-Hernandez.
A Digital Trail and a Fatal Confrontation
The investigation broke wide open when detectives secured a search warrant for Bradley’s banking history. The financial records revealed that while Bradley was missing and unreachable, his debit card was actively being used around the area.
A successful transaction of $287 was logged at a local Walmart. On the exact day Bradley was reported missing, two additional attempts to use the card at the same Walmart location failed. Police pulled the store’s surveillance footage from those transactions and observed a young man attempting to swipe the card while a young woman stood directly beside him. The couple in the video was easily identified as Humberto Rodriguez-Hernandez and Aydee Casado-Dominguez.
With clear evidence of identity theft, police tracked down Rodriguez-Hernandez for questioning. He admitted to using the card, claiming his fiancée had simply handed it to him. He noted that while he found it weird, he chose to just go with it. However, when the focus of the interrogation shifted to Bradley’s actual whereabouts, Rodriguez-Hernandez cracked. He confessed that Bradley was dead and offered to take the investigators directly to where the body had been hidden.
The Murder and the Macabre Concealment
According to court documents, the chain of events that led to Bradley’s death began between June 8 and June 9. Bradley had experienced a flat tire on June 8, a detail confirmed by his friends. The following day, Casado-Dominguez picked him up in Fife and brought him back to the Lakewood apartment she shared with Rodriguez-Hernandez on Addison Street SW. Cell phone pings later confirmed that Bradley’s phone remained at that apartment throughout June 10 and June 11 before going completely dark.
Rodriguez-Hernandez told detectives that when he returned home from his duties at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, he walked into a horrific scene. Bradley was lying dead on the living room couch. According to Rodriguez-Hernandez, Casado-Dominguez admitted that she had shot Bradley after a massive argument escalated into a physical altercation.
The catalyst for the fatal dispute was a collection of what Casado-Dominguez described as “inappropriate pictures” of herself and her child that she discovered in Bradley’s possession. When she confronted him over the images, a physical struggle ensued. Casado-Dominguez claimed that Bradley shoved her, prompting her to pull out a firearm and fire multiple rounds into his body, killing him on the spot.
Instead of calling emergency services, the engaged couple allegedly hatched a plan to scrub the crime scene and hide the evidence. They kept Bradley’s body inside the apartment for at least a day before executing their plan. To transport the remains, they borrowed a truck from one of Rodriguez-Hernandez’s unsuspecting coworkers. They wrapped Bradley’s body in blankets, bound it tightly using heavy-duty ratchet straps, and loaded it into the back of the truck.
A Toddler Left Abandoned
As the details of the body disposal came to light, prosecutors uncovered an additional, chilling layer of child endangerment. During the initial shooting, Casado-Dominguez’s two-year-old toddler was present inside the small apartment. Prosecutors expressed profound concern during subsequent court hearings regarding what the young child may have witnessed, given that Bradley was shot inside the residence and left on the family couch.
Worse still, when it came time to load the body into the truck and drive it out to a remote location to dump the remains, the couple chose not to bring the child along. Instead, Casado-Dominguez left her two-year-old toddler completely alone in the apartment. The child was abandoned without any adult supervision while the mother and her soldier fiancé drove away to execute a gruesome cover-up.
Rodriguez-Hernandez drove the truck to a publicly accessible military training area located on the expansive grounds of Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Spanaway, Washington. There, they pulled into a secluded gravel turnout and dumped Bradley’s bound body into the brush. On June 30, acting on the directions provided by Rodriguez-Hernandez during his confession, investigators located the site. They discovered the human remains exactly as described, still wrapped in the blankets and secured by the ratchet straps.
Legal Proceedings and the Road Ahead
Following the discovery of the body, law enforcement moved swiftly. Aydee Casado-Dominguez was arrested outside her Lakewood home on June 30, joining her fiancé in custody. Because the primary crime occurred within the city limits of Lakewood but the disposal took place on a military installation, the investigation became a multi-agency effort. The Lakewood Police Department and the Tacoma Police Department have maintained joint jurisdiction, working closely alongside the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office took custody of the remains to perform an autopsy, formal identification, and a definitive assessment of the trajectory and number of gunshot wounds. Meanwhile, the state moved forward with severe criminal charges.
Both Aydee Casado-Dominguez and Humberto Rodriguez-Hernandez have been formally charged with second-degree murder and identity theft. On July 2, the defendants appeared in court for their preliminary arraignments, where both entered pleas of not guilty.
During the hearing, prosecutors highlighted the calculated nature of the cover-up, the financial exploitation of the victim via his stolen credit card, and the flagrant endangerment of the two-year-old child left abandoned in the apartment. Citing the extreme volatility of the crime and the clear risk of flight, the judge set bail at a restrictive $1 million for each defendant. They remain booked inside the Pierce County Jail as they await their next trial dates, while extended family and child welfare services handle the care of the abandoned toddler.
