Minnesota man admits to dismembering missing 19-year-old and disposing her body parts in dumpsters
The family of a missing 19-year-old girl from Moorhead, Minnesota is seeking answers after it was revealed that the local police department suspects the teen has been murdered. Dystynee Avery has been missing since April 3, and her family has said that she was last seen with 27-year-old Ethan Broad. Reports state that she temporarily stayed at Ethan's apartment.
According to latest reports, Broad has told Moorhead Police Department that Dystynee Avery was dead. Court documents say Broad admitted to dismembering Avery's body in his garage and throwing her body in the apartment dumpsters. Broad originally stated that another individual was responsible for killing Avery, but later admitted that he was responsible for both killing and dismembering Avery, but claimed it was done in self-defense.
Moorhead Police had booked Broad into the Clay County Jail on Friday night, April 17. Reports state that he is currently being held by authorities on second-degree murder charges.
Before Broad admitted his crime to police, the missing teen's mother had said she wanted to know what he "had done to her."
"He will not tell anybody where she’s at which is the hardest part. And now that I know that she is gone, I want answers. I want to know where she’s at. I want to know what he did to her," Dystynee's mother Doreen Avery said in a statement to Valley News. The mother added that this was not the first time Dystynee had stayed at Broad's house; the teen had stayed with the suspect multiple times in the past. Doreen said that she never saw any red flags and believed Broad was a great guy.
"For him to do what he did, I guess I really don’t know him. Because obviously he’s capable of taking someone’s life," the mother told the outlet.
Doreen and Dystynee’s boyfriend, Jordan Yarobrough, told authorities that they had received calls from a worried Broad on April 3, explaining that he and the teenager had a fight the night before she disappeared. When he woke up in the morning, the teen was nowhere to be seen.
"A bunch of B.S. because obviously he had already taken her life. She was already gone," Doreen said referring to Broad's calls, suggesting it was a pretense. While Yarobrough said: "Ethan had told me four different stories. It didn’t add up."
The girl's mother and boyfriend said that they generally heard from Dystynee at least once a day. "It did not matter what was going on. Dystynee called me every day, even if it was just to say, ‘Mom, I love you,’" Doreen said of her daughter. "If you seem down, she’ll try and get it out of it, and keep you happy all the time, keep you motivated."
The pair, however, said that Broad's version of events continued to change as days went by without a word from Dystynee.
"That’s when I knew that something happened because it’s not like her not to call me, not like her not to blow up my phone or blow up her dad’s phone," Doreen said, adding that the local police department has not yet shared the details of the case yet. The mother said that she believes her daughter's case is in good hands and prays that her body is discovered soon.
"I hope and pray he tells them where she’s at, so she can be brought home and put to rest in the place she wanted to be,” Doreen said.
A GoFundMe has been set up for the Averys to assist them with travel and funeral costs. Authorities have asked anyone with information regarding the case to contact the Red River Regional Dispatch Center at (701) 451-7660 and ask to speak with an investigator from the Moorhead Police Department Investigator.