Digital evidence and witness accounts tied two suspects to the death of Hunter Howell, whose body was discovered in a scorched car, say investigators.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Broward County murder case that started with a suspicious car at a remote boat ramp widened into a cross-state investigation after detectives said phone data, witness interviews and surveillance helped lead them to two suspects later arrested in Texas.
Authorities say the victim, 22-year-old Hunter Howell, was found dead on Feb. 1 inside a green Honda Accord at the West Broward Boat Ramp in unincorporated western Broward County. The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Howell’s death was ruled a homicide and investigators determined he had been killed the day before, Jan. 31. Detectives later arrested Jayden DeJesus and Trevon Quinones and accused both men of first-degree murder with a firearm and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. The case matters now because the arrests answered who was charged, but not why Howell was killed, leaving motive as one of the biggest unanswered questions.
The first known public step in the case came when deputies answered a call about a suspicious vehicle at the boat ramp off North U.S. 27. The site sits in a sparse area west of Fort Lauderdale, close to the Everglades and away from dense neighborhoods. Inside the Honda, deputies found Howell in the front passenger seat. A warrant later described a car interior marked by soot, burned clothing and signs of an attempted fire. Investigators said a white hooded sweatshirt had been placed over Howell’s face and chest and that parts of the fabric were charred or burned through. The medical examiner’s findings, as described in the warrant, said Howell died from a single gunshot wound to the left side of his head. Detectives also said evidence in the car pointed to an incendiary device or another deliberate attempt to burn evidence after the shooting. The Honda, they said, had been left in tall grass at the far end of the lot, a detail they considered important because it suggested the vehicle had been placed where it would be harder to spot.
Investigators then turned to people who knew Howell to map his last hours. His father told detectives the young man lived with him and made money selling cannabis, according to the warrant. Howell’s girlfriend said he left that night to see friends and sell marijuana. A friend later told detectives Howell had been hanging out earlier in the day but headed off around 7:30 p.m. to continue working. That same friend gave detectives another useful detail: Howell had recently lost his own vehicle after it was struck by lightning. Because of that, the friend said, Howell often relied on DeJesus and Quinones for rides. Witnesses also described a social routine that centered on a boat ramp in the Weston area where people gathered, often on Sundays, to play loud music from modified vehicles. Detectives said that description fit the West Broward Boat Ramp, linking Howell, the suspects and the eventual crime scene to the same place. According to the warrant, the friend also told investigators the suspects’ Instagram accounts vanished after the killing, a change the friend found suspicious.
Once detectives had names, the investigation shifted to data. Authorities said records from a previous traffic stop showed the Honda belonged to DeJesus. Search warrants for phone records later placed his device moving toward the boat ramp between roughly 8:45 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Jan. 31, then leaving the area just after 10 p.m. Investigators wrote that the movement formed a traceable route from a residence to the boat ramp and back. Local reporting added that SunPass records captured DeJesus and a passenger at a toll point, and detectives said the driver appeared to be wearing the same sweatshirt recovered from the car. Surveillance video from outside the apartment building where DeJesus and Quinones were said to be living also became part of the case, with detectives saying the men were seen in clothing that matched items found in the vehicle. Another witness, identified as a woman who had been in a long relationship with DeJesus, told investigators he arrived early the next morning with Quinones in the Honda. By later the next day, she said, the car was no longer there. The warrant said DeJesus never reported it stolen and instead told his girlfriend it was “broken,” a statement detectives cited as evidence of guilty knowledge.
The arrests came on Feb. 11 during a traffic stop in Kaufman County, Texas. Broward authorities said their homicide detectives had already developed probable cause and that the U.S. Marshals Office in Dallas and the agency’s V.I.P.E.R. unit helped with the apprehension. The men were later extradited to Florida. News reports on Feb. 24 and Feb. 25 said they had been booked into Broward’s main jail on the murder and tampering charges. Public reporting differed on some booking details, including Quinones’ age and at least one account of bond status, but the central procedural picture stayed the same: both men had been returned to Broward to face serious felony charges in Howell’s death. No news report available at the time described a filed defense response, and the docket details beyond booking were not fully outlined in public stories.
Howell’s relatives used the days after the arrests to tell local stations who he was before the case turned him into a headline. His mother said he was a young father, a son, a brother and someone who was trying to build a life around music. She said he had been trusting of the people later accused in his death and had paid them to drive him around after he lost his own transportation. In an interview, Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesman Carey Codd said the arrests did not end the work because detectives were still trying to understand “exactly what led to this homicide.” That statement reflected the posture of the case. Investigators had described the route, the witness trail and the evidence they believe tied the defendants to the scene. But the motive remained open, and that missing piece continued to shape how the story was being told by both law enforcement and the family waiting for a fuller accounting of what happened on Jan. 31.
The case now stands at the charging stage, with the suspects back in Broward County and detectives still working to fill in motive and other gaps. The next key development is expected in court, where prosecutors will begin presenting the case through the normal pretrial process.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.