KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City police hope technology can help them solve an unusual double homicide.

Detectives obtained a search warrant from a Jackson County judge to retrieve data from an Amazon Alexa device that was in the apartment of two Stowers Institute researchers who were killed.

Firefighters discovered the bodies of 24-year-old Camila Behrensen and 25-year-old Pablo Guzman-Palma inside their fire-damaged apartment near 41st and Oak streets on Saturday.

Police said the victims suffered physical trauma that would not have been caused by a fire.
Detectives also seized a shell casing and projectile from the apartment as evidence.

In their application for the search warrant, police said they believe there may have been verbal communication between the victims and the suspect when these crimes were happening.

That exchange might have been captured by the Alexa device, which is able to record audio of conversations nearby.

Detectives found the Alexa device on a bookshelf in the victims’ apartment.

Police also are asking neighbors to share surveillance video from Friday night and Saturday morning to help detectives identify a suspect.

In a statement, the Stowers Institute and Graduate School said: “We are devastated by the tragic deaths of two of our predoctoral researchers. These researchers were members of our 2020 class and vibrant members of our Stowers Institute community. Our deepest sympathies are with their families at this difficult time.”