On the morning of Saturday, February 24, 2024, 35-year-old Natisha Tink Phillips was found dead of gunshot wounds inside a motel room at the Blue Way Inn & Suites in the 7300 block of East Kellogg in east Wichita. Officers arriving shortly before 9:30 a.m. discovered Phillips and a 35-year-old man, Christopher Harrell, both suffering fatal gunshot wounds; Phillips was pronounced dead at the scene and Harrell later died at a hospital. A 2-year-old boy was found in the room and was reported physically unharmed; the child received medical and psychological care after the incident. Authorities arrested 20-year-old John Aurthur Griffin III of Wichita; he was charged by the Sedgwick County District Attorney with capital murder, criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, and aggravated endangering a child, and was held on six-million-dollar bond. The motive and Griffin’s relationship to the victims have not been publicly detailed.

If anyone has information about Phillips, Harrell, or the events at the motel that morning, please share what you know.