Kyle Lutes

Kyle Randall Lutes was a young man from Terre Haute, Indiana, who loved sports and was close to his family. Born on March 2, 1989, to his parents William "Bill" and Shelly Lutes, Kyle was a 2008 graduate of Terre Haute South Vigo High School, where he played on the football and baseball teams. He later attended Indiana State University. His family remembers him as a kind person who, despite facing personal struggles, was deeply loved. In late 2013, Kyle, then 24, moved to Palm Beach County, Florida, to seek help at a drug treatment facility. His parents hoped that a change of scenery would provide a fresh start for their son. They drove his gold 2007 Ford Five Hundred down from Indiana for him at Christmas, thinking having transportation would help him find a job.

In late January 2014, Kyle’s parents grew worried when he stopped returning their messages. Knowing it was unlike him to be out of touch, they filed a missing person report with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office on January 30, 2014. Their search came to a tragic end on February 8, 2014, when Kyle’s decomposed body was discovered in a wooded area in the 2800 block of Valencia Gardens Avenue in suburban Palm Beach Gardens. An autopsy determined he had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the head from a .22-caliber weapon.

The investigation quickly centered on Kyle's car. Two days before his body was found, police located his Ford Five Hundred, but someone else was driving it. The driver was Marisol Castro, the sister of a man named Jayvon Avery. The car was riddled with four bullet holes. Avery, then 21, told investigators that he and Kyle were friends and that he had paid Kyle $150 to borrow the car. He claimed he had accidentally discharged his .22-caliber rifle inside the vehicle, explaining the holes. He also said that at one point, Kyle had even lived in a shed at his mother's home.

A break in the case came from Avery’s other sister, Star Avery. On February 9, Jayvon Avery was arrested for beating Star, who told deputies he had attacked her with "pure rage." In the aftermath, she told investigators that her brother had confessed to shooting a boy and leaving his body by a lake. She recalled driving him near a canal where he asked her to slow down, and on a second pass, he saw deputies at the scene and admitted he had shot someone whose body was near the lake. Based on her statement, authorities charged Jayvon Avery with first-degree murder on February 15, 2014.

However, the path to justice took a sharp turn. In May 2014, Star Avery recanted her statement, claiming she had lied to law enforcement and a grand jury about her brother's confession. With their key witness recanting her testimony, prosecutors were forced to drop the murder charge against Jayvon Avery. For her actions, Star Avery was convicted of perjury and sentenced to five years in prison. She was released in April 2019.

The collapse of the murder case has been a source of profound and ongoing anguish for Kyle's parents. Bill, a car dealer, and Shelly, a first-grade teacher, have made the 1,000-mile journey from Indiana to Florida numerous times to attend court hearings for Jayvon Avery on other, unrelated charges, including burglary. They have done so, they said, for the satisfaction of seeing him held accountable for any crime. "It was the worst thing we’ve ever done," Bill Lutes said in hindsight of the decision to send his son to Florida. The family’s grief is compounded by lingering questions about what happened to Kyle and why no one else has come forward.

In the years since his death, Kyle’s family has sought to keep his memory alive. A memorial fund was established in his name at First Financial Bank. His funeral services were held in his hometown of Terre Haute, where he was laid to rest at Highland Lawn Cemetery. As of August 2016, the murder of Kyle Lutes remains officially unsolved, leaving his loved ones still searching for the justice they believe he deserves.