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Deundray Cottrell’s body was found in a nearby shed after he went to check on his dog two days earlier.
A gay dancer and doctoral student was murdered while visiting family in Alabama for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and police and the victim’s family are looking for his boyfriend who was the last person to see him alive, according to multiple local media outlets.
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Deundray Dominique Cottrell, 31, who was known as ‘Bubba’ to his family, went missing from his sister’s home in Birmingham around 10 p.m. on July 4. Cottrell, who grew up in Birmingham but lived in Atlanta with his boyfriend of over two years Julian Taylor Morris, returned to the city to see the new house of his sister, Angelica Harris, for the first time.
Morris accompanied Cottrell on the visit and was the last person to see Cottrell alive. Morris said the dancer and scholar, who had been described by family as acting erratically and out of character the last few days, leaped from the second-floor balcony and took off running after going inside the house to check on his dog because of the fireworks.
“He went and checked on the dog and I never saw him again,” Cottrell’s sister, Angelica Harris, told AL.com.
Ring video footage from the neighborhood captured Cottrell running through yards and leaping over fences and gates.
“It looked like he was looking for refuge,’’ Harris continued. “He was running for his life.”
Officer Truman Fitzgerald of the Birmingham Police Department reported they found items of clothing belonging to Cottrell during their search of the area on Friday, July 5, and narrowed their search on Saturday to the area where the clothes were found.
Police were not alone in their efforts to locate Cottrell, however. They were joined by a large group of family, friends, and community members who conducted a massive private search of nearby alleys and bushes and posted flyers throughout the area.
“It showed that my brother was impactful wherever he went,” Deundray’s brother Timothy Cottrell observed to local ABC affiliate WBMA. “Wherever he was he touched people, touched them enough to just be a helping hand in his last hour.”
Cottrell’s lifeless body was discovered in the shed of an abandoned house on Saturday. Timothy said the group had passed the shed many times during their search. He said they didn’t enter the shed because it was on private property, and they didn’t want to break the law. He also expressed some relief that the police found his brother’s body, rather than a member of his family.
Family members were immediately suspicious of Morris, noting he was the one who told them Cottrell had jumped off the balcony and run away. Harris told local CBS affiliate WSBTV that Morris acted suspiciously in the immediate moments after Cottrell disappeared.
“While we looked – Julian didn’t,” Morris told WSBTV. “At one point when everybody was searching, Julian had fixed a plate and was sitting there eating, and he looked at me and said, ‘Oh my god, the food is so good.’”
Now Morris is missing, and police and family are urgently looking for him.
“Julian, where are you?” asked Timothy.
Anyone with information about the case or the whereabouts of Morris are encouraged to immediately contact the Birmingham Police Department or CrimeStoppers. CrimeStoppers offers cash rewards up to $5,000 for tips leading to an arrest.
