Authorities say two men were tracked to Texas after Hunter Howell was found dead in a concealed, burned Honda at a Broward boat ramp.
PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — The family of 22-year-old Hunter Howell says the arrests of two men in his killing have answered only part of the question raised after his body was found in a burned car at a remote Broward County boat ramp.
Howell was found dead Feb. 1 inside a green Honda Accord at the West Broward Boat Ramp in unincorporated western Broward County, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Detectives later said he had been killed the night before and announced arrests of Jayden DeJesus and Trevon Quinones after the two were stopped in Kaufman County, Texas. Both were later returned to South Florida to face charges of first-degree murder with a firearm and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. The immediate consequence of those arrests was to move the case from a search for suspects to a prosecution, even as authorities said the investigation itself remained active.
By the time the sheriff’s office announced the arrests, Howell’s relatives had already spent days trying to understand how a young man they described as loving, selfless and full of plans ended up dead in a car left in tall grass near the Everglades. The body was discovered after deputies responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle at the West Broward Boat Ramp, a location off North U.S. 27 where people also gathered socially to listen to music and spend time late at night. According to an arrest warrant later cited in news reports, Howell was found in the front passenger seat. His clothing appeared burned, soot covered the interior, and a white hooded sweatshirt had been laid over his face and upper body. Investigators said the fabric itself was charred. Despite that fire damage, the autopsy described in the warrant found Howell had died from a single gunshot wound to the left side of his head. Detectives said the fire evidence suggested an attempt to destroy or hide proof after the shooting.
Family members told local television stations Howell had become dependent on rides from others after he lost his own vehicle. His mother, Linda Howell, said her son had been paying the two men later charged in the case to drive him to work, the bank and other errands. “He got shot. They shot him. They shot him and tried to burn the evidence,” she said after the arrests. In other interviews, she described Howell as a young father and someone with wide musical interests who was making beats and trying to build something for himself. His sister said he was the sort of person who would give away the shirt off his back. Those details did not change the legal path of the case, but they gave the public picture of Howell beyond the police file. They also underscored the family’s core question. Law enforcement had said the evidence led to arrests, but authorities had not publicly explained a motive, and Howell’s mother openly wondered why anyone would want him dead.
The investigative trail described in the arrest warrant and follow-up local coverage offered pieces of an answer to how detectives built the case. Howell’s father and girlfriend told investigators he had gone out Jan. 31 to meet friends and sell marijuana. A friend said Howell had last been heard from around 7 or 8 p.m. and explained that the group knew a boat ramp in the Weston area where they often gathered. That detail matched the eventual crime scene. Detectives then used records to connect the suspects to the vehicle and the location. Authorities said the Honda belonged to DeJesus. They also said phone records placed his device moving toward the boat ramp between about 8:45 p.m. and 10 p.m., then leaving shortly after 10 p.m. Local reporting added that SunPass records captured DeJesus with a passenger at a toll point and that detectives believed the driver was wearing the same sweatshirt found with Howell. Video from outside an apartment building where DeJesus and Quinones were said to live also became part of the case after detectives said the men were seen in clothing that matched items recovered from the car.
Another part of the state’s theory involved conduct after the killing. According to the warrant, a witness who had been in a long relationship with DeJesus told detectives that he and Quinones arrived in the Honda early the next morning. Later, she said, the vehicle was gone. Investigators also said DeJesus did not report the car stolen and instead told his girlfriend it was “broken.” A friend of Howell’s told police that the suspects’ Instagram accounts were deleted after the homicide. Detectives wrote that this behavior, taken together with the vehicle’s condition and location, was “inconsistent with innocence,” language later echoed in public coverage. Those details are likely to matter as prosecutors try to show not only where the men were but what they knew and whether they acted to conceal evidence. At the same time, major unknowns remain in the public record, including whether robbery, a dispute, a drug-related conflict or some other reason lay behind the killing.
The arrests themselves came far from Broward County. On Feb. 11, deputies in Kaufman County, Texas, detained DeJesus and Quinones during a traffic stop, with assistance from Broward investigators and federal authorities, according to the sheriff’s office. The suspects were later extradited to Florida. By late February, local reports said both had been booked into Broward’s main jail. Public stories did not fully line up on every booking detail, including Quinones’ exact age and whether one defendant had a listed bond amount, but they agreed on the key point that both men were back in South Florida to face murder and evidence-tampering charges. Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesman Carey Codd said after the arrests that detectives were still trying to determine exactly what led to the homicide, a reminder that an arrest announcement is not the same thing as a full explanation.
For now, that is where the case stands for Howell’s relatives and for the public: the suspects are charged, the evidence trail has been outlined in broad terms, and the motive remains the part still hidden from view. The next public milestone is expected to come as court proceedings begin in Broward County and investigators decide whether to release more about what they believe happened on Jan. 31.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.