The brother of an aspiring model whose body was found burning in a trash dumpster after a night of clubbing in Miami said he's keeping his family away from South Florida.
Thomas Bussell, the brother of Paula Sladewski, appeared on the "Today Show" this morning, warning that his sister's killer is still out there in the city.
"Somewhere out there in Miami, there's a killer running around, a coward killer," Bussell, of Taylor, MI, said. "So my message to the people is watch your daughters, watch your sisters, you got the Super Bowl coming down there, you got Spring Break right around the corner. And if my little daughter comes to me and says 'Tom, I need money to go down to Miami for Spring Break,' I'm telling her to pick another state."
Sladewski, 26, was in town from California for New Year's with her boyfriend, Kevin Klym. Sladewski and Klym had been at Club Space into the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 3. Klym was kicked out of the club, leaving Sladewski to fend for herself. Her charred body was found later that day, 12 miles from the club in a bin on NE 130th just off Archer Road.
Sladewski was captured on a surveillance video leaving the club alone, but witnesses may have seen her leave with a suspect after she got outside the club. Authorities are currently working on a sketch of that possible suspect.
"There's a lot of information out there that has yet to be disclosed to the police and I want to plead with anybody, from the bottom of my heart, if you have a daughter, if you have a sister, please come forward, tell the police everything you know," Bussell said.
Bussell said his sister's good nature could easily have helped her fall prey to a vicious killer.
"This perpetrator who's responsible for abducting my sister, he could have told her anything because she was very young and naive and she believed that there was a lot of good in this world," Bussell said. "I told her time and time again that there's also a lot of evil and that's what you gotta watch out for."
As for Klym, Bussell said he hasn't spoken with him and he doesn't want to yet, and he thinks Klym should have waited for his sister.
"He's guilty of being a coward, that's what I think," Bussell said. "He was responsible for her, he was responsible for her safety, her well being. He left her there without a cell phone. He left my little sister there to fend for herself. Had he waited outside that club, it was only 20 minutes, 20 minutes could have saved her a lifetime."
Police believe Klym's story that he left the club and went back to his hotel. Either way, Bussell is devastated by the loss.
"I'm troubled beyond belief, I lost my little sister," he said.
