A family is mourning the death of a pregnant 19-year-old who attended Wichita State. According to PEOPLE, Zaiylah Bronson, 19, was allegedly strangled by her boyfriend over the weekend.
Bronson was reportedly found dead in the boyfriend’s car last Saturday. The news outlet reports that, Lewis, 22, was taken into custody that morning and faces a charge for capital murder, according to Sedgwick County jail records. He is being held on a $500,000 bond. Bronson’s mother Taronza Bronson recently spoke with The Wichita Eagle and says her daughter just recently found out that was expecting a baby boy. When her daughter died she was 16 and half weeks pregnant.
Weeks prior to her death, Bronson reportedly drove almost three hours to break the news about her pregnancy to her mother “She drove all the way here to surprise me,” Taronza told the newspaper.“She was excited,” the mother said. “They had picked a name and she would not tell me what the baby’s name is because she wanted it to be a surprise.” Bronson’s mother says they had a very close relation relationship and would talk on the phone almost every day and also take the time to drive out and see each other. Bronson’s mother says her child was on the right path in life by being an excellent student, pursuing her track career, and graduating high school a year early which landed her in Wichita State in 2021.
Wichita police started searching for Bronson on Saturday morning after one of Lewis’ family members called authorities saying they were suspicious that he had harmed his girlfriend. Police records reviewed by PEOPLE show officers tracked down Bronson shortly after 11 a.m. local time and soon discovered Bronson dead in his trunk.
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“The depth of pain that domestic violence inflicts upon its victims and their loved ones is unimaginable,” Bronson’s godmother Dawn Wilson wrote in a GoFundMe organized to help the family with funeral expenses. “No one should ever have to endure such suffering, and we must come together to address and prevent such tragedies from occurring.”