The Tragedy of Evan Brewer: Ignored Pleas and a Concrete Tomb in the Laundry Room

When a landlord went to clean up a rental property in Wichita, Kansas, after the tenants were arrested and evicted, he was met with a horrific sight. Amidst the trashed apartment, a giant concrete slab sitting in the laundry room caught his attention. What lay hidden inside that concrete block was a chilling secret, bringing an end to a 3-year-old boy’s living hell and exposing the unbelievable negligence of the child protection system.

From a Loving Home to a Methamphetamine Nightmare

Evan Brewer was born on March 6, 2014, to parents Miranda Miller and Carlo Brewer. Evan was a happy, silly little boy who loved to make people laugh, and he was a big fan of the Ninja Turtles and Batman.

Although his parents separated shortly after his birth, Evan’s early years were relatively peaceful thanks to his mother’s attentive care. However, things took a drastic turn in late 2016. Miranda became heavily involved with methamphetamine and started seeing Stephen Bodine—a man who was also heavily addicted to drugs and had a history of abusing women.

Just weeks after moving in with Miranda and Evan in October 2016, Stephen revealed his true, violent nature. He regularly beat Miranda and directed his hostility toward the 3-year-old boy. Claiming that Evan “whined too much” and was “undisciplined,” Stephen forced Miranda to give him complete control over the boy. From that point on, Evan’s life turned into a series of brutal tortures.

A House of Barbaric Punishments

Under Stephen’s “discipline,” a 3-year-old child had to “earn” everything in his life, including clothing, food, and toys. His punishments lacked any bounds of humanity:

• Evan was frequently forced to stand in a room with his hands behind his back for hours on end. If the little boy moved even slightly, he would be subjected to slaps, kicks, or being thrown across the room.

• The boy was so terrified of his stepfather that he wouldn’t go to the bathroom; he would rather soil himself than have to walk past Stephen in the hallway.

• On one occasion, Stephen forced Evan to stand naked in the basement for six hours, wearing a belt around his neck attached to a chain and a heavy weight.

To satisfy his sadistic need for control, Stephen installed a network of surveillance cameras inside and outside the house. He wanted to monitor Evan’s every move while he was being disciplined so he didn’t have to watch him in person, and to ensure Miranda wasn’t contacting anyone on the outside.

A Father’s Helpless Battle

In early 2017, Evan’s biological father, Carlo Brewer, began noticing alarming signs. His son was showing up with bruises, and his speech and potty training severely regressed after returning from his mother’s house. When Carlo tried to ask about it, Miranda immediately cut off all communication and banned him from seeing his son.

A father’s intuition told Carlo his son was in grave danger. He did everything in his power to save him:

• Reporting to authorities: Carlo repeatedly called the police and the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) to request welfare checks. However, every time authorities went to the house, no one answered the door.

• Turning to the Courts: He filed for a protection order, refused to pay child support knowing the money would fund their drug habit, and eventually won sole legal custody of Evan in July 2017.

• Protesting: Desperate, Carlo and his relatives often sat in lawn chairs outside Miranda’s house, holding up signs chanting, “Give us Evan,” but to no avail.

Miranda’s aggressive evasion, coupled with the bureaucracy and negligence of the authorities, led all of Carlo’s efforts to a dead end.

The Final Days and the Concrete Tomb

According to Miranda’s later testimony, Evan died sometime between May 18 and May 22, 2017.

In his final days, the little boy was severely ill, constantly vomiting, and showed signs of salt poisoning after being force-fed large amounts of salt by Stephen. Despite the child’s exhaustion, Stephen forced Evan to stand in a corner with his hands behind his back in the middle of the night. When the boy collapsed from sheer exhaustion, Stephen dragged him into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. About five minutes later, he walked out holding Evan’s limp, lifeless body.

Instead of calling 911, the cold-blooded couple kept the boy’s body in the house for days before Stephen built a massive concrete block on caster wheels in the laundry room to hide his remains. The body was wrapped in layers of Ninja Turtle bedding, towels, clothing, and duct tape.

It wasn’t until August 30, 2017, that the couple was finally arrested by the police. But it took until September 2, 2017—when the landlord brought a sledgehammer to break open the concrete block after noticing a terrible smell—for Evan Brewer’s body to be discovered.

A Justifiable Yet Belated Sentence

In December 2018, the trial for this horrific crime took place. Over 16,000 photos and videos extracted from the home’s security cameras served as concrete evidence against the monstrous couple.

• Stephen Bodine was sentenced to 109 years in prison for multiple charges, including felony murder, aggravated kidnapping, and child abuse.

• Miranda Miller, despite attempting to claim she was also a victim of domestic violence, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and child abuse. The Brewer family’s attorney bluntly criticized Miranda in court: “She chose to let Evan die rather than let his father bring him to safety.”

The case also sparked a massive wave of public outrage directed at the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF). Declassified documents revealed that the agency had received six separate reports regarding the abuse of Evan, including near-fatal incidents. Shockingly, it was discovered that case records had been modified and falsified after the boy’s body was found to cover up the agency’s delays. Following the scandal, several DCF employees were fired, and the agency was forced into a major restructuring.

Evan Brewer’s funeral was held on January 27, 2018. Although the law ultimately punished the perpetrators, the loss of the little 3-year-old boy remains a painful scar—a tragedy that could have been completely prevented if the desperate cries for help from a father and his child had not fallen on the deaf ears of apathetic authorities and a complicit mother.