On the evening of March 7, Naazir and Qaadir Lewis pulled into a Shell station close to their house in suburban Atlanta, gassed up their black Nissan Altima and purchased some water and beef jerky.
As they tossed out trash from the again seat, a basketball bounced out of the automotive, a fleeting second of teen normalcy captured on the fuel station’s safety cameras. The twin brothers drove off into the evening, leaving it behind.
About 12 hours later, a hiker found their our bodies at the high of distant Bell Mountain, practically 90 miles north close to Georgia’s border with North Carolina. The 19-year-olds lay facet by facet on their backs, with their legs straight and their arms outstretched. Each was found with a colourful, anime-style sword.
A 1911-style .45 caliber Garrison handgun lay on the floor between Naazir’s legs.
In the weeks and months that adopted, their kin disputed the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s conclusion that the teenagers died by double suicide. In a transient assertion in May, GBI investigators stated forensic proof from the scene confirmed that both twins had fired the gun.
This week, NCS obtained the GBI’s exhaustive file on the now-closed case — together with paperwork that reveal new particulars about the twins’ final days. Autopsy studies present the brothers have been every found with a “contact-range” gunshot wound to the proper facet of their head.
In their final days, one brother FaceTimed a girlfriend to indicate her a handgun he had obtained. He additionally ordered ammunition on-line. The different brother carried out Google searches that pointed to suicide, in accordance with the GBI case file.
Daryl Manns, an lawyer for the twin’s father, informed NCS on Tuesday that even after reviewing the GBI file, the household rejects the declare the teenagers died by suicide, saying the crime scene appeared suspicious.
“The main thing is the way the bodies were positioned … the way the gun was positioned. They looked staged. Those things to me were a red flag,” Manns stated. “They weren’t conducive to what you would consider a suicide situation.”
But the GBI file paints a portrait of two younger males who gave the impression to be quietly combating stress and monetary worries.
Born 5 minutes aside, the twins have been inseparable.
They shared the Nissan Altima and liked a lot of the similar issues: anime, video video games, the “Mortal Kombat” franchise and animated TV reveals.
The brothers lived with their father and stepmother in Lawrenceville, the place they frolicked outdoors on the deck cosplaying with anime swords, their aunt, Antoinette Lewis, informed the GBI.
She described them as “nerds” who confirmed no indicators of psychological well being struggles. Naazir, she stated in the GBI report, as soon as spent three hours debating her about the realism of Harry Potter storylines.
According to the report, Naazir, the older twin, was in a long-distance relationship with a girl he’d met about a 12 months earlier than his demise. The girl lived in Boston and supplied investigators a glimpse into his life.
Naazir had visited her final December and confided that he was struggling along with his “house life” and rising monetary duties in the wake of his father’s well being issues, in accordance with the GBI report. At a press convention in June, the twins’ father, Tyrese Lewis, stated he was recovering from a stroke. He insisted that his sons weren’t suicidal.
In late February, shortly earlier than the twins’ demise, Naazir FaceTimed his girlfriend and stated he had one thing to indicate her. He went upstairs to his bed room, held up a handgun and informed her that he wanted it to defend himself and his brother.
“Your man is out here being dangerous,” he informed her, in accordance with the GBI report. He didn’t say the place he bought the gun, she informed investigators. Naazir ordered ammunition on-line the similar month.
Investigators later discovered the handgun had been reported stolen final December in Powder Springs, one other Atlanta suburb some 48 miles from Lawrenceville. It’s unclear how the twins bought it. The GBI didn’t present extra info.
The twins did on-line searches for learn how to load and fireplace the gun
Outwardly, the twins’ lives appeared regular, members of the family stated.
On March 6, two days earlier than their our bodies have been found, they spent a night with their older sister, Kai’ree Powell, she beforehand informed NCS. The siblings watched episodes of “Rick and Morty” along with her earlier than calling it a evening round 11. Naazir had a flight to catch for Boston the subsequent morning to go to his girlfriend.
But searches related to the twins’ Gmail addresses inform a darker story.
The day earlier than they visited their sister, the field of ammunition Naazir ordered in late February was delivered to their house, in accordance with the GBI.
Hours later, at 4:15 p.m., an account related to Naazir’s Gmail watched a video about the 1911 gun, a basic pistol common amongst firearm fans.
The similar day, Naazir booked a roundtrip flight to Boston on Spirit Airlines. It was scheduled to go away Atlanta on Friday morning – March 7 – and return two days later on Sunday evening.
“They were not doing what someone considering suicide would do,” stated Manns, their father’s lawyer. “They were shopping. They were buying things. They were planning trips.”
The morning after the twins left their sister’s home, Naazir took an Uber to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He checked in for his flight when he arrived.
Around 8 a.m., he despatched his girlfriend a picture of the lengthy TSA line and stated he feared he’d miss his flight. “I think I’m cooked,” he texted her. He agreed to reschedule the flight for the subsequent day at his girlfriend’s request and took an Uber house, the place his stepmother confirmed she noticed him, the GBI report stated.
Naazir by no means rebooked the flight.
At 6:32 p.m., an account linked to Naazir’s Gmail watched a video titled, “Should You Shoot At An Angle?” Later that evening, at 9:36, a gadget linked to his Gmail watched one other video titled, “What is it like getting shot at?!”
The twins informed their stepmother goodnight. Not lengthy after, CCTV captured them at the Shell station in Lawrenceville.
The pair left the fuel station alone after spending 5 minutes shopping for snacks and filling the tank. Naazir was driving whereas his brother sat in the passenger’s seat, in accordance with the GBI.
About an hour later, as they neared Bell Mountain, their units recorded extra exercise. At 11:34 p.m., an account related to Naazir’s Gmail searched “how to load a gun” and performed a tutorial video about loading and unloading a firearm.
Cellphone information and video footage present the twins’ Nissan arriving at Bell Mountain shortly after midnight. The gate to the mountaintop was purported to be locked after sundown, however a Towns County sheriff’s deputy who’d labored the earlier night had left it open.
The mountain was so distant that it was commonplace for the understaffed sheriff’s division to go away the gate unlocked generally, in accordance with the GBI.
Investigators haven’t stated why the brothers selected Bell Mountain. The twins’ household stated to their information neither teen had ever been there earlier than.
Investigators found a purple backpack and two anime swords at the scene
On the morning of March 8, the twins’ stepmother awakened and realized they have been lacking. She assumed Qaadir had taken his brother to the airport, the GBI stated.
She found a digicam and a be aware in Naazir’s handwriting on the kitchen counter. “Please return to my Uncle Rahim,” it learn. The twins had borrowed their uncle’s digicam to take pictures of an athletic clothes line they deliberate to start out.
Later that morning, a University of North Georgia scholar was mountain climbing at Bell Mountain when he got here throughout the twins’ our bodies and notified native authorities, who reached out to the GBI. The hiker informed authorities he didn’t initially imagine the scene was actual and needed to get one other man to substantiate what he’d seen.
A blue-and-white anime sword lay over Qaadir’s torso. Next to his physique was a bottle of water – presumably the one bought at the Shell station. Beside him, mendacity in a related method, was Naazir, with a black-and-purple sword beneath him.
The handgun and two spent casings have been found on the floor between Naazir’s legs. In Naazir’s pockets investigators found his iPhone and a Spirit Airlines aircraft ticket to Boston, dated the day earlier than.
A purple backpack found close to the scene contained a field of Nosler .45 caliber cartridges, Qaadir’s telephone and a pocket book. Written on one web page in the pocket book was the line, “Journey to the Afterlife.”
In the mountaintop car parking zone, investigators found the Altima overlooking a stretch of naked winter bushes. A half-empty bottle of Martinelli’s cider sat on the floor beside the automotive. Inside was a newly bought rope and an unopened bottle of Fireball cinnamon whisky.
A scan of Qaadir’s cellphone revealed it had searched “suicide rates 2024” and “suicide rate” at an unspecified date, the GBI stated. A member of the family who declined to be recognized stated he had heard the brothers in current months discussing suicide and the challenges going through younger individuals.
But the member of the family informed NCS he doesn’t suppose it is sensible that the backpack was found elsewhere on the mountain – not by the our bodies or in the automotive – and that Qaadir had a bottle of water beside him.
“Who says, ‘Wait a minute — let me take a sip of water before I kill myself, ‘” he stated.
The floor close to their our bodies appeared to have small craters, as in the event that they’d been moved, the member of the family stated.
Investigators, checking to see if different individuals have been on the mountain that evening, obtained a search warrant for Google location information inside a 200-meter radius of Bell Mountain between 11:45 p.m. March 7 and 6 a.m. the subsequent morning. Google information found no units in the space throughout that timeframe, the GBI stated.
The GBI’s final report dominated the twins’ deaths a suicide. “It is respectfully requested that this case be closed,” it learn.
But for the twins’ members of the family, the questions linger. They’re raising funds to hire a private investigator to conduct their very own analysis into what occurred that fateful evening on Bell Mountain.
Their stepmother, Kaarini Gitata, informed investigators the twins weren’t hikers and didn’t usually drive their automotive lengthy distances out of worry it will break down. “None of it makes sense to me,” she stated.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re feeling you’re in disaster, name or textual content 988 to succeed in the 24-hour Suicide Crisis Lifeline.