MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. – The ex-boyfriend of a missing Macomb County woman returned to court Wednesday.
Deandre Booker was charged in connection to Ashley Elkins’ murder, a woman who went missing in early January 2025.
The probable cause conference scheduled on Feb. 5 was initially set for the charges Booker initially faced for allegedly lying to a police officer.
Attorneys requested for Wednesday’s probable cause conference to be adjourned until March 7, 2025, for time to review the “voluminous” amounts of evidence that are being processed by the prosecutor’s office. The judge granted this request.
In January, officials confirmed blood was found in Deandre Booker’s apartment bathroom and deemed it belonged to Elkins. The Macomb County mother of two was last seen at Booker’s apartment the day she went missing.
Although Elkins’ body was never found, officials believe the evidence found in Booker’s apartment is enough to put Booker through trial and possibly convict him of murder.
Booker was arraigned on Jan. 31, 2025, on the following charges relating to the murder of Elkins:
- Premeditated murder
- Tampering with evidence
- Disinterment of a body
- Concealing the death of an individual
During the arraignment on Friday, officials said CCTV footage showed Elkins arriving at Booker’s apartment on Jan. 2, 2025, during the early morning hours. Booker was seen hours later leaving the apartment in Elkins’ car without her.
15 hours later, police said video footage showed Booker going in and out of his apartment, and Elkins was nowhere to be seen.
When police searched Booker’s apartment, they found a “substantial” amount of blood in the bathroom.
Booker was remanded with no bond at the Macomb County Jail.
Related: Ashley Elkins' ex-boyfriend arraigned on multiple charges in connection to her murder
What happened
Elkins was last seen Jan. 2, 2025, when officials say her cellphone placed her at an apartment in Roseville belonging to Booker, her ex-boyfriend.
Police said they found clues in a dumpster at the apartment that indicated the mother of two was killed. That led police to search a specific area of the Pine Tree Acres Landfill in Lenox Township.
It’s the same landfill where Detroit police spent weeks in 2022 searching for the body of Zion Foster. Her body was never found, but her cousin was convicted in her death
The search for Elkins was called off after seven days, from Jan. 13 through Jan. 19.
Police recovered what they call “lookalike items” on Wednesday, Jan. 15, that could belong to Elkins. But further lab testing was needed.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help Ashley Elkins’ family. You can donate here.
Ex-boyfriend arrested
Booker, 32, was taken into custody days later in Flint. Prosecutors pointed to his recent search history as evidence he planned to run.
He was charged with lying to police and arraigned on Jan. 9, 2025.
Bond was set at $250,000. A judge denied his request for lower bond.
--> Full timeline on the disappearance of Macomb County woman Ashley Elkins
On Jan. 22, 2025, Booker’s lawyer claimed he wasn’t a flight risk as he lived in Metro Detroit his entire life, and the bond is unusually high for one four-year felony charge with no prior criminal record. He asked Judge Joseph Boedeker to reduce the bond.
Boedeker agreed the bond was “extraordinarily” high for one charge, but he believed the judge in the arraignment had set the high bond based on Booker’s internet searches after Elkins went missing.
Booker’s search history revealed that while he was in Flint, he looked up information on the fastest routes from Flint to Ohio, what to do on the run, if blood is traceable, how to beat a polygraph, and deleting Google search history.
