The last time Tana saw her daughter alive, Alexis was getting into Devonte Gray’s truck. It was January 10, 2025. Tana had been helping her 29-year-old daughter move, watching the kids, doing all the things mothers do. As Alexis headed out the back door, Tana called after her like she always did.
“I love you. Bye. ”
Then she added something she’d said before, something she never stopped saying. “Alexis, I don’t trust him.
He lost custody of the oldest boy and had to pay back child support. Most men don’t like that. Be careful. ”
Alexis didn’t seem worried.
She got into the truck with Devonte, the 30-year-old on-again, off-again boyfriend who was the father of one of her three children, and she left. Tana had reasons to be nervous. Alexis never said Devonte had hurt her physically, but her mother suspected he mistreated her with words. Years earlier, Devonte had filed a protection order against Alexis, and it was dismissed for lack of factual basis.
But the police in Capitol Heights, Maryland, had been called to Devonte’s Larchmont Street address many times over the previous eight months. The most recent call came on January 9th, 2025. Devonte himself placed it. He told the dispatcher he was having a domestic dispute with Alexis.
Then he said he had a gun, and if Alexis entered the home, there was going to be problems. When officers responded, they saw Alexis alive, driving past Devonte’s house. She was fine that night. A few days later, the mother of Devonte’s other children called the police.
She said that on January 11th, when Devonte dropped off their child, he told her he was going to jail. He wouldn’t say anything else. Then Devonte called Tana. “Do you know where Alexis is?
” he asked. “The last time I saw her, she got into your truck and left with you,” Tana said. “Yeah, but she called an Uber from my house. ”
Tana didn’t believe him.
She felt like he was trying to point her in every direction except the one that mattered. She filed a missing person’s report on January 14th. Around the same time, Devonte posted on social media, tagging Alexis. “Everybody making all these false claims, trying to lie or blame me, but they don’t know that I’m the one who loves you most and never left your side.
We were just planning our life together the day you went missing. I never laid a finger on you. ”
He called himself a victim. He said people had broken into his house looking for her and found nothing.
He said Alexis was his woman, carrying his baby, and that whoever was responsible would be handled. “I love you and hope to see or hear from you soon,” he wrote. “Please just call my phone and say you are okay. ”
Tana didn’t find any of it comforting.
On Sunday, January 19th, officers with the Prince George’s County Police Department served a warrant at Devonte Gray’s home in Capitol Heights. As they entered, they smelled something odd. The house was dirty, and at first they thought the smell might just be from the filth, so they cleared the scene. But then they looked closer.
Hidden beneath the stairs, sealed behind a newly constructed wall, they found the body of Alexis Scheler. She had been stuffed inside a plastic storage bin, filled with concrete, and then walled off with drywall and fake bricks. She was recovered beneath a large amount of soil and hay. An autopsy later confirmed she had been shot multiple times, probably on January 11th.
Police also recovered a semi-automatic handgun, fresh drywall, acetone, lemon ammonia, and other construction and cleaning materials from the scene. Devonte was arrested on the spot. During questioning, he confessed to killing the mother of his child. Police believed it happened during some kind of dispute.
He was charged with first and second-degree murder, along with firearm offenses. That same day, he waived his right to a bond hearing. At a press conference, Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz addressed the public. “On January 18th, the Metropolitan Police Department of DC contacted us for assistance locating Alexis Scheler, who had been reported missing on January 14th.
With the assistance of Chief Daryl Morgan and the Capitol Heights Police Department, we issued a search warrant at the home of Devonte Gray. While inside the house, our detectives and evidence team, along with the fire department, located Miss Schuler’s remains inside a newly constructed wall. The medical examiner determined that the victim had been shot. Devonte Gray was taken into custody at the scene.
During questioning, Gray confessed to murdering Miss Schuler. ”
Chief Aziz spoke about the broader problem, too. Last year, there were 21 domestic-related homicides in the county, affecting families across every race, age, and income level. These crimes were not just statistics, he said.
Each one was a person with a family and friends who were now shattered. Chief Daryl Morgan of the Capitol Heights Police Department also spoke. His department had been contacted on January 14th for a welfare check after Alexis hadn’t been heard from in days. They went to the location but couldn’t find her.
They gathered evidence and video footage, worked with the other departments, and eventually got enough to obtain the search warrant. “I wish we had been a day or two early and able to locate her and help her where she needed that help,” Chief Morgan said. “Sometimes we just get there a little late, and things kind of fall apart. ”
Former States Attorney Aisha Brave Boy addressed the family directly.
“This is a community of families. We’ve been here before, but it doesn’t get easier. In fact, it gets more difficult. No words we can say, no justice we can provide will be enough, because justice would be to have Alexis here.
”
She promised that one of the most senior prosecutors in the office would handle the case. Devonte would have a bond hearing that afternoon, and the state would ask that he be held without bond. “Alexis is not just a victim,” she said. “She’s a mother.
She’s a daughter. She’s a cousin. She’s a niece. She’s a sister.
She had a right to be here. ”
Then Alexis’s family stepped to the podium. Her cousin, Derek Felder, spoke for them all. “On behalf of our family, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who came together in the search for Alexis.
Although the outcome is not what we had hoped, we take solace in knowing that Alexis has been found and we now have the closure to lay her to rest in peace. ”
He thanked the detectives and officers by name, the family members who searched, the friends who shared posts, and the strangers who prayed. It truly took a community, he said. Then he remembered Alexis as a mother.
“Those three children have lost their mother. One of those children’s fathers is responsible. Alexis will be deeply missed, and there is a void in our family that can never be filled. Her three children will no longer feel their mother’s embrace or hear their mother’s voice.
And all she wanted was to come home to them. ”
He ended with a warning for anyone in a similar situation. “Alexis’s story is a painful reminder that this is not what love looks like. Someone who truly loves you would never do what Devonte Gray did to her.
If you are going through this, look at my cousin’s story and know that it is a call to wake up. Seek help. Prioritize your safety above all. ”
Alexis’s viewing and funeral were held on February 4th, 2025, at Enim Baptist Church in Temple Hills, Maryland.
Family members asked everyone to wear pink in her memory. Her three children are now in the care of their grandmother, Tana. Alexis should be here taking care of them.
But she can’t.
