LEESBURG, Florida—A man reported missing Wednesday has been found dead in Marion County and a Wildwood man has been arrested in his death, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
On Wednesday, a friend of Casey Dean’s told LCSO they heard Dean had been killed and was last seen with Matthew Luke “Maniac” Allen, 26, on Sunday riding with Allen and unidentified person in a red 2015 Dodge Ram.
Deputies went to a home on Misty Meadows Drive in attempt to find Dean, Allen or the truck and were unsuccessful. They found the door to the guest house on the property ajar and spoke to a woman at the main house and told her they were looking for Allen because he had several felony warrants. She told deputies Allen was a “bad man” who her daughter recently met on the dating app, “Plenty of Fish,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
The woman called her daughter and asked her to come home and the daughter advised Allen had stolen the Ram and she was on her way home. When she arrived, she told deputies on Sunday afternoon, Allen was standing across from Dean with a coffee table in between them. A man identified by his nickname. “Meeche” was on the couch with his girlfriend and two juveniles were in the room, due to heavy redaction in the affidavit, it is unclear who the children belong to. Allen was yelling at Dean about a gun on the table that was believed to be inoperable. As the unidentified female went into the bathroom. Allen said, “Why would you pull a gun on people that doesn’t work?” immediately followed by a gunshot, the affidavit states.
The unidentified woman ran from the bathroom and observed Dean bleeding heavily from his upper body and begging for help. Allen asked Dean if he could put the gun in his hand and make it look like a suicide and never called for help. Dean died from his injuries on the couch.
Allen threatened to kill the woman and her children if she did not help dispose of the body, and text messages found by LCSO corroborated her fears, a detective noted in the affidavit.
“Meeche” and Allen rolled Dean’s body up in an old rug and placed his body in the back of the Ram and Allen forced the woman to drive the children to their mother in Ocala. After they dropped the children off, they drove to a home near County Road 42 and County Road 25 in the Weirsdale area of Marion County and dumped Dean’s body near Allen’s friend’s house. Allen then forced the woman to drive to Orlando, where they dumped the rug in a dumpster on an unknown road.
They stayed in an undisclosed location until Wednesday when she convinced Allen to let her go home to get clothes since he planned on fleeing the state the following day. She was permitted to use a car and she dumped it at Brooks Buck and Does, 21075 Southeast Highway 42, Umatilla and called a friend to pick her up. She told deputies she believed Allen would kill her too, the affidavit states.
A search warrant at the guest house revealed blood evidence and a bullet lodged in the wall; the woman helped lead law enforcement to Dean’s body and he was later found to have died from a bullet wound to the neck.
Detectives interviewed the juvenile witnesses, who corroborated the woman’s story and at least one of the children seemed traumatized by the killing, according to the affidavit. Allen was taken into custody by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office for several felony Sumter County warrants including drug charges and failure to appear. He is facing numerous charges in Dean’s death, including manslaughter, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, unlawful transportation of human remains, grand theft auto and child neglect. He is being held in the Marion County Jail on no bond.
