Los Angeles, California: Two Arrested in Murder of Christina Downer, Sister of an SNL Writer

Los Angeles detectives have arrested two people on suspicion of murdering Christina Downer, a 38 year old woman who was reported missing last December and whose cellphone later washed ashore on Santa Monica Beach, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement released on Friday, October 30.

The suspects are Delorean Bijon Brandon, 41, who was Downer's boyfriend, and Kaylee Nicole Markowski, 34. Detectives arrested Brandon on Thursday, October 29, in the 6000 block of Garvanza Avenue in Highland Park, and arrested Markowski the same day in the 6000 block of Tampa Avenue in Tarzana. Both were booked at the Metropolitan Detention Center on suspicion of murder under California Penal Code Section 187(a), with bail set at 2 million dollars each, police said.

A missing person case that became a homicide

Downer was reported missing on December 18, 2025, after her ex-husband requested a welfare check because he had not heard from her for an extended period. According to the LAPD statement, Brandon told investigators at the time that she had moved out several months earlier, leaving behind all her belongings, including her vehicle and her dog.

The case changed when Downer's cellphone was discovered washed ashore on Santa Monica Beach. After that discovery, detectives from the department's Robbery-Homicide Division took over the investigation from the missing person inquiry. In April, her brother Jimmy Fowlie, a writer on Saturday Night Live, told his followers on Instagram that the LAPD had informed the family that Christina was no longer alive and that the case had officially become a homicide investigation. He also wrote that the family believed her phone and social media had been used to hide the fact that she was gone, to ask for money, and to build a false account of her going off the grid.

What detectives allege

Through various investigative techniques, detectives identified Brandon and Markowski as the individuals responsible for Downer's murder, the disposal of her body, and the concealment of their involvement, the LAPD statement said. Police have not said in public where or when they believe she was killed, whether her body has been found, or what evidence led them to the two suspects. An arrest is an allegation, and neither suspect has been convicted in this case.

The Robbery-Homicide Division will present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for filing consideration, and police said the investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Robbery-Homicide Division, West Bureau Section, at 213-382-9470, or at 1-877-527-3247 during non-business hours. Anonymous tips can go to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

A family search that lasted most of a year

For Downer's family, the arrests close a search that ran from a welfare check in December 2025, through a phone found on a Santa Monica beach, to an April announcement that she was dead and two arrests in the last week of October. The court process will now decide what can be proved. The filing decision from the district attorney's office is the next step, and it will set out the formal charges, if any, that Brandon and Markowski will face.