A Los Angeles man with a violent rap sheet stretching back 17 years was charged this week with murdering his girlfriend — but only after the victim's famous brother forced the country to pay attention.
Christina Downer, 38, was allegedly killed by her longtime boyfriend Delorean Bijon Brandon on or around Sept. 19, 2025. Her body still hasn't been found. Brandon's current girlfriend, Kaylee Markowski, 34, was charged as an accessory after the fact for helping dispose of the remains, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. The system had every warning sign — and missed every one.
Brandon's criminal record includes 2008 convictions for robbery and attempted robbery and a 2015 conviction for criminal threats, KABC-TV reported. He also faces two felony counts of injuring his wife in a separate 2022 case. He was free. Downer was left unprotected.
Court documents reviewed by the Los Angeles Times reveal a staggering chain of institutional failure. Downer filed for a restraining order against Markowski in September 2024, alleging harassment that began Christmas Day 2023. Downer wrote that Markowski called her racial slurs, stole her spare key, placed AirTags on Brandon's car, and blackmailed her with stolen personal videos — including a topless video sent to strangers. "Mentally, this has done irreparable damage," Downer wrote.
Then Brandon himself petitioned for a restraining order against Markowski on Sept. 2, 2025, alleging she threatened to shoot him when he tried to leave her for Downer. A judge denied the temporary order the same day it was filed, pending a hearing set for Sept. 23. On Sept. 18 — one day before prosecutors say Downer was murdered — Brandon voluntarily canceled the hearing. The case was closed.
Downer wasn't reported missing until Dec. 18, 2025, when her ex-husband requested a welfare check. Brandon told police she had moved out months earlier, leaving behind her car, her belongings, and her dog. Her cellphone later washed ashore on Santa Monica Beach.
What turned this into a national story was Downer's brother, Jimmy Fowlie, an SNL writer whose Hollywood connections — Bowen Yang, Amy Schumer, Ariana Madix — amplified the search across social media. Us Weekly framed the coverage almost entirely around Fowlie's career and celebrity reach, noting his viral "Domingo" sketch and industry accolades. The entertainment press covered a murdered woman as a sidebar to her brother's résumé.
That's the class tell. When a working-class woman in Koreatown disappears after months of documented threats and a failed restraining order, there are no viral posts, no celebrity amplification, no wall-to-wall coverage. The same district attorney who missed the warning signs now issues statements vowing accountability. Brandon faces life in prison if convicted. Markowski faces up to three years.
The question nobody in the press is asking: how many Christina Downers are there right now, waiting for a system that already has all the evidence it needs — and still does nothing?
