‘It’s finally happening.’ After ex-boyfriend’s murder arrest, family feels relief, sadness

Updated 4:55 p.m. May 12 to reflect a new arrest.

Melanie and Brandon Tucker were sitting on the couch, eating with their granddaughters, when they got the call.

“Oh my God, it’s finally happening,” Melanie Tucker recalls saying, covering her mouth as she felt a combination of shock and relief.

The call on Tuesday was from a detective at the Holly Springs Police Department, who told the Tuckers that the man they believe had killed their daughter Monica Moynan would soon be arrested.

Moynan was 22 when she was last seen in early April 2019 and was reported missing in mid-July. Known as Moni, she was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a budding entrepreneur and an aspiring doula — someone who assists pregnant women before and after they give birth.

Almost a year later, she has still not been found. But detectives have charged Brian Sluss, her ex-boyfriend and the father of their two children, with her murder. He was indicted May 5, by a Wake County grand jury

Moynan’s family waited anxiously for a second call, one that would confirm Sluss was in custody.

The next day, May 6, Sluss, 44, was extradited from his parents’ home in Bluefield, Va., to Wake County. He is being held without bail in Wake County Detention Center.

“I looked up at the sky myself and thought for a minute,” said Melanie Tucker in a video interview with The News & Observer. “I thought, just thought, you know, Moni can rest a little easier.”

“We have just tried to remain as faithful as possible,” Brandon Tucker said. “Waiting for the day that he is no longer a free man.”

A rare murder in Holly Springs

Moynan still needs to be found.

“When you don’t have a body, there is a lot of evidence that needs to be collected to confirm that the person isn’t still alive,” said Holly Springs Police Chief John Herring in a phone interview Friday with The N&O. “It takes time to gather the evidence.”

But, Herring said, investigators have “a solid case” and “a significant amount of physical evidence” to indicate Moynan is no longer alive.

Holly Springs does not see many murders. The Holly Springs Police Department investigated only three murders from 2008 to 2018, according to FBI crime statistics. Moynan’s death was the only homicide reported in 2019.

“These charges follow a long and in-depth investigation by the Holly Springs Police Department,” Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman told The News & Observer Tuesday night. “We came to a point where we could present the evidence before a grand jury.”

Melanie Tucker reported her daughter missing after the apartment manager at Moynan’s complex in Holly Springs called her in mid-July out of concern. The manager had seen Sluss at the apartment, but had not seen nor heard from Moynan since late March, according to warrants.

The last time anyone had seen her apart from Sluss was in early April 2019, according to search warrant applications. By October, the case had become a “death investigation with suspicious circumstances,” police said last fall.

The Tuckers had no reason to believe Moynan was in trouble. They had received text messages from her, and they saw new posts on her social media. The texts were long and detailed, the Tuckers said in a January interview. They were convinced it was her.

“It was very elaborate,” Brandon Tucker said in January. “You read it, and it felt like her.”

But it wasn’t normal for Moynan and her mother not to talk on the phone. From April to July of last year, when Tucker would ask her daughter to call, it seemed there was always an excuse.

Detectives later told the family that Sluss, during questioning, told police he was behind the text messages and social media posts, pretending to be Moynan.

During the course of the investigation, Sluss gave police conflicting reports, according to search warrant applications.

When questioned in July, he said he had not seen her since June, according to the warrant applications. He said Moynan had become addicted to heroin and that he placed her under a “home rehabilitation,” but she ran away in June, search warrant applications say. He said he texted Moynan’s mother pretending to be her because “he didn’t know what to do or how to tell her that her daughter was missing and addicted to heroin,” Detective A. Ham wrote in a search warrant application.

But on Aug. 12, Sluss told police that Moynan was not addicted to heroin and was depressed, a search warrant application said. Sluss also told police he used Moynan’s social media accounts and got his ex-wife, Jarlyn Sluss, to call Moynan’s apartment manager pretending to be Moynan, the documents state.

Jarlyn Lisbeth Sluss, 36, was arrested Tuesday and charged with with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder and obstruction of justice, Holly Springs Police Department spokesman Mark Andrews told The News & Observer.

Moynan may have been pregnant when she went missing, according to search warrant applications. Investigators found a positive pregnancy test in her nightstand.

Sluss had his first appearance in court in Wake County on Thursday. He will be represented by a court-appointed lawyer.

A roller coaster of emotions

With Sluss’ arrest comes a new set of emotions for Moynan’s family. There is relief and gratitude that he has been caught, but seeing videos of his arrival at Wake County jail brings anger, rage and sadness.

“It is definitely not closure, but a step in the right direction,” Brandon Tucker said.

Moynan and Sluss had an on-again, off-again relationship over five years, which included a history of domestic violence, search warrant applications state. Moynan filed a domestic violence protective order against him in 2016. He has also been charged with violating protective orders.

During the course of the relationship, the Tuckers met Sluss a few times. Now they’re caring for the children Sluss and Moynan had together: Kayleigh, 4, and Nova, 1.

“There’s something really painful about knowing him,” Samantha Moynan, Monica’s sister, told The N&O Thursday. “He’s been, you know, in our homes, or at dinner with us and with Moni.”

“You just want to shout out to the screen, you know?” Melanie Tucker said. “Please tell us where she is.”

Finding Moynan is extremely important, her family members say.

“Moni deserves some form of complete rest, and she can’t do that when she’s out there alone wherever she was left,” Melanie Tucker said.

“The way that she had to die ... is not something anyone should have to go through and think about, let alone experience,” Samantha Moynan said.

Moynan’s family visited Monica’s apartment after police had completed their investigation. It was a terrible experience. Moynan’s things were scattered in every direction. Food was leaking out of the fridge. All of Moynan’s belongings and her writings were covered with purple luminol spray, which is used for blood detection, Moynan’s mother said.

Blood identified as Moynan’s was found on the kitchen floor, under where broken tiles, search warrant applications said. The blood stains were covered by a tarp.

“I literally lifted the tarp off the kitchen floor, and I bent down on my knees and I kissed my daughter goodbye,” her mother said, her voice cracking and tears forming in her eyes.

Her sister, who visited Moynan’s apartment separately, also lifted up the tarp. She crouched first, then lay down and talked to her sister, feeling like that was the closest they could get to physically being with her.

A system of support

The family has received support from many people throughout the investigation of Moynan’s case. Several family members and friends have become an integral support system. People from the town of Garner, where Moynan grew up; the town of Mebane, where they now live; and from Chatham County, where Moynan’s sister lives with her partner, have all been supportive, Brandon Tucker said.

A movement on social media has formed too, called Justice for Moni, and even those strangers’ kind words have provided comfort during the months of uncertainty.

“I wish I could name a whole bunch of people,” Melanie Tucker said.

The family has formed a bond with the detectives and officers at the Holly Springs Police Department. They’re grateful for their work and say they’ve become like family.

“From the first day we went in there, we were taken very seriously,” Brandon Tucker said.

The entire department joined together to get Christmas gifts for Moynan’s daughters and her younger brother, Trey, 15.

“This is a difficult and very emotional case, but I am very proud of our detectives,” Herring, the police chief, said. “We have gotten to know Monica through her family, and that is very helpful with the investigation.

Melanie and Brandon Tucker plan to tell Kayleigh and Nova how much their mother loved them, and even the truth about her death.

“(Finding her) is not just for us, but for Moni’s kids to have a complete story, because it dawned on me that one day, they’re going to be old enough to actually understand what has happened,” Samantha Moynan said.

For now, the Tuckers, Samantha and others who loved Moni keep her alive by sharing stories about her. The last time Samantha Moynan saw her sister was when they met for lunch, near where Moynan worked at Curry Point. It was a sunny day, and over Indian food, they laughed and joked. Monica Moynan told her sister about training to become a doula, starting a business making elderberry syrup and how she wanted to set her kids up for success.

It was a good day.

“She was a steadfast, honest person,” Melanie Tucker said. “She was magical.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 6:15 AM.