Brandon Lyons, 18, and Jerrett Jamal Allen, 26, are suspected of murdering and robbing their victims.

Cousins Believed To Have Lured Men To Their Deaths Using Gay Chat Site

After connecting the murders of two victims, police in Harris County, Texas believe that cousins Brandon Lyons and Jerrett Jamal Allen conspired to rob and murder victims using an online gay chat room service.

Texas Police found the body of Glenser Soliman, 45, in February, and Ah Vinh Nguyen, 26, was reported missing in March. Nguyen is now presumed dead.

Authorities developed a lead in Nguyen’s case after noting that Allen had used Nguyen’s credit card to make unauthorized purchases in mid-April. They also pursued a lead in Soliman’s murder after discovering that Lyons had driven Soliman’s car without authorization.

Shortly afterward, investigators linked Lyons to Allen—and connected the two open cases together.

Mike Ritchie | Harris County Sherriff's Office

“Through our investigation, and through things that we have discovered, we realized that these cases were most likely linked,” primary investigator Mike Ritchie said during a news conference on Monday, August 7.

Now, Lyons has been charged with the capital murder of Soliman, and Allen has been charged with credit and debit card theft. The cousins reportedly lived together at the time of the victims’ murders. Allen’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

Neither of the victims knew each other, but both were users on a gay chat site. There is no word on whether the cousins’ crimes were related to their victims’ sexuality or race: both Soliman and Nguyen were Asian men.