At least part of the building had been previously boarded up, and yellow crime scene tape was around the building parking lot. Not all of the units are vacant, police said.

Family members at the scene on Saturday identified Brewster one of the victims. They said he had been staying at the apartment, and he had been a drug user for about 15 years. Brewster’s father, also named Ronald, had gone to the apartment Friday night to try to convince him to come home.

“I worried about him and tried many times to get him into rehab,” said Ronald Brewster Sr., 68, a retired Schnucks meat cutter.

Brewster said his son could work, but chose not to, and instead panhandled, including at a nearby gas station.

He said he returned to the apartment Saturday morning to pick his son up for a family reunion at Tilles Park in Ladue. He opened the door, saw a body on a couch, closed the door and called police because he knew his handprint was on the doorknob.

Family members, some wearing purple family reunion T-shirts, consoled one another and cried at the scene on Saturday.

According to records, the owner of the property is Zen Kiara LLC, which has an O’Fallon, Missouri, mailing address. A representative of the company could not be reached.