Man Faces Murder Charge Over Mother Stuffed In Queens Car Trunk: DA

NEW YORK CITY — An upstate man faces a murder charge in Queens after authorities said he killed his girlfriend and left her body to rot in a car trunk.

Kareem Flake, 30, walked into a courtroom Wednesday for arraignment on a slew of charges connected to the disappearance and death of Destini Summers, 26, prosecutors said.

Summers, who was Flake's girlfriend, was last seen alive in November 2020, authorities said. In March 2021, her body was found stuffed in the trunk of an abandoned car in Queens, prosecutors said.

Investigators centered on Flake as a suspect, but he apparently fled to Florida, where authorities arrested him in April, prosecutors said.

"On the run for more than (a) year, this defendant is now in custody and charged with the brutal murder of his girlfriend, who was also the mother of his two young children," said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz in a statement.

The case centers around a night out with friends at a Queens bowling alley that Flake and Summers, who are both from Troy, took Nov. 3, 2020, prosecutors said.

Summers never returned home to Troy and her family reported her missing days later, authorities said. She was last seen in a car with Flake, prosecutors said.

But the disappearance remained a mystery until March 10, 2021, when a tow truck operator towed a Toyota Camry from the intersection of 134th Avenue and 151st Place in South Jamaica, prosecutors said.

The operator pulled over when he saw a flat tire on the Camry, and opened the car's trunk to look for a spare, authorities said. Inside, he found Summers' decomposing remains, prosecutors said.

An autopsy determined that Summers had died from a gunshot wound to her head, prosecutors said. Investigators also found the Camry belonged to Flake, who had at some point fled to Florida, authorities said.

But Osceola Country, Florida authorities arrested him in April, leading to his extradition this week to New York, where a grand jury had indicted him on murder, kidnapping, criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence, prosecutors said.

Flake faces 25 years to life in prison, if convicted.