A Spokane woman made it her mission to find her boyfriend’s body. His killer was sentenced to 15 years in prison

Brooke Helmandollar told her boyfriend, Skywalker Renion, that she didn’t want to lose him to an overdose. He agreed to get clean and started searching for an in-house rehabilitation center.

Renion was killed by 28-year-old Chandler Andrews just two days before he got an official date to begin rehab, Helmandollar told the court during Andrews’ sentencing on Friday.

Andrews was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing Renion. His companion, 47-year-old Jason Jones, was sentenced to 90 days as a first-time offender for helping conceal evidence.

Helmandollar found his body in Elk after she began searching for him in February of last year.

“The cops didn’t believe me,” she said. “I knew something was wrong.”

Helmandollar went to the last house she thought he had gone to, possibly to score drugs. She was giving him “the tough love” treatment, she said, so he would get clean.

When she arrived at the house, she was told by a witness who saw Renion’s body before it was moved that her boyfriend was dead.

“They shot him at the door, pulled his body inside and staged him to have a crowbar in his hand,” Helmandollar said.

Andrews and Jones took Renion’s body to Elk and ditched his bloody clothes in the NorthTown Mall parking lot, court documents say. Helmandollar arrived at the house again, ready to confront the men. They admitted to her that they stashed his body in Elk because he threatened them with a crowbar, she said.

Prosecutors said the pair staged Renion’s body with the crowbar to cover for their crime.

“I asked them where the location was, like ‘Am I going to have to walk in the woods?’ I went out there myself. I found him,” she said.

Prosecutors at Andrews’ sentencing commended Helmandollar’s effort, noting that the arrest and sentencing would have never happened if she did not persevere.

The discovery of Renion’s body was so traumatic that Helmandollar relapsed. She’s clean again, she said, but seeing her best friend and the love of her life dead is something she will never forget.

“I could see the structure of his face under the tarp,” she said. “That image is the last memory I have of him. I will never be able to get rid of that.”

While Renion had his struggles, he was charming, kindhearted and “would fix anything for anyone.” Helmandollar regrets being so hard on him at the time of his death, however. She thinks he wouldn’t have gone to that house to score drugs that day if she had been less harsh, she said.

“The last text I got from him was ‘If you want me to change, you have to give me a chance,’ ” she said. “He wasn’t there to hurt anyone. He would never hurt anyone. … He was a beautiful person, especially when he was clean.”

Renion had a troubled life, said his sister, Valerie Quintasket. He had the chance to get clean, but it was stripped away in the blink of an eye, she told the court on Friday.

“He was a good human. He was a father, a son, an uncle. We loved my brother. We wanted him to turn his life around and always prayed he’d find his way back,” she said. “You did not give him that choice. You took that from him.”

Helmandollar and Renion were working on opening their own business together before he died. She finally advanced that dream and opened Antiquity Mercantile in Spokane Valley.

“I know he is happy I finally accomplished it,” she said.

The two women both echoed the same sentiment in court Friday to Andrews, who declined to take responsibility for his actions or address the court at all.

Andrews pleaded guilty to manslaughter as a result of a deal. Quintasket and Helmandollar said Andrews’ sentence is too short.

“You took his dignity. You threw him away like trash,” Quintasket said. “I hope you never forget my brother’s name.”