Court documents shed light on the disappearance and alleged murder of a woman who gained attention in Los Angeles at the request of her brother, a “Saturday Night Live” writer.
Author Jimmy Fowlie has spoken out after his sister Christina Downer went missing in December and her boyfriend was charged with her murder on Monday. A woman identified by prosecutors as his girlfriend filed a criminal complaint for allegedly helping him dispose of the body after the incident.
A series of restraining order requests reviewed by The Times lay out accusations of threats of violence and blackmail and point to resentment and divisions.
Downer is believed to have been killed on or about September 19, 2025. Although her body was never found, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged her longtime boyfriend, actor and aspiring R&B artist Delorean Bijon Brandon, 41, and Brandon’s on-and-off girlfriend, Kaylee Markowski, 34, in Downer’s murder.
Los Angeles County Dist. “More than a year has passed since Christina Downer disappeared, and her family and friends are grappling with uncertainty amid the profound loss of someone they loved so dearly.” Lawyer. Nathan J. Hochman said in a press release. “Although Ms. Downer has not been located, today we will charge the two men accused of playing a role in her death and disappearance and hold them accountable for their actions.”
Weeks before Downer’s alleged murder, records show Brandon petitioned a Los Angeles court for a restraining order against Markowski. In the petition, filed on September 2, 2025, Brandon alleged that Markowski became violent when he broke up with him and tried to leave his home to be with Downer, and at one point threatened to shoot him. It also included alleged incidents of harassment dating back to early 2022, when Markowski said he keyed his car “because he was upset that I was with Christina.”
In the petition, Brandon also requested protection for Downer, claiming Markowski was “trying to take away Christina’s job” and sent threatening emails and social media messages to her. The same day the request for a temporary restraining order was made, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied the request until a hearing scheduled for September 23.
But on Sept. 18, the day before prosecutors claimed Downer was killed, Brandon filed for waiver and voluntarily canceled the hearing, closing the case.
A year ago, Downer petitioned the court for a restraining order against Markowski.
On September 5, 2024, Downer filed a motion in Los Angeles court alleging that Markowski had been harassing her since Christmas Day 2023: “Called us, threatened to beat me, stole and copied my spare key, threatened to break into my house, stole the zip drive and is blackmailing me with videos on the zip drive, sent a topless video of me to people I don’t know while she was actually at my house. attacking my reputation, putting an air tag on my boyfriend’s car, blocked “He’s been calling numbers, threatening to continue releasing my personal videos from this stolen zip drive.”
“Mentally, this has caused irreparable damage,” he added.
In her petition, Downer requested the return of her orange tabby cat, Pumpkin. She wrote that she found the cat and claimed that she and Brandon decided that the cat would stay with him because Downer was traveling during their “first breakup.” She wrote that Brandon moved in with Markowski during their separation and moved in again a month before Downer made the request. “Won’t give the cat back,” he wrote. “I fear for his safety.”
Brandon and Markowski were both arrested last week and sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center on $2 million bail each. It is unclear whether they were represented by lawyers. Brandon faces life in state prison if convicted. Markowski is expected to face up to three years in county jail.
Last year, just before Christmas, Downer’s ex-husband applied for benefits after not hearing from her. Brandon told police he moved out several months ago, leaving behind everything he owned, including his car and dog. On December 22, his family became convinced something was wrong, and his brother, Fowlie, posted a missing person’s report on his Instagram account, writing that he was last seen in Koreatown.
In the months after he was reported missing, Downer’s phone washed up on a Santa Monica beach and the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division took over the investigation. Earlier this month, investigators searched an Airbnb in Joshua Tree in connection with Downer’s disappearance, according to the LAPD. It’s unclear what or what investigators found in the area.
“We have reason to believe that her phone and social media were compromised in the weeks before she disappeared. The person(s) who had her phone used this to hide the fact that she was gone, ask for money, and create a false narrative that she was ‘off the grid,'” Fowlie wrote in an April post. “I’m sharing this because I believe the person responsible hopes to erase it in any way possible.”
Brandon is also accused of assaulting his wife, who was not named in the district attorney’s news release, on two separate occasions in 2022.
Brandon also requested a restraining order against another woman in 2022, claiming she threatened to shoot him and his then-fiancee.
Times writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.