Investigators say surveillance video tracked the pair from the Broadwalk to a nearby laundry room before the victim was found on the sand.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Newly released records describe in minute-by-minute detail how a woman was forced into a laundry room off Hollywood Beach before she was later found dead on the sand the morning of Dec. 26. Police arrested Brandon Ward McCray, 28, on Jan. 5, and prosecutors now say they will seek the death penalty.
The arrest warrant provides the fullest public account yet of what detectives say happened overnight in the blocks just west of the Broadwalk. The document outlines surveillance footage, physical evidence and officer observations that investigators say tie McCray to the attack on Heather Asendorf, 58, whose body was discovered near Cleveland Street around 7 a.m. Dec. 26. McCray, who was initially charged with sexual battery, kidnapping, battery and battery by strangulation, is now facing a first-degree murder count and remains jailed in Broward County without bond.
According to the records, officers responding before dawn to a report of a body found Asendorf in the sand near the 100 block of Cleveland Street. Investigators wrote that belongings next to her — including a backpack with a make-up bag, a hotel room key, sneakers, a sweater, a skirt, a bra and eyeglasses — helped confirm her identity. Detectives noted what appeared to be blood on the sweater and marked the area as a crime scene. The warrant says a witness described an unknown person carrying a nude woman wrapped in a bed sheet toward the beach hours earlier. Later that day, investigators located additional blood on a nearby sidewalk and established a second scene by the pool at the Oasis Surfside Rental Condos at 330 Arthur St., where they said more clothing and a drawstring backpack were recovered.
Detectives wrote that they canvassed security cameras at multiple addresses and obtained an image of a person of interest matching the witness description. The footage, according to the warrant, showed the victim and the man walking along North Surf Road as the woman struggled to pull away. The document says the man “forcefully grabbed the victim with his right arm, placed his hand over her mouth, and wrapped his left around her waist,” then carried her into a laundry room at 319 Connecticut St. Inside that room, investigators say, surveillance video shows the man sexually assaulting the woman while she was unconscious. At one point, the warrant states, the woman regained consciousness and resisted, and the attacker slammed her face-down into a washing machine, choked her and punched her several times. “He kept hitting her. She tried to fight,” friend Steve Sarsfield said later, describing how those who knew Asendorf were struggling with the details.
The records say the man eventually dressed, rifled through the woman’s belongings and began to leave — then returned to assault her a second time. The warrant says he again choked the woman, lifted her in a choke hold until her body went limp, and carried her outside. Detectives wrote that video shows the assailant propping her against a four-foot wall for about 45 seconds before throwing her over the barrier. Several hours later, the footage captured the man removing a bed sheet from a laundry machine, packing items into a backpack and leaving behind a silver hoop earring and underwear, according to the warrant. Officers who returned to the laundry room reported finding those items and a camera aimed at the washer and dryer.
Just before 11 p.m. Dec. 26, officers spotted a person at a Circle K at 890 N. Federal Highway who matched the broadcast description. Police identified him as McCray and began questioning him about his movements that day, the warrant says; parts of that discussion are redacted in the document. Acting on details obtained from the interview, investigators revisited addresses along Arthur Street and Connecticut Street and collected additional video that, they say, tracked both McCray and the victim from the Broadwalk to the laundry room and back toward the beach. Friends told police that Asendorf, a Pennsylvania resident known as “Barbie,” loved to dance at the Hollywood Beach Bandshell and was a familiar face around the oceanfront.
Detectives have not publicly released a cause or manner of death; those remained under review Thursday. The warrant does not detail how investigators believe the woman died, only that she was the victim of a sexual battery and violent assault before she was found on the beach. Prosecutors said this week they are seeking the death penalty. Court records show McCray is charged with first-degree murder in addition to the earlier counts and is being held at the Broward Main Jail. Authorities have not described any prior relationship between McCray and Asendorf, and it was unknown whether they had met before Dec. 26.
The case has drawn attention in the beachside neighborhoods north of Hollywood Boulevard, where hundreds of cameras line hotels, rentals and storefronts. Police previously said a passerby found the body soon after sunrise on the day after Christmas, a period when the Broadwalk is busy with visitors and seasonal residents. Asendorf’s death came amid the holiday rush and within walking distance of short-term rentals and small motels. The addresses referenced in the warrant — the Oasis Surfside property on Arthur Street and the laundry room on Connecticut Street — sit a few short blocks from the shoreline and the Bandshell where friends said Asendorf regularly danced.
McCray was arrested Jan. 5 with help from the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and booked into the Broward Main Jail. A judge ordered him held without bond. With the murder charge now filed, the case moves into pretrial motions and evidence disclosure, including anticipated filings related to camera footage and forensic testing referenced in the warrant. Prosecutors also signaled their intent to pursue capital punishment, a step that will trigger a separate set of notices and expert disclosures in the coming weeks. A formal arraignment on the added count is expected later this month in Broward Circuit Court; a hearing date had not been posted as of Thursday afternoon.
Outside the Bandshell, some who knew Asendorf described a friend who loved music and sought out the oceanfront community. “She was a really beautiful person — inside and out,” Sarsfield said. “Every time I see someone with long, platinum blond hair, for a minute I think, ‘Is that Heather?’ Then I realize it’s not — she’s not dancing with us down here anymore.” Neighbors near the referenced laundry room said patrols have been more visible since the arrest. Visitors filtered past the taped-off alleyways in the days after the discovery, asking hotel clerks what had happened as police collected video from doorbell cameras and store systems.
As of Thursday, McCray remained in custody in Broward County while detectives continued collecting and reviewing video from the corridor north of Arthur Street. Officials said additional filings are expected once laboratory testing and autopsy results are complete.
Author note: Last updated February 6, 2026.