Man held on $1 million bail in slaying

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – A Spokane man is being held in the Spokane County Jail on $1 million bail in connection with the killing of a local teenager a year ago.

John Brooks Eisenman, 60, is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Andrew Sorensen, 19, who was last seen in Airway Heights a year ago.

Eisenman appeared in Spokane County Superior Court on Monday, following his Oct. 29 arrest by police.

According to a police report, the arrest came a week after police confirmed the identity of Sorensen’s body found in a 1991 Honda Accord.

Police allege Eisenman killed Soresen, put his body in the trunk of the car and abandoned the vehicle in November.

Sorensen was allegedly the boyfriend of Eisenman’s juvenile daughter.

Eisenman claims his daughter was in a relationship with Sorensen, who then sold the girl to a sex-trafficking ring in Seattle for $1,000 in October of 2020, records show.

Eisenman also claims to have rescued his daughter from the situation and found out Sorensen was the person that sold her into prostitution, records show.

Police said Eisenman learned Sorensen would be in Airway Heights in November of 2020 and confronted him there.

He allegedly abducted Sorensen and bound his hands and ankles with zip ties, police said, noting Eisenman then hit Sorensen in the head with a cinder block and repeatedly stabbed him.

Eisenman then put the body in the trunk of the Accord registered to Brenda Cross and abandoned the vehicle in north Spokane County, where it sat for almost a year, police said. Then in mid-October, the vehicle was moved to the 1800 block of East Everett Avenue in mid-October.

According to court documents, an individual noticed the abandoned car near his home and made the grisly discovery upon opening the trunk.

The witness called the Spokane Police Department, who verified the remains as those of Sorensen.

Eisenman was taken into custody without incident and booked into Spokane County Jail, where he remains, jail records show.

Matthew O. Stephens can be reached at [email protected]