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(From left to right): Mother Asantewa Anyabwile, daughter Kandisi Anyabwile, son Oko Anyabwile, Father Rwechungula “Rei” Anyabwile, daughter Nandi Anyabwile
LOS ANGELES – A beloved father of three was found dead in his car weeks after being reported missing by his family. Now, his loved ones are expressing their frustration with the Los Angeles Police Department’s handling of the case.
Rwechungula “Rei” Anyabwile, 63, was known to stay in constant communication with his adult children, including his ex-wife, who was out of state when he disappeared in late June. When he stopped responding to text messages, the family grew worried.
His daughter, Nandi, contacted T-Mobile and discovered that he had less than one percent of data usage since the 24th — which was unusual since he was actively driving for Uber Eats.
Rei was a regular at LA Fitness in Playa Vista and drove a 2017 Black Hyundai Sonata. Amanda Tricomi, Nandi’s close friend, spoke to a security guard who confirmed Rei last checked in at the gym on June 22. Surveillance showed him leaving around 7 p.m. in “a late model white car with dark tinted windows”, a vehicle unknown to the family and later identified as a rental car.
The gym couldn’t hand over the footage to Amanda or the family, but said it could only be shared with LAPD through an official law enforcement request.
The family filed a missing persons report on July 6.
Early red flags
When they asked the detective assigned to the case to retrieve the gym footage so they can get a license plate of the white car, they didn’t get any updates for three days.
“It was like I was going on trial every day, trying to prove why this case needed attention, and it was very frustrating because we were exhausting everything on our end — calling T-Mobile, contacting Uber Eats, finding gym footage — and we needed a police officer to make a phone call.” Nandi said.
The detective told them she couldn’t access the footage without a warrant and didn’t have time to sit through 24 hours of video.
To Rei’s family, it felt like the detective had no sense of urgency.
The family launched their own search efforts. They built a detailed spreadsheet to track leads, searched neighborhoods, contacted media outlets, and shared missing persons flyers.
According to them, when they brought any crucial leads to the detective, she downplayed it and suggested that Rei was avoiding everyone because he ‘could be in financial hardship’ and doesn’t want to return the rental car. Rei was said to never be the one to ghost his family, and to them, those remarks felt like a slap in the face.
Still, the family grew fearful that his case could be shelved if they pushed back –even after being repeatedly questioned on how they were finding leads, such as confirming his LA Fitness check-ins and discovering he rented a car through Enterprise on June 11.
“We were doing the detective work,” Nandi said. “Every time we gave her information, it was treated with suspicion — like, ‘how did you know that?’ Because we hunted. We did the research [she] was supposed to be doing.”
Nandi’s friend Amanda recalls the experience with the detective. “Her continued suspicion and dismissiveness, there just wasn’t a reason for it. He wasn’t a criminal. It was obvious from our end that this wasn’t a high priority thing for her.”
Missed opportunities
Amanda was helping manage social media outreach when she noticed something alarming: Rei’s flyers were taken down from the LAPD Missing Persons Facebook and Instagram.
The detective admitted she removed it by mistake, even though it had only been live for two days.
On July 15, the detective informed them that LAPD had obtained a photo of Rei’s rental car from June 29, a white 2024 Kia Sorento, seven days after he was last seen, parked in a Westchester neighborhood.
The detective initially withheld the photo over privacy concerns and told the family she believed the car was no longer in the area.
The devastating discovery
On July 18, nearly two weeks after filing the report, Nandi and Amanda spotted the Kia Sorento parked in the same location as the LAPD photo on W 85th Street.
An LAPD unit parked up the road confirmed what they feared: Rei had been found in the car. The detective had visited the area earlier that day but never informed the family.
“No family should ever have to discover the remains of their loved ones that have been in their vehicle for three plus weeks,” Amanda said.
Neighbors said that a white SUV had been parked on their blocks for weeks, but because there were no parking restrictions and the windows were shielded, they assumed it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Had LAPD obtained the plate from the gym and shared it publicly, Nandi says, the car could have been found much earlier.
Rei’s death was ruled as natural causes and LAPD ruled no foul play, but the family says the pain lies not just in the loss, but in the way the case was handled.
Rei was remembered as a ‘kind soul’, a lover of nature, animals, and wellness. The family said he was a ‘book nerd’ who always carried a backpack full of books, loved horror films, old-school classic rap, and hiking.
The other side:
FOX 11 reached out to the LAPD for comment, but the department has not responded yet.
What’s next:
Rei is survived by his three children — Nandi, Kandisi, and Oko — his former wife, Asantewa, and sister, Felise.
Now, they’re focused on honoring Rei’s memory.
They set up a GoFundMe for cremation and memorial expenses, travel and lodging for immediate family, and helping his loved ones cover basic living expenses.
The Source: Information for this story came from interviews with Nandi Anyabwile and Amanda Tricomi. FOX 11 reached out to LAPD for comment.