When detectives from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the site of a 2016 Jeep Cherokee that struck a utility pole on Morgantown Road and found the body of Michael Scott Lee in the vehicle, they saw apparent signs early on that this was no ordinary accident, according to a detective’s testimony Wednesday.

WCSO Detective Nick Jewell provided more details into the death of Lee, 56, of Bowling Green, who was found dead in the Jeep Cherokee in the early morning hours of Dec. 22, after a passing motorist reported seeing the wrecked vehicle in the 11000 block of Morgantown Road.

Investigators believed Lee’s injuries were not consistent with those received in a vehicle crash and treated Lee’s death as a homicide, leading to the arrest on Jan. 2 of Ali Fadil, 30, of Bowing Green, on a charge of murder.

Fadil appeared Wednesday in Warren District Court for a preliminary hearing, and Warren Circuit Judge John Brown found probable cause at the end of the hearing to refer the case to a grand jury.

Jewell said detectives noted trauma to Lee’s head and recovered a bloody sledgehammer from under one of the seats in the vehicle.

The sledgehammer was submitted to the Kentucky State Police for forensic testing at one of its crime labs, though Jewell testified that he was not aware of any results from the analysis.

The Jeep Cherokee sustained some “minor front-end damage” and all the doors were locked except for the passenger side door, Jewell said.

Law enforcement received a tip linking Fadil to Lee’s death, and further investigation enabled the WCSO to learn that Lee planned to meet with someone around 10 p.m. on the night of Dec. 21.

A review of cell tower records from that time frame suggested that phones belonging to both men pinged off towers near the Anna community.

“Cell data shows phones for Mr. Fadil and Mr. Lee hitting the same cell towers within seconds (of one another),” Jewell said.

Through search warrants, police established that phones belonging to Lee and Fadil pinged off the same cell towers within seconds of one another late on the night of Dec. 21 through a short time past midnight, stopping on Morgantown Road north of Bowling Green, Jewell said.

Answering questions from Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner, Jewell said that Lee and Fadil knew one another and had potentially been romantically involved at some time.

Fadil’s court-appointed attorney, Jason Pfeil of the Department of Public Advocacy, cross-examined Jewell, during which the detective testified that no evidence has been found placing any other people in the Jeep Cherokee, though he could not eliminate the possibility of others being in the vehicle in the hours leading up to its discovery.

Answering another question from Pfeil, Jewell testified that police are not aware of any witnesses who saw the vehicle hit the utility pole.

Jewell said detectives obtained multiple warrants for a phone belonging to Fadil, adding that he was not aware of Fadil providing a statement to law enforcement.

Fadil remains in Warren County Regional Jail under a $500,000 cash bond.