City News Service contributed to this report. They hope to present new evidence at a hearing thats been delayed due to the pandemic. Sheriff: Woman Held in Death of Child, 6, Found in a Bucket - US News The police have not released how the woman died or made an arrest in this case. During Thursday's press conference, they also said Brown was working her 2nd job, delivering newspapers to homes along a rural road in Bastrop County when she was murdered. Lawyers from the organization say they have the evidence to prove investigators arrested the wrong man all those years ago. When you have just witness after witness after witness coming it's taking a huge toll out of your client who's told you that, no, he did not do that, she said. Bastrop County murder suspect who told police he 'maybe' stabbed victim Sheriff Capers said Saturday evening authorities widened the search to as far as 20 miles from the scene. Family and relatives of a woman found dead three weeks ago in Bastrop County are demanding answers. She drove Jimmy's truck as she often did, Tanner said. While deputies wait on an official cause of death they are doing what they can to identify the caller so they can get a statement from him. The sheriff's office said he had unexplained puncture wounds to his body and neck and he was unable to talk. Officials said the investigation began on May 6 when officials responded to a medical emergency on Upper Elgin Road. Your email address will not be published. Its sit-and-wait now. All were trying to do is put a name and a face to an unknown body, and the best way we got to do that these days is through DNA.. On the next morning, the same family members to went to feed the animals and located an area of disturbed ground in the backyard. I didn't want to get involved, she said. (KNOE) - UPDATE: The trial of Dr. Tod Lawhon, a Bastrop dentist who shot and killed his wife in 2020, has come to a close. They also hope this recent crime will spark more attention from police, including additional patrols in the area. The two had been in a relationship for several years, Hsu said. Stacey would pick him up at various locations, one being the H-E-B [grocery store] parking lot, Reeds former attorney Jimmie Brown said. Investigators said she had been raped and strangled, then left on the side of the road. City and county officials are calling this data extremely concerning. A woman is found dead inside of a crashed vehicle in Bastrop County but deputies say the fatal injuries were from something else. Prosecutors responded that the truck had been fully gone over and processed for evidence. One is an insurance seller who was trying to convince Stites to purchase life insurance, to which Stites said shes too young and has no need for it, according to the sellers affidavit. (AP) A Louisiana woman accused of killing her boyfriend's 6-year-old daughter and leaving . And her voice will be heard, Oliver said. If there is no family reference sample or no DNA match, then theres not much they can do, Wescott said. It was awful, Oliver said. Law enforcement officials and archeologists gathered around a grave site on June 19 in Elgin as a backhoe carefully clawed at the ground. A deputy found the woman while doing a routine check of the lot. When officials investigated after obtaining a warrant, they discovered the freshly buried body of Catherin Alonzo-Lopez, 28. In a 2016 filing, the state said her account is patently unbelievable and that she failed to mention the secret affair when she spoke to police at the time of the murder. Bastrop dentist found guilty of manslaughter as trial comes to a close. The examiner determined he was deceptive in both answers, according to the examiners report. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Check for a confirmation email, and then you're all set with MyNewsLA.com! The original version is as follows:The Bastrop Police Department is investigating the death of a woman. The trial of Tod Lawhon began today, April 25. Whoops! She was into everything and did everything, and friends with everybody.. He was then taken to an ambulance to an Austin-area hospital. In the area where the vehicle was found the mailboxes are down, a stop sign appears to have been ripped off its post and trees are damaged. Well send you the latest headlines every morning and every weekday afternoon. Emmett Till accuser Carolyn Bryant Donham dies at age 88 : NPR She says he drove her home, handed her a business card, and told her they would do it again the next day. Bastrop County Sheriff's Office investigating woman's death - FOX 7 Austin Mr. Willie was convicted and executed in 1984 for the kidnap, rape, and murder of 18-year-old Faith Hathaway. You kinda want to suspect the people nearest to her, Stacey Stites sister Crystal Dobbs said. They had previous domestic disputes that police responded to, but there was never any physical violence, just verbal only, Hsu said. Sign up here for our free newsletters. Upon arrival, officers discovered 29-year-old Jessica Lee dead inside of the apartment complex from at least one gunshot wound. Cook said the revived investigation was recently instigated by a request from an outside agency, which officials have declined to identify. The Bastrop Police Department is investigating the death of a woman. The officer called it in but nothing seemed amiss, so the officer continued on his patrol. I stand on that. By the time she was discovered there was not enough soft tissue to where you could tell whether shed been stabbed or raped or anything. Raul Anthony Caballero was flown to the hospital by helic Photo of Sofia Vera. He said he had hoped the jury would hear the evidence and see he was innocent. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Carol Stites remembered the family had just held a bridal shower only days before. They also questioned why his truck was returned to him within days after the murder. In the sentencing hearing, Reeds defense team says prosecutors presented a series of unadjudicated allegations against Reed. The victim has been identified as 32-year-old Jessica Marie Jefferson Brown from Cedar Creek. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot. It was -- from a separate, earlier sex assault complaint against Reed. The woman has not been identified and the cause of death has not been determined. He also initially denied dating her and was asked to provide a DNA sample. Investigators asked if he strangled Stites and if he was involved with her death, and to both he answered no.. Oliver and Dobbs said they were not concerned about the polygraph results. Tanner said there are exceptions., There are no absolutes in science, I completely agree with that, she said. "She was like the white tornado," she told "20/20." "That's exactly what they called her when she was little. But once we knew that she had been raped, our emotions were like, it had to be somebody else.. The DA never, never talked to me about plea agreements, Lear said. The caller said they had heard a verbal argument and a loud noise coming from a bedroom. Police determined domestic violence resulted in the murder-suicide of a couple in their 30s in Fountain Valley early Sunday morning. She was like the white tornado, she told 20/20. That's exactly what they called her when she was little. Reeds legal team has also raised questions about the original investigation. My baby.. Riverside County Firefighters Stop Forward Progress of Brush Fire in Thermal, Walk to End Genocide Held Sunday In Fairfax District, Asian Couple in Bel Air Terrorized in Home Invasion Robbery, Police Arrest 24 During DUI Checkpoint in Riverside, Riverside Police Arrest 24 People During DUI Checkpoint, Coroner IDs Man Who Jumped or Fell From Freeway Overpass. Another new witness, Charles Wayne Fletcher, was a former member of the Bastrop County Sheriff's Department. The woman was identified as Shalynn Jones of Compton, according to the Los Angeles County coroners office. Officials say the Travis County Medical Examiner will be doing an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Officials added that the family of the female reported they were concerned because she had gone missing. Reeds attorney, Lydia Clay-Jackson, said he denied it all.. No arrests or injuries were reported in those previous encounters. DNA forensics was still in its infancy at the time of Stites murder. Gill-King declined to answer questions about this case or how forensic anthropology unravels the mysteries surrounding the deaths of unidentified bodies. Later the same day, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals indefinitely stayed Reed's execution. The. Dr. Michael Baden, a physician and board-certified forensic pathologist known for investigating the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the Jeffrey Epstein and George Floyd autopsies, testified there are two reasons he believes Stites was likely killed earlier. Breaking news for Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. Brown said when Reed learned of Stites murder, Reed told him he was afraid because he knew he was a Black male having sex with a white girl in Bastrop, and how that could be seen as unacceptable. Linda Schlueter, who was also around Stites age, was attacked and had her car stolen seven months after Stites death. It's gonna be with me forever, he told Austin news KEYE-TV. That's why you look at all of the extraneous evidence as well in conjunction with just the DNA.. BASTROP, La. Angela Hamby, 12, was raped in September 1989, and prosecutors said that evidence from her case also matched Reeds DNA. In October 2007, police were called to an apartment complex where Lear and her boyfriend were attending a friends party, after a neighbor complained that the couple was having a drunken argument. Schlueter later pointed out Rodney Reed in a photo array. (Courtesy. Copyright 2023 KNOE. Family of woman found dead in Bastrop County grave demands answers - KEYE Woman found dead in Bastrop Co. was shot while riding in truck on Hwy Police arrested her boyfriend for public intoxication, put him in a patrol car and took him to the police station. The autopsy also revealed that Dean was pregnant at the time.Bastrop County Sheriff's Office says further analysis and toxicology will be completed before a final determination of how Dean died is made. It was a horrific crime that rocked the small town of Bastrop, Texas. "Jimmy pointed out a piece of green colored plastic, Bastrop PD Det. Bastrop Police Chief Allen Campbell says they're not confirming Lee was the one found dead until autopsy results come back, but in the meantime, they're leaving no stone unturned. Bastrop County law enforcement officials are relaunching an investigation into the identity of the woman, whose badly decomposed body was discovered along U.S. 290east of Elgin by law enforcement officers 40 years ago. Officials Sunday released the name of a 28-year-old woman whose body was found near an unused railroad track in Carson. Family of woman found dead in Texas remembers her as suspect is in custody ELGIN, Texas The Bastrop County Sheriff's Office has charged a man with murder after an Elgin woman was found buried in a backyard earlier this month. All rights reserved. Because If Stacey was killed at midnight or earlier -- and not 3 a.m., then Reed would be excluded as the killer. Bastrop County Sheriff Maurice Cook, District Attorney Bryan Goertz and other county officials looked on last week as Dr. Harrell Gill-King, director of University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, extracted bone samples from the woman's decaying skeletal remains. They found Jones lying in an area overgrown with weeds near an unused railroad track in what authorities called the middle stage of decomposition. All rights reserved. I got an opportunity to be in the prison with Rodney on the day that stay came down we got a chance to tell Rodney of the stay of execution., Dobbs, Stites sister, says, It's just frustrating. Many people in her life, from coworkers to acquaintances, were asked to provide a sample but no matches came up, including her fianc. She was looking for what everybody does, young love, Amen said. By the time the questioning was over, he was charged with Stites sexual assault, kidnapping and murder. Your email address will not be published. They say they have had plenty of leads, but no suspect has been identified, and they are considering everyone a person of interest, including members of Brown's family. This is the one who attacked me. Rodney Reed has been serving time in prison for over 20 years. Your email address will not be published. Slater said she didnt come forward sooner because she was only 18 at the time and about to graduate from high school. [The medical examiner] said that, Nobody should have relied on what I said., The examiner wrote, My estimate of time of deathwas only an estimate, and should not have been used at trial as an accurate statement of when Ms. Stites died..