Crime Time

Mystery: Woman's bones found in west Fort Worth

Police are trying to identify skeletal remains ound last week in a shallow grave in west Fort Worth.

A work crew called police the morning of March 20 after finding what they believed was a human skull in a wooded area where they were working, according to homicide Sgt. Cheryl Johnson.

Johnson said the remains are believed to be that of a possibly Hispanic or Asian woman, age 20 to 45.

"Due to the circumstances of the discovery, we're investigating this as a possible homicide," Johnson said.

Deanna Boyd filed a report on this Thursday; read it here.

-- Bill Miller

 

Shooting in east Fort Worth a homicide, police say

A woman was fatally shot early Tuesday evening in east Fort Worth, according to reports.

Details were limited Tuesday evening, but police records show that the call came in at 6:30 p.m. in the 1800 block of Andrew Avenue.

The earliest report indicated that a woman had been outside the residence, but was "now inside with wound to the stomach."

She was taken to an area hospital, but was pronounced dead a short time later, a MedStar spokeswoman said.

Cpl. Tracey Knight, police spokeswoman, said police were treating the incident as a homicide, but no other information was available Tuesday evening. -- Bill Miller

Wise County man tortured with stun gun, bound with duct tape, dies 7 months later

Marvin Zimmerman was found last June bound with handcuffs and duct tape several days after robbers ransacked his home in Wise County.

One of four men later arrested for the crime told investigators that the assailants used a stun gun on Zimmerman to learn where he kept belongings.

But seven months later, Zimmerman could not recover from his injuries and indeed took a turn for the worse.

He died Sunday at a hospital from complications of a brain injury, dehydration and renal failure.

Bill Miller has more in this report.

Fort Worth had 49 homicides in 2012 -- the lowest since 45 in 2009

Statistics on Fort Worth's homicide rate are included in Deanna Boyd's story "Man arrested in El Paso in connection with slaying in Fort Worth."

According to this report (read down to the eighth paragraph), a tally kept by the Star-Telegram shows that 49 people were slain in Fort Worth last year, which was slightly down from 2011's 51 slayings.

Deanna reports that "this is the lowest number of slayings since 2009, when the city recorded 45 -- a record low."

Deanna also reports that the Fort Worth homicide unit had an 82 percent clearance rate in 2012.

Nine of the 2012 homicides, according to the report, remain unsolved.

 

Blood-curdling scream marks woman's discovery of body in east Fort Worth

A woman's terrified scream early Thursday startled a mechanic Thursday in east Fort Worth.

The woman was beside a pickup truck in the 5200 block of Mosson Road, distraught over finding the remains of a man she knew in the vehicle's bed.

Marc Mitchell, the mechanic, saw the pickup parked in the grass upon arriving at work shortly before 6 a.m., but he thought nothing of it.

Mitchell said he was working on a truck between 8:30 and 9 a.m. when he heard screaming.

"With the motor running and everything I heard this blood-curdling scream," Mitchell said. "Something you hear ... like on horror movies."

Police are treating the case as a homicide.

Read more in Deanna Boyd's report.

 

Popular rockabilly singer Rudy Mata fatally shot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A popular North Texas rockabilly singer, who performed with such legendary groups as The Cavaliers, was fatally shot Tuesday in Arlington.

This is a follow up to the Crime Time item that appeared late Tuesday, the one titled, "Arlington man killed in 'domestic' incident."

It turns out popular rockabilly singer Rudy Mata, 56, (shown here) was from Kennedale.

Police said his son-in-law, David Merrill ( right), was in custody Wednesday, facing a charge of murder.

"I can't believe someone could get that upset with Rudy," said band mate Neil Scheckels. "I never heard him say a bad word about anyone."

Read more in this report by Domingo Ramrez Jr.

Also, learn more about Mata in this YouTube video of the Cavaliers performing "Last Kiss 2008."

 

Update: Arlington man killed in 'domestic' incident

Update: The victim in this story was popular rockabilly singer Rudy Mata of Kennedale. Read more in this report by Domingo Ramirez Jr.

From Tuesday:

A middle-age man was fatally shot Tuesday evening on Arlington’s west side.

The man’s name was not immediately available, but police were still investigating the shooting in the 2500 block of Lynwood Drive. The area is north of the intersection of South Bowen Road and Park Row Drive.

Police were questioning another man who "is believed to have been the shooter," said Tiara Ellis Richard, police spokeswoman, in an e-mail. She added that the man was cooperating with police.

"At this point it is too early for detectives to determine what led to this shooting," Richard said. "Officers are also working to confirm the relationship between the two men."

She described the shooting as "an apparent domestic-related incident."

Officers were called to the scene at 6:30 p.m. and they found one man who appeared to be in his 40s with multiple gunshot wounds, Richard said.

"He was driven by ambulance to Arlington Memorial Hospital, where he died from his injuries a short time later," she said.

No other information was available Tuesday.

-- Bill Miller

Blotter: Burglar opens fire; C Man' pleads guilty

Here’s a round up of crime stories making headlines today on Star-Telegram.com:

Homeowner shot by burglar

A homeowner was in surgery this morning after he came home and found a burglar who shot him twice.

The incident occurred about 9:30 a.m. in the 5800 block of Jennie Drive in south Fort Worth, police said.

Officers were conducting ground and aerial searches for the suspect.

‘C Man’ the hit man pleads guilty

A self-proclaimed hit man who used the names "C Man" or "China Man," pleaded guilty on Monday to solicitation of capital murder as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

Sengchann Xayasith, 38, of Irving, agreed to kill a man he believed was a local crime lord for $15,000.

His clients, however, were undercover Fort Worth police officers.

Argument over girl led to fatal stabbing in Arlington

An argument over a girl led to the killing of an Irving man near an Arlington bar early Sunday, Arlington police said Tuesday. The Tarrant County medical examiner's office on Tuesday identified the victim as Yong Nammeechai, 25.

He died from a stab wound to his chest and his death has been ruled a homicide by the M.E.’s office.

-- Compiled by Bill Miller from the works of Deanna Boyd, Dianna Hunt and Domingo Ramirez Jr.

 

Armed, dangerous...and smells like dirty socks

Police have been searching for more than a week for a murder suspect they said was armed and dangerous. Hondo police and the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force found the suspect at a San Antonio home - hiding in a laundry basket, a San Antonio TV station reported. No word on if he came clean to authorities. He is suspected of fatally shooting one man and injuring another in Hondo.

Two people charged with murder after botched cosmetic surgery in Las Vegas

Two people have been charged with murder after a cosmetic surgery at an underground medical clinic in Las Vegas went awry and left the patient dead.

TV news station KTNV reports that an unidentified woman went to an underground medical clinic in Las Vegas to have some unspecified cosmetic surgery done.

A person who arrived at the place to pick her up four hours after the operation returned to find the clinic empty and the woman missing.

Investigators later identified a woman who had been taken to a local hospital as the missing woman in question. She later died at the hospital.

Two suspects in the woman's death were caught at McCarran International Airport trying to board a flight for Colombia.

They were identified as Ruben Dario Matallana-Galvas, 55, and Carmen Olfidia Torres-Sanchez, 47, residents of Medellin, Colombia.

The two remain in the Clark County Jail where they have been charged with one count of murder.

-Chance Welch