TYLER, Texas, Jan. 7, 2008
Cops: Texas Man Killed, Cooked Girlfriend
Suspect Arrested After Calling Police To Report Own Crime; No Proof Of Cannibalism
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In this photo provided by the Smith County Sheriff's Department in Tyler, Texas on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008, is shown Christopher Lee McCuin, 25. McCuin is in the Smith County Jail on a $2 million bond, held on a capital murder charge in the death of his 21-year-old girlfriend, whom he allegedly tried to cook and eat her body before police arrived, authorities said Sunday. (AP Photo)
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Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, called 911 on Saturday and told an emergency dispatcher he had killed his girlfriend and was boiling parts of her, said Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith.
When authorities arrived at the home, they found Jana Shearer's mutilated body, one ear boiling in a pot of water on the stove and a fork sticking out of some human flesh sitting on a plate on the kitchen table.
Authorities believe Shearer was abducted from her home Friday night and killed. The assailant then stabbed the boyfriend of his estranged wife and broke into a business. The stabbing victim is in critical condition at an area hospital, officials said.
McCuin, of Tyler, was charged with capital murder in the killing, which was first reported in the Tyler Morning Telegraph. He was in solitary confinement in the Smith County Jail on a $2 million bond Sunday and did not have an attorney, officials said. He will be arraigned Monday, Smith said.
Before he called 911, McCuin told his mother and her boyfriend to look in their garage, authorities said. There the couple saw the remains of Shearer, McCuin's girlfriend. McCuin's mother and her boyfriend fled the home and flagged down a police officer. McCuin dialed authorities after they left.
Authorities say it is unclear whether McCuin consumed any part of Shearer's body.
"We cannot prove that he did," Smith told The Associated Press. "He was either going to, had been or led us to think that he was doing it."
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A man who answered the door Sunday night where the body was found declined to talk. Nobody answered a knock at the door of the home of the victim.We cannot prove that he did. He was either going to, had been or led us to think that he was doing it.
Smith County Sheriff J.B. SmithShearer appeared to die from blunt trauma to her head, Smith said. She may have been kidnapped Friday night, when her mother witnessed her get into McCuin's truck.
"There was no struggle but she could see the girl left with no shoes, no purse and no cell phone," Smith said.
Smith said McCuin then drove to his estranged wife's home, where he stabbed William Veasley, 42. Veasley remains in intensive care at a Tyler hospital.
McCuin was still in that home when deputies arrived, but he jumped into his car and escaped after a short chase, Smith said.
"We did not know at the time that he had murdered anyone," Smith said. "We thought it was a disturbance or an assault."
McCuin wasn't seen again until Saturday morning, when he arrived at his mother's home and called her into the garage so she could "come see what he had done," Smith said.
When sheriff deputies arrived, McCuin barricaded himself in the home for a short time before coming out. After he emerged, a tactical team entered and found Shearer's body, Sgt. Gary Middleton said.
After McCuin was arrested and placed in the back of a patrol car, he kicked out the vehicle's side window before being put in additional restraints, Middleton said.
Detectives were trying to determine where the murder happened. They think McCuin drove to his mother's home with the dead woman in the back seat of his extended-cab pickup, Smith said.
McCuin has a criminal record that includes driving while intoxicated and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges, according to court records. When he was arrested, McCuin had an outstanding felony retaliation warrant.
Smith said McCuin was known to authorities and had "a history of violence," including assaulting his estranged wife, his girlfriend and his sister.
Neighbors in Tyler, about 110 miles east of Dallas, said they believed McCuin was on drugs and had acted strangely. Freddy Castillo, who lives two houses down, said he would frequently hear McCuin and his girlfriend argue in the house and the yard.
"They would get pretty loud," Castillo said. "They'd yell back and forth and then he would just get in his car and leave."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Firing squad is much less cruel & inhumane ..
Watched an A&E special on Stacy Peterson''s disappearance, which featured her husband [the sadistic crooked cop].
She was his fourth marriage, in which she had dated him while he was still married to his third wife.
She also participated in a scheme to taunt his wife by accompanying him, numerous of times, as he drove to his estranged wife''s house, honked the horn, with Stacy in the car, shouting obscenities.
Like so many women that know beforehand of their boyfriend''s or husband''s prior violent behavior they overlook this, for whatever reason, and consent to a relationship.
After watching this special it was pretty difficult to garner support for Stacy, although no one deserves to die in this manner, but she willingly dated him knowing beforehand his priors, and please don''t excuse her behavior, stating she was young and naive.
I was really disturbed by her willingness to participate in his vendetta against his wife, this certainly demonstrated her lack of character.
And now this young woman, who again probably knew of his prior criminal history, his abuse of his ex-wife, sister, etc., story after story, of these sorted relationships involving women that had prior knowledge.
What happened? Did he run out of food stamps?
Posted by rushman71 at 08:52 AM : Jan 07, 2008
True - the chair is pretty effective, but perhaps the French did it best with the guillotine (a bit messy but pretty idiot-proof). I don''t see the big problem with lethal injection anyway. Why don''t they just overdose them on pentobarbital (like putting down a cat) instead of goofing around with these 3-chemical cocktails?
I agree with the other posters that it''s a good thing this guy did this in Texas - he''s toast!
you are so right in your comment. a lifetime ago (when i was young, green and stupid), i met this charming man from florida - long story short, married him before i knew anything about his background and ''wives''. things got worse and worse and the final blow was a .45 magnum held to my head, cocked and ready. by the grace of God, i got out of that situation that night and forever - i''ve been happily divorced for years and love it; just me and my precious dogs. girls and ladies - KNOW YOUR DATE OR SIGNIFICANT OTHER VERY WELL BEFORE TAKING THE PLUNGE!!!! hell, even run a credit and background check on them. this goes for men also. there''s just as many sicko women out there, too.
I totally agree that women shouls be careful who they mate with. They should stay away from criminals. But if the taxpayers pay them to have babies they don''t have any reason to be choosy about mates. Movies glorify criminals so women think bad boys are more fun.
1.) It is cheaper to keep someone in jail for life than to execute them. FACT.
2.) Why can women drown their five children in a bath or stone their children to death in Texas and be considered insane but once a man does something crazy he can''t be insane? I don''t understand this.
Posted by schoollord
And if we create gun laws, guns will still be used a lot more to commit crimes because law abiding citizens won''t have access to them.
There are people who are insane. They don''t do these things to get publicity. They do these things because they have screws loose in the head.
A sign of a civilized society is how the society treats those who deserve it the least. You decide, should America be like Saudi Arabia/Iran or Germany/UK?
Killing someone is not being civilized. I agree. However, do you stoop to the level of the person who did it or do you give the person the rights they didn''t give to another? If society doesn''t take the higher ground we all suffer. Murder should be proven to be wrong, whatever the reason.
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Posted by runningralph at 09:24 AM : Jan 07, 2008
That''s so stupid...Why would you even say something like that? Just because that''s what some movies portray doesn''t mean it''s true. Just because this woman chose to date a "bad boy" doesn''t mean all women are like that. I know plenty of women who don''t prefer that type, including myself.
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Posted by nutsie11
Turn off cap lock
Saudi Arabia has public executions and now they have many people not afraid to kill themselves at the same time they take out as many people as possible. No thank you.
What do you do also if you publicly execute someone and then find out they didn''t do it? Who in the courts are going to get executed for killing an innocent person? Texas leads the nation in people being exonerated based on DNA testing.
Finally, why should only poor people get executed? Our death rows are filled with poor people. Where is the fairness there?
Yemen
North Korea
China
Saudi Arabia
Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
Rwanda
Iran
Nigeria
Yes, the U.S. should aspire. NOT!
Well, sorry about your shooting but this case has nothing to do with it. Nobody is saying he should get pity. Some of us do say that it is the court''s responsibility to look at the facts and if he is indeed insane he should be treated like any other insane person. Of course, he should be locked up regardless. A mother stoned her children to death in Texas and received insanity. There shouldn''t be one justice system for men and another for women.
I don''t think you''ll find anybody who cares much about why he did it, unless it''s something that would cause OTHER people to do it, too. THEN it would be sensible to see if it''s something that can be changed, so disgusting stuff like this doesn''t happen more often. In this case, maybe he''s just completely in.sane, or maybe he took some really bad drugs. Whatever the reason is, it doesn''t matter because he has done what he has done, and so he has to be locked up.
But what if bad paint from China made him go in.sane? What if McDonald''s spiked his chilli with crazy-potion? What if Starbucks put MK-ULTRA in their coffee? What if...? Though unlikely, if one of these things caused these murders, we need to know. And there could even be other, more reasonable, causes. I''m not saying there are, just that it is reasonable to ask, to investigate, to try to learn something that may benefit us all.
However, some people don''t have enough intelligence to understand cause and effect. They seem to think that piling on more punishment will somehow fix the situation. But that doesn''t work. Anyone crazy enough to murder another human being doesn''t think about the punishment when they''re killing. If they could think rationally, they wouldn''t kill. Hence, they AREN''T thinking rationally. Hence, the punishment can''t prevent the crime. The punishment is just there to make you feel "safe". You think more punishement means more safety, and you want to feel safer. But it doesn''t work that way.
Posted by salty1954 at 11:19 AM : Jan 07, 2008
Don''t worry, someone will try. Remember, though, they''ll tell you this guy''s innocent until proven guilty in a court of law - like the Guantanamo terrorists - and therefore should be treated accordingly. Then, in the next sentence, they''ll tell you that Bush/Cheney are already war criminals, already tried and convicted in their minds of murder, treason, genocide, multi-billion $ thefts, and otherwise ruining the world. Go figure.
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Judging by the picture of him accompanying the article, he looked completely out of it. Drugs abuse can cause extreme psychosis. I''m not talking marajuana or alcohol, but Crystal Meth, Cocaine addiction can turn you into a paranoid freak. This is just a sick story.
I''m not trying to be mean, but you don''t have to post on here. And you don''t have to come back on here looking to see if anyone responds. You have to expect by now that if you post on here, someone is going to reply back, and you might not like it. I''ve read some of your posts before, you''ve had some not so nice things to say. We all post our opinions and what happens, happens.
So, for two million dollars they would let this guy back out on the street?
These cops don''t seem to care about public safety at all.