Manhunt after Texas woman found dead in burning car
DALLAS -- Dallas police are searching for a man they say is suspected of killing a woman found dead early Saturday in the back of a burning vehicle.
Police say text messages, witness accounts and surveillance video tie 26-year-old Manuel Rocha to the murder of 20-year-old Fort Worth woman Alexus Garcia. Dallas police say she has "visible trauma" and has been beaten and strangled to death.
Garcia reportedly drove to around 2 a.m. Saturday at Rocha's mother's home in Richardson, north of Dallas, according to an arrest warrant released by police Monday night. Her Fiat was captured on surveillance video arriving at the home, but she was never seen leaving, the warrant says.
It's not clear what kind of relationship Garcia and Rocha had or why she went to the home. But according to the warrant, when she arrived there, she texted her "current location" to a friend and they "talked about her safety" before she went into the home.
Police said a few more text messages followed, but she wasn't heard from again after 4:47 a.m.
Security video captured a man that appeared to be Rocha putting something in the back of the Fiat and driving off, according to the warrant.
Just before 8 a.m., firefighters responded to the report of a car fire in Dallas, about 10 miles away from the home, and discovered Garcia's body in the back of the burning Fiat. They also reportedly found a damaged cell phone and a Texas ID card that belonged to Rocha and listed the same Richardson address the vicitm had earlier texted her friend, police said in the warrant.
Police say gasoline was used to start the fire.
CBS DFW reports that video captured the Fiat pulling into the back of a parking lot. A man who matches Rocha's description is later seen fleeing on foot, according to the warrant.
Family members confirmed to police that Rocha sleeps in the back bedroom of the Richardson home. They said he was at the home when they went to bed at midnight and gone when they woke up. He also didn't show up to work that day, family told police.
Family also said that Rocha "meets with prostitutes," according to the warrant.
Rocha has been charged with capital murder and is still at large. Anyone with information abut his whereabous is asked to call the Dallas police.