Posted on 03/26/2007 2:44:08 PM PDT by Dallas59
Mar. 25 - For at least two days, neighbors at a city apartment complex noticed an acrid aroma, black smoke and leaping flames coming from two barbecue grills on the balcony of a second-floor apartment. What, neighbors at the Red Oak Place apartments wondered, was going on in the unit where 27-year-old Timothy Wayne Shepherd lived? What was he burning at all hours, for days at a time? The answer turned their stomachs.
According to law enforcement officials, Shepherd dismembered, and then burned the body of his former girlfriend, Tynesha Stewart, a 19-year-old Texas A&M University student. Nothing remains of Stewart's body, Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said at a press conference Saturday.
"I just don't know what to think about it," said Louis Evans, whose balcony faces Shepherd's in the quiet tree-lined enclave in northern Houston. "I thought he was a nice normal person. I guess you never know what your neighbors are doing."
Authorities said Shepherd has confessed to strangling and dismembering Stewart, a college freshman who was home on spring break, because he was angry that she had started a new relationship.
Officials first thought Shepherd had disposed of her remains in a large commercial trash bin that had since been emptied, launching an intense debate in the area about whether the Sheriff's Department should conduct a massive and expensive search of area landfills for Stewart's remains.
Stewart was last seen March 15 and was reported missing March 19. The next day the Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide division launched its investigation.
On March 16, neighbors said they first noticed the unusual activity and the unpleasant odor on Shepherd's balcony.
"The smell was awful," said Evans, who also became alarmed after seeing a blaze shoot out from the grills. "I was wondering: What is he burning? Not cooking, but burning. There is a difference."
At times, Evans said, the flames from the grills leapt dangerously close to the roof of the balcony. Evans says he called 911, but when firefighters arrived, the flames had calmed and Shepherd assured them everything was under control.
A leasing agent at the apartment complex also noticed the thick dark smoke and the intense flames and asked Shepherd what he was doing, Evans said. Another neighbor, 18-year-old James Hebert, told The Houston Chronicle that he often cooked out with Shepherd, and even left his grill at Shepherd's apartment. When he wasn't invited over, he asked his neighbor what was going on. Shepherd replied that he was cooking for a wedding, the newspaper said.
Dionne Whitaker, 31, who lives in the complex, said she saw Shepherd carry the grill and smoker to a garbage bin a day or so later, the newspaper said.
Human remains generally require extremely high temperatures to destroy, and authorities have not said how it is possible that Stewart's remains could be completely burned on a patio grill.
"This certainly turned out to be one of the most heinous crimes I've ever seen in my 38 years (in law enforcement)," Thomas, the sheriff, said Saturday.
Shepherd, who is charged with murder, is being held on $250,000 bond in the Harris County Jail. Telephone message left with his attorney, Chip Lewis, were not immediately returned. On Sunday, the door to Shepherd's apartment was covered with plywood boards.
Done?
Bobby Slay
Why do so many murderers have the middle name "Wayne?"
Did he see this on a episode of Semi homemade?
Where dem bones?
Tynesha is in a slow burn over the incident.
Seriously, that's a terrible waste of a young life.
Hey c'mon we dont have all the facts yet....
Hey c'mon we dont have all the facts yet....
"Did he see this on a episode of Semi homemade?"
"Boy Meets Grill"
Eventually he admitted to having burned her.
I can't even imagine the grief her family and friends are enduring because I don't know them at all and have been heartbroken over this.
Her minister was on TV last night and impressed me so much with his calm manner. He stated the Church had already determined they would form a group to search the landfill themselves if necessary. Very impressive congregation.
"I just don't know what to think about it."
Duh! How about murder most foul?
I'll bet he likes KFC.
There is a much bigger grille waiting for this scumbag in the hereafter, you can pretty much bet the rent on that.
And people don't think that evil has been unleashed and ramped up in this insane, depraved world?
It's just getting started.
A welcome snub!
Certain liberals and libertarians will counter with "what's the problem if she consented to it?"
Why? It's basically just your regular old murder by strangulation, with a creative method of body disposal.
It is a waste.
Ted Nugent?
Comments that make you go hmmmm.
At least he didn't try to feed the remains to his neighbors...
Knock it off Larry thats not nice
BTTT
Just another bit of info on the girl ...she is reportedly the neice of Dallas Cowboy (and old Aggie football player) cornerback Aaron Glenn.
Certain ... libertarians will counter with "what's the problem if she consented to it?"
And of course, his middle name is Wayne.
it is extremely horrifying, my heart breaks for her family.
I thought the same thing - especially when he mentioned the stench
I think he got it from Ted Nugent's book, "Kill It & Grill It
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
 |
(Here's the film's Wiki for Freepers who won't rent it to watch the ending . . .) |
now that ain't right
ANOTHER Wayne???? Yikes!
"You can't grill it, until you kill it."
TYNESHA STEWART DISAPPEARANCE
Authorities call off search for A&M student's body
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Timothy Wayne Shepherd enters court
Friday, wearing a yellow jumpsuit to show
he has been placed on suicide watch.
BILLY SMITH II: CHRONICLEHarris County Sheriff' Tommy Thomas announced Saturday night there will be no search for the body of Tynesha Stewart, the 19-year-old Texas A&M student who was murdered March 15.
``There are no remaining body parts,'' Thomas said at a press conference. ``We have determined through this investigation that the defendant dismembered the victim and burned her body parts. There is no body to be found. Based on that information, there will be no search. The family is aware of this and they understand.''
Thomas, who called on local media to give the Stewart family privacy, said Timothy Wayne Shepherd burned Stewart's body in a barbecue grill on his patio at his apartment in the 17700 block of Red Oak in northwest Harris County.
When investigators examined Shepherd's apartment, the bathroom had been scoured almost completely clean with ammonia. The only evidence found were two specks of blood, detectives said.
Stewart was last seen March 15, and was reported missing March 19. The next day the Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide division launched its investigation.
Shepherd was interviewed for 10 hours on Wednesday, March 21. After being released, he contacted community activist Quanell X, who persuaded Shepherd to tell him what happened to Stewart. He then led authorities to the garbage bin where he claimed to have placed Stewart's body.
That same day, Shepherd was charged with murder and early the following morning, investigators say, he confessed to strangling Stewart. On Thursday, the sheriff's office announced it would not conduct a search in a landfill for Stewart's body, but seemed to reverse itself on Friday when it said it would do one.
Later on Friday, investigators said Shepherd may have dismembered her body. And on Saturday, the sheriff announced there would be no search, because all the parts had been burned.
Shepherd's neighbors said Saturday that last week he was barbecuing at all hours of the day, for days at a time, at his apartment, No. 224.
James Hebert, 18, often played video games and barbecued with his ``nice'' next-door neighbor. In fact, they cooked out together so frequently Hebert kept his grill at Shepherd's place.
But starting on March 15 , he noticed Shepherd was cooking - on his own grill and on Hebert's pit - ``non-stop`` for two days.
This time, however, Shepherd hadn't invited him over, nor did he share. When he asked for some of what he was cooking, Shepherd refused, saying he was cooking for a wedding.
On March 16 around 7:45 p.m., Hebert and his roommate, Cithara Gomez, became alarmed when they looked over and saw dark-colored smoke billowing from Shepherd's patio.
Concerned the building might be on fire, they called 9-1-1.
When a firefighter and Harris County deputy arrived at the apartment, Shepherd quickly told them he had everything under control.
``He (Shepherd) came to the door real quick,'' said Hebert, who saw Stewart at Shepherd's apartment the day before she was killed. ``His face was real sweaty.''
Hebert, who gave a statement to homicide detectives Saturday, said that over the weekend, he noticed his grill, and Shepherd's smoker, had disappeared from Shepherd's patio.
Dionne Whitaker, 31, whose patio is directly across from Shepherd's patio, said Saturday she saw Shepherd carry the grill and the smoker to the garbage bin on March 17 or March 18.
Whitaker said she assumed Shepherd was throwing them away because he ``burnt them up'' when whatever he was cooking late last week started ``blazing,'' with fire nearly reaching the roof of his patio, she said.
Whitaker, who was interviewed by investigators, said Saturday that when she learned Shepherd may have been burning body parts, she was deeply disturbed.
``I wanted to vomit,'' she said.
Whitaker's husband, Louis Evans, who also gave a statement to detectives, was alarmed the first time he saw the pit ablaze. But when it happened a few more times, he became suspicious.
``At first I thought he was careless,'' Evan said. ``You'd be careless once. But you wouldn't do it again. He could have set the building on fire. There is other people's property ... I didn't know what was going on.''
The sheriff said the five-day investigation of the murder, followed by days of blistering criticism of the department for its initial decision not to conduct a search in a landfill for Stewart's body, was ``one of the toughest things I've ever been through.''
Tim Miller, the director of Texas Equusearch, which had hoped to begin assisting in a search of an Atoscocita-area landfill next week, said he was deeply saddened they would not be able to return Stewart's body to her family.
``We did everything we could,'' he said. ``It just wasn't meant to be.''
No Aggie jokes please.
Grillin and a Chillin...
Guess he never saw the grilling with LOX video on the net.
What else was he supposed to do?
A middle name of Wayne, and with a moustache is a definate red flag.
After reading this thread, I have to say it sickens me to see how many Freepers have treated this like it was a joke.
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