Spring Break
A&M student killed, burned
Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: News
HOUSTON (AP) - The acrid aroma billowing from the two barbecue grills on the balcony of Apartment 224 didn't smell like barbecue. And the black smoke rising from the leaping flames didn't look like a normal cookout.
What, neighbors at the Red Oak Place apartments wondered, was going on in the second floor apartment where 27-year-old Timothy Wayne Shepherd lived? What was he burning at all hours, for at least two days?
The answer turned their stomachs.
According to law enforcement officials, Shepherd had been burning the body of his former girlfriend and, 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."
Shepherd has confessed to strangling and dismembering Stewart, who was home on spring break, because he was angry that she had started a new relationship.
Officials first thought Shepherd had disposed of the body in a large commercial trash bin that had since been emptied, launching a heated debate over whether the Sheriff's Department should conduct a massive and expensive search of area landfills for Stewart's remains.
Shepherd, who is charged with murder, is being held on $250,000 bond in the Harris County Jail. Telephone messages left with his attorney, Chip Lewis, were not immediately returned. On Sunday, the door to Shepherd's apartment was covered with plywood boards.
Thomas, the sheriff, said Stewart's family had requested privacy and would not respond to media inquiries.
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.
March 16 neighbors 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."
What, neighbors at the Red Oak Place apartments wondered, was going on in the second floor apartment where 27-year-old Timothy Wayne Shepherd lived? What was he burning at all hours, for at least two days?
The answer turned their stomachs.
According to law enforcement officials, Shepherd had been burning the body of his former girlfriend and, 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."
Shepherd has confessed to strangling and dismembering Stewart, who was home on spring break, because he was angry that she had started a new relationship.
Officials first thought Shepherd had disposed of the body in a large commercial trash bin that had since been emptied, launching a heated debate over whether the Sheriff's Department should conduct a massive and expensive search of area landfills for Stewart's remains.
Shepherd, who is charged with murder, is being held on $250,000 bond in the Harris County Jail. Telephone messages left with his attorney, Chip Lewis, were not immediately returned. On Sunday, the door to Shepherd's apartment was covered with plywood boards.
Thomas, the sheriff, said Stewart's family had requested privacy and would not respond to media inquiries.
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.
March 16 neighbors 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."
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