A person accused of killing after which dismembering the frame of a Texas mom with an electrical chainsaw was once ordered to be hung on $1 million bond Tuesday after being at the run for 5 years.
Erik Arceneaux, 51, was once first charged with homicide in 2019 within the disappearance of 29-year-old Maria Jimenez-Rodriguez, who was once remaining observed the morning of June 21, 2018, when she dropped off her daughter at her babysitter’s northeast Houston house on tips on how to paintings, investigators mentioned.
Jimenez-Rodriguez, a paralegal on the Milledge Law Firm, by no means arrived on the administrative center that day. A colleague later informed police that she had won 3 texts on June 21 from Jimenez-Rodriguez’s telephone apologizing for her absence; the remaining textual content from her telephone, despatched round 6:19 p.m., mentioned she was once being adopted by way of 3 males, in line with a Houston Police Department murder detective’s possible purpose affidavit bought by way of HuffPost. Her frame hasn’t ever been discovered.
Houston Police Department
“There was a text message reported to be from her, but it didn’t seem like her,” Samuel Milledge, her boss and the circle of relatives’s spokesperson, told Houston’s KPRC-TV on the time. Milledge didn’t reply to a request for remark from HuffPost.
Jimenez-Rodriguez’s older sister changed into alarmed when the babysitter contacted her to mention that Jimenez-Rodriguez by no means returned to pick out up her daughter and hadn’t spoke back to telephone calls or texts, in line with government and her circle of relatives. Her sister used OnStar to trace her truck, which was once deserted close to a rail backyard in northeast Houston, the affidavit mentioned, simply blocks from the babysitter’s house. Jimenez-Rodriguez’s handbag and mobile phone have been long gone, and her sister reported her lacking to the police later that night.
When wondered after her disappearance, Arceneaux informed detectives Jimenez-Rodriguez was once his female friend and he’d remaining observed her the night time of June 20 and that he anticipated her to pick out him up at 9 a.m. tomorrow for a task interview, in line with the police affidavit, however she by no means confirmed up.
Jimenez-Rodriguez’s sister denied that the 2 have been a pair, telling Houston’s Fox 26 that he was once an athletic teacher at a fitness center who have been stalking her.
Detectives mentioned Arceneaux’s daughter won 11 calls from her father on June 21, announcing he was once scared and afraid that “something bad” had took place to Jimenez-Rodriguez.
Investigators mentioned that cell information and safety photos positioned Arceneaux on the scene the place Jimenez-Rodriguez’s automobile was once later discovered. In the surveillance video, investigators mentioned, her automobile is observed circling the world and a person, known later by way of his daughter as Arceneaux, is observed strolling clear of the world in a while in a while.
Both Jimenez-Rodriguez’s and Arceneaux’s telephones had traveled in combination all through the day, investigators mentioned, finishing up at a Home Depot retailer at roughly 6:30 p.m. Surveillance video from the shop allegedly confirmed Arceneaux arriving on my own after which on the money check in buying an electrical chainsaw and a field of 42-gallon business trash luggage. Both telephones then allegedly have been tracked in combination en path to Arceneaux’s house.
Luminol trying out later carried out at Arceneaux’s house confirmed proof of blood on his bed room’s partitions and ceiling that anyone had tried to scrub up, government mentioned.
Authorities issued an arrest warrant in August 2019 for Arceneaux on suspicion of homicide in reference to Jimenez-Rodriguez’s disappearance and the usage of a chainsaw to dismember and cast off her frame. Authorities may now not find him, alternatively, till he was once arrested by U.S. marshals last week out of doors a industry in southeast Houston.
Arceneaux had in the past pleaded responsible in 2010 to irritated attack and admitted he had pushed across the town with a gun pointed on the head of his then-girlfriend whilst threatening to kill her, courtroom data display. Over the years he was once lacking, the U.S. Marshals Service described him as a “violent and dangerous man.”
The Harris County district lawyer and Arceneaux’s lawyer didn’t reply to requests for remark from HuffPost.
Before Tuesday’s listening to, Arceneaux’s bail was once to begin with set at $250,000 earlier than being revoked. He is lately being held within the Harris County Jail.
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