2 arrested in 1977 cold case murder of Texas Army officer
Published February 09, 2013
FoxNews.com
EL PASO, Texas – Investigators in West Texas say they've solved the murder of an Army Green Beret who was found with a fractured skull and stab wounds in an El Paso County desert in 35 years ago.
The El Paso Times reports that Lisbeth Garrett, 74, was arrested Thursday in El Paso and charged in the 1977 death of her estranged husband, Army Maj. Chester Garrett.
An El Paso County Sheriff's Office statement said that his stepson, 54-year-old Roger Evan Garrett, was arrested in Knoxville, Tenn.
The 35-year-old major's bloody body was found in the back seat of his 1972 Volkswagen in the desert east of El Paso. Investigators say he'd been stabbed 10 times but died of a skull fracture.
At the time of his death, investigators found footprints and a set of tracks belonging to a different car in the area, but no signs of a struggle, the El Paso Times reported.
The case eventually went cold after all leads became exhausted. The investigation was not reopened until 2006, according to the paper.
"We've been working this case for many years," sheriff's Cmdr. Paul Cross told the paper. "The homicide guys did a tremendous job never quitting that case. It's a great night, and hopefully this is the first step in getting justice for him and his family."
Garrett, who was an executive officer of the student battalion at the Fort Bliss Air Defense School, also coached basketball and boys baseball at the school, according to the report.
Sheriff's Capt. Mac Stout told the El Paso Herald-Post in 1977 described Garrett as a "Special Forces type" and said "[w]hoever got him must have been mighty tough, too, and probably more than one, and probably took him by surprise."
Both Lizbeth Garrett and Roger Garrett are charged with murder and are being held on $5 million bond, according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
OT
ReplyDeleteMary Leider allegedly opened the door of a pickup truck while her brother was driving and threw her daughter out
Authorities say Leider later claimed she did not remember how the girl suffered fatal injuries
Leider is facing a second-degree murder complaint
Around 4 a.m. on December 3, 2012, authorities say 24-year-old Mary Agnes Leider sat in the front passenger seat of her Dodge pickup while her brother Wally drove down Highway 313 south of Hardin, Montana.
According to court documents, they had been out drinking that night and were on their way home. Mary's 3-year-old daughter Tennielle Big Day sat quietly on her lap.
Wally Leider later allegedly told authorities that as he drove Mary reached for the passenger door, opened it and threw Tennielle out of the moving vehicle. The child died from her injuries.
A federal criminal complaint for second-degree murder was filed against Mary Leider on Tuesday in connection with her daughter's death.
A probable cause affidavit stated that the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office received 911 calls at approximately 4:06 a.m. on December 3 from distraught individuals in the area of mile marker 11 on Highway 313. Responding officers found Mary Leider and her brother Arland sitting on the side of the road, "crying uncontrollably" the affidavit said.
At the time, Leider allegedly told the first deputy on the scene that her baby had been hit by a vehicle and was "gone," according to the affidavit. Soon after that, however, the deputy was dispatched to respond to another 911 call at mile marker 19 on the same road.
There, he was met by Wally Leider and their mother, Georgina Denny, who showed him Tennielle Big Day's lifeless body, court documents stated.
According to court documents, Mary Leider told authorities that she had been arguing with Wally while he was driving home and she kept telling him to slow down. She said he stopped the vehicle and she hit her face on the dashboard. She allegedly claimed she could not remember how Tennielle was injured after that.
Cont.
ReplyDeleteWally Leider allegedly told investigators that Mary threw Tennielle from the vehicle, the probable cause affidavit stated. He said he stopped the truck, got out and saw the girl lying in the road. He believed she was already dead, but he put her in the back seat and drove toward their home, leaving Mary and Arland behind, court documents stated.
According to the affidavit, Georgina Denny told officers she had gone out looking for her children and granddaughter, but she then saw Wally driving down Highway 313 in Mary's pickup truck. They both stopped and Wally showed her Tennielle, who was unresponsive and not breathing, in the truck. Denny said she saw blood coming from the back of the girl's head.
Mary Leider was taken to a hospital for treatment of facial abrasions and to have her blood drawn. An FBI lab determined that her blood alcohol level was higher than .24, the affidavit stated. While at the hospital, she allegedly alternated between claiming that her daughter died in a car accident and saying, "I killed my baby."
Investigators determined that the vehicle had not been in an accident.
Leider made her first court appearance on the second-degree murder complaint Wednesday and waived a preliminary hearing. A detention hearing has not been scheduled.
Court records indicate that Leider is a member of the Crow Tribe and that the crime occurred within the boundaries of the Crow Indian Reservation.
A spokesperson for the Montana U.S. Attorney's Office declined to discuss a possible motive or any other details of the case, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation. Prosecutors plan to go before a grand jury within 30 days and seek an indictment against Leider.
A federal public defender appointed to represent Leider did not return calls seeking comment on the case.
According to an obituary published in the Billings Gazette, Tennielle Big Day was "an active child who loved to play outdoors with her friends. She often enjoyed building castles with her Lego blocks. She loved to dance and was a traditional Crow dancer."http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/02/08/mary-leider-allegedly-threw-daughter-moving-pickup
Amazing! 35 years later and the murderer's are being prosecuted.
ReplyDeleteI hope that Baby Lisa's parents, Ayla's father, father's g/f, aunt; Isabel's parents, and Hailey's mother and her on again off again boyfriend are paying attention. You will eventually be caught.
Tick tock, Billie J and Shawn A.
ReplyDeleteA crime once committed cannot be undone.
ReplyDeleteIt becomes a case of WHEN it is solved and justice is done NOT IF it is solved and justice gets done.
Sooner or later bodies are found regardless of where they are dumped. Mother nature has a way of revealing the hidden, be it through the environment such as rain, wind,flooding, fire or even seasonal changes, local wildlife uncovering the remains, domestic pets or humans wandering across them by accident or technolgy.
Wherever we go, we take a piece of the location with us and leave a piece of ourselves behind.
Advances in technology mean a single skin cell can reveal the identity of the killer, a single hair or fibre, a minute spot of blood, sweat or other bodily fluids can tell us who you are.
Imagine going through life wondering if today is the day you get caught, dreading every knock on the door, fearing every siren or passing police car, wondering if the cop you see knows what you have done and recognises you. The unending worry, the stress eating you up inside.
No physical prison cell can be worse than the one you have placed yourself in mentally.
When you feel the hand on your shoulder, the click of the cuffs, confession is a blessed relief, no more lies, no more hiding, it is all in the open, a huge weight lifted from your shoulders.
Incidents like this cause the "Paul Harvey effect" to kick in. I want the rest of the story. Was there a large insurance policy on Chester Garret's life, was he abusive, was there another man or woman involved on either the husband or wife's part? It isn't often that a son helps his mother commit murder or dispose of his father's body. The article only said the Garrett's were estranged.
ReplyDeleteThis is for skeptical......first this was his stepson not his son. Two abuse, affairs or life insurance does not give a reason for planned cold blooded murder. Three your 'Paul Harvey'effect .....the rest of the story is for those who loved him not your entertainment! I knew this man and he was an honerable man who did not deserve his life and his future taken from him or those who loved him. You did not know him or the details of his life. Although family always knew who did it....it took 36 years for the sheriffs to prove it. I am so proud we never gave up and although I live in Tennessee, I So proud of the EP Sheriffs office....especially det Arias and det Belknap. There is no reason for such a brutal death. But reasoning isn't trait of sociopaths!!!!!!
ReplyDelete