SEGUIN, Texas – A couple has been arrested and charged in the killing of a man whose body was found May 3 under the Guadalupe River bridge in Seguin.
Seguin police said Gabriel Perez, 41, and Andrea Middleton, 23, were arrested in Brown County, southeast of Abilene.
Police said Guamaro Castaneda-Escatel, 54, of Tarrant County, was found dead under the bridge a few days after he is thought to have been killed.
Police said Middleton and Perez admitted to being with the victim on the night of April 28, when he was beaten to death with a hammer by Perez after an argument. Perez is accused of dragging the victim's body under the bridge and fleeing with Middleton, who police said helped clean up the crime scene.
Before they could drive away, police said the couple's red Mazda car got stuck in the mud and had to be pulled out by a pickup truck. After the body was found, several people reported seeing the car getting pulled out of the mud by the truck.
The couple's car broke down in Brown County and was being towed by a passing motorist when local police pulled the vehicles over early Tuesday, Seguin police said. Unaware that Perez and Middleton were suspects in Castaneda-Escatel's killing, he let them go, but not before passing their names onto the Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers, who were assisting Seguin police in their investigation, notified Brown County law enforcement that Perez and Middleton were wanted on active warrants out of Comal and Guadalupe counties on unrelated charges. Police in Brown County tracked the suspects down and arrested them.
On Wednesday, officials with the Seguin Police Department and the Texas Rangers traveled to Brown County to interview the suspects. Investigators searched their car and recovered several items, police said.
Middleton told investigators that she and Perez were with the victim the night he was killed. She said told police she and Perez had been living in a tent near the bridge.
Perez admitted to investigators that he killed Castaneda-Escatel and dragged his body into a brushy area, police said. He told police Middleton helped him clean the crime scene. He also said they threw several bloodied items into a dumpster.
Perez is charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. He was transferred and booked into the Guadalupe County Jail, where he is being held on $1,500,000 bail on both charges.
Middleton is charged with two counts of tampering with evidence. She is being held in the Brown County Jail and is awaiting extradition to Guadalupe County.