SAN ANTONIO – As the one-year mark of Stacey Dramiga’s murder approaches, others who frequent the park trails where she was killed remain anxious for an arrest.
The 63-year-old wife and mother was found dead on Sept. 23, 2024, just off the paved trail along the Salado Creek Greenway in southeast Bexar County.
Bexar County sheriff’s deputies were following up on a missing persons report for Dramiga near Covington Park when they found her body approximately two miles away.
She had been reported missing after Dramiga did not return home the previous day from a walk along the trail.
So far, sheriff’s investigators have not made any arrests in connection with her murder.
“I wouldn’t call it a cold case by any stretch of the imagination. We continue to follow leads,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar recently told KSAT 12 News. “I’m constantly being given updates on the case, and I can tell you that I’m satisfied with the efforts that my investigators are taking.”
Throughout the past year, the sheriff said detectives have covered a lot of ground, initially poring through the parks and trails for evidence before following up on tips about possible suspects.
At one point soon after the murder, deputies arrested a then-37-year-old man who they believed might be tied to the incident.
However, Salazar said he later was excluded as a suspect in the case.
“Right now, much of what we’re doing concentrates on DNA evidence,” Salazar said. “We’re having to rely on some pretty high-tech technologies that are not necessarily at our fingertips.”
Because of that, Salazar said, finding the killer could take time.
Meanwhile, some people who frequent the park hope for an arrest soon.
“It worries me because I do see people, women, you know, go out and go walking by themselves,” Judy Martinez told KSAT.
Martinez, who, herself, goes for regular walks along the trails, was in Covington Park last year as deputies searched for Dramiga.
She said the images she saw at that time have stuck in her mind.
“They had mounted police, and then they had police on four-wheelers. And they found (Dramiga) out there,” Martinez said.
After the murder, she and other parkgoers went into heightened alert, focusing on protecting themselves from danger as they get their exercise.
“You’ve got to be weary and be careful and bring deterrents,” Martinez said, pointing to a large dog she had on a leash.
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