ATASCOSA COUNTY, Texas – A San Antonio man will spend the rest of his life behind prison bars after a judge said he killed and burned his girlfriend, the Atascosa County District Attorney announced on social media.
A jury found Jeffrey Lee Devorah, 47, guilty of murder last month. The DA said Devorah’s punishment of life in prison was decided by an Atascosa County judge on Tuesday.
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He is eligible for parole after serving 30 years in prison.
KSAT reported Devorah was arrested in 2023 after Atascosa County deputies found human remains in his backyard.
At the time, the remains were believed to be his girlfriend, Tiffany Lynette Garza, 37, who was last seen on March 25, 2019.
In July of that year, investigators heard audio that said Garza was killed in the 600 block of Bocawood Drive in the Shalimar Subdivision, north of Poteet.
Investigators went to the home and found “significant blood evidence” along with a backyard burn pit that contained human bones and bone fragments.
A tip led local investigators and Texas Rangers to a person who said they “reported seeing Tiffany’s murder and helping burn her body in Devorah’s backyard.”
The bone evidence was sent to forensic experts at Texas State University, and they confirmed the bones belonged to a woman between the ages of 22 and 56. Garza was 37 at the time.
The blood recovered from the house was tested by the Bexar County Crime Lab, where they found DNA that matched with the biological mother of Tiffany’s son and the biological daughter of Tiffany’s mother.
Devorah was first interviewed by police after an unrelated arrest in 2019, but he said he knew nothing about her disappearance. He did say that she was living at the home on Bocawood.
Audrey Gossett, the Atascosa County DA, called Garza’s murder heinous in her emotional statement shared on social media.
“No sentence can restore what her family has lost, but Tiffany’s life—and the truth about what happened to her—deserved every bit of that effort,” Gossett said. “Tiffany’s life mattered. Our thoughts remain with her family and everyone who loved her.”
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