Jeffery Lee Devorah, 43, right, faces charges in the death of Tiffany Lynette Garza, 37, in Texas. (Screenshot from CBS San Antonio, Texas affiliate KENS 5)
A 43-year-old man faces murder charges in the death of a woman whose charred remains were believed to be found in a burn pit on a property in Texas in 2019.
Jeffery Lee Devorah, 43, faces charges in connection with the death of Tiffany Lynette Garza, 37.
Devorah was booked into jail on March 15 on a murder charge. His bail was set at $500,000, Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward said in a statement.
Lilly Morua, Garza’s mother, reported her missing on April 26, 2019, after her daughter was dropped off at a Dollar General.
“I can’t sleep,” she told CBS San Antonio affiliate KENS. “I’ve just been worried sick to my stomach.”
Investigators got a tip in July 2019 saying Garza had been murdered at 615 Bocawood Drive, about 30 miles south of San Antonio. It was a location where deputies had responded before involving the victim.
In an interview with investigators in an unrelated arrest in 2019, Devorah told investigators Garza had been living there and said he knew nothing about her death or disappearance.
During a property search over three days in July 2019, investigators uncovered significant blood evidence from the suspect and the victim in the house, officials said.
Police sifted through a burn pit behind the residence for two days, recovering human bones and bone fragments burned enough that no DNA could be recovered.
DNA from blood matched Garza’s mother and daughter, officials said.
Sheriff’s investigators believe she was murdered between March 28, 2019, and April 4, 2019.
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