A suspect in the horrifying burning murder of a lady in an affluent Austin suburb earlier in the year has been taken into custody by Texas police.
Firefighters responded to a 911 call on September 29 about a grassfire outside a resident’s fence and discovered Melissa Davis, 33, on fire on the other side of Mesa Drive near Cat Mountain Drive.
For allegedly setting Davis on fire, authorities detained 45-year-old Andrew Alexander Cole on October 25 on a felony count of tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair.
An affidavit acquired by Fox News Digital states that the decedent’s disfigurement from the fire prevented anyone from identifying their race or sex at the site.
Davis’s fingerprints have to be used for identification. The accusation resulted from a weeks-long investigation into the strange death of the University of North Texas graduate.
According to an affidavit acquired by Fox News Digital, investigators allegedly used cellphone data and camera footage to link Cole to the gruesome crime, though it was unclear how the two knew each other.
Security Footage Reveals Details of Austin Woman’s Mysterious Death
The two of them are seen together in CCTV footage at the La Quinta Inn in South Austin, according to the statement.
Davis was spotted on September 28, at approximately 7 p.m., in her blue Toyota 4Runner, trailing a white Kia that turned out to be Cole’s. The vehicles may be seen pulling into the motel’s parking lot at 1603 E. Oltorf St.
Before the three of them check into the motel, Davis—who holds a master’s degree in tourism management from the University of North Texas—is seen getting out of her SUV and meeting Cole and an unidentified male. Davis is no longer visible on the footage after this point. Cole drove Davis’ Toyota out of the motel multiple times later that night.
According to the affidavit, Cole is seen pulling up to the back of the La Quinta Inn the following morning at 4:03 a.m., opening the trunk, and putting “an item of some weight” inside.
Home security footage of Davis’ Toyota 4Runner shows it traveling south on Mesa Drive at 4:54 in the morning, not far from the location where she was dropped on the side of the road in the Northwest Hills neighborhood.
Cole’s phone rang there as well a minute later. Six minutes later, according to the affidavit, flames can be seen on CCTV footage from another house. Firefighters found Davis’s body completely burned out just off the road.. According to the warrant, police “smelled a strong odor of accelerant” close to the burned body and discovered a lighter on the ground.
Close to Davis’s burnt upper body, a police K-9 unearthed a butcher knife with a melted handle. Investigators suspect Davis was breathing when she was set on fire, according to an investigation warrant for her cellphone that KXAN was able to get. However, the official reason of death for Davis is still unknown pending laboratory results.
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The declaration did not specify the type of game rooms that Davis’ mother said police her daughter frequently attended.
Davis said her phone was broken and that the day before she was discovered dead, she was on her way to the Apple shop to get it mended, according to a family member who spoke with the police. However, the phone was turned on on September 28 between 7:07 and 9:57 p.m. and it rang off a tower close to the motel, according to the police. Prior to her passing, Davis’ family members told Fox News Digital that they were horrified by how horrific her death was.
According to Mary Anne Castles, Davis’ stepmother, “it’s a huge loss for all of us.” “We’re all experiencing an awful moment and just trying to wrap our heads around this.” Cole is being jailed at the Travis County Correctional Complex on a $100,000 bail.
In a separate case, he is accused of criminal offenses contempt for allegedly not paying child support. In that instance, the bond was set at $1,800. His next court date is November 17. A request for comment from the Austin Police Department was not answered.