DNA evidence and cell phone records link a 16-year-old boy to the murder of Kaytlynn Cargill over an alleged drug deal, according to an arrest warrant obtained by WFAA.
The warrant said Cargill was likely murdered with a hammer before being put in a dumpster.
Cargill’s body was found in an Arlington landfill in June, two days after she was reported missing after she left to walk her dog June 19. According to a witness cited in the arrest warrant, she went to the dog park to take part in an exchange of marijuana with a 16-year-old suspect and his brother.
Cargill was set to take the marijuana to make “dabs” and sell it back to the suspect.
The witness told police Cargill was asked to come to the Oak Creek Apartments alone, without the witness or her dog, the arrest warrant states. The witness said Cargill ran away from the dog park because the suspect saw him watching them.
Cargill and the witness returned to Cargill’s home, but she returned to the dog park roughly an hour later “to get the money,” according to witness cited in the warrant. The witness tied Cargill’s dog up and went to play basketball and never saw her again.
Police believe Cargill was murdered between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. that evening. Cargill’s parents reported her missing at 8:15 p.m.
Her body was found in an Arlington landfill on June 21. The sanitation company confirmed to police that the dumpsters from Oak Creek Apartments in Bedford were picked up and taken to that landfill that day.
The warrant provides a timeline of the investigation that led police to believe the 16-year-old, who WFAA isn’t naming because he’s a minor, was responsible for Cargill’s murder.
On June 25, blood was found on several walls, the kitchen blinds and on the patio of the apartment where the suspect had been staying for two weeks before the alleged murder. Blood was also found on the head of a hammer, believed to be the murder weapon.
DNA evidence later confirmed that blood matched Cargill’s.
On June 26, police made contact with a man the suspect identified as his “uncle,” who is believed to have picked the suspect up after the murder.
On August 2, police obtained a search warrant for that man’s Fort Worth apartment, where the suspect went to stay. Police searched the apartment the next day and found 17 pieces of evidence, including handwritten notes in which the suspect “conspired to establish his alibi.”
The suspect’s girlfriend told police on Aug. 18 that she was in Alabama on the day of the murder, but that she and the suspect spoke over FaceTime about his alibi.
Cell phone records indicate the suspect deleted calls and texts between June 17 and June 21. The warrant also cites abnormal cell phone behavior on June 19.
Earlier Friday, Bedford police detained an unnamed 16-year-old suspect and assured the public that it wasn’t at risk.