Authorities have arrested a woman in the killing of a Texas couple who was found beaten to death in their home more than 17 years ago.
Shelley Susan Thompson, 41, has been charged with capital murder in the April 2005 deaths of Antonio Rodriguez, 80, and his wife Luz, 77. The couple’s daughter, Carolina Tejeda, found them in their home in Cleveland, located about 45 miles northeast of Houston.
“After 17 years, it feels good,” Tejeda told KHOU-TV in Houston.
DNA found at the crime scene was tested last year and pointed to Thompson. Investigators interviewed Thompson, who was in state prison at the time on an unrelated charge. She denied involvement in the deaths but provided a DNA sample to investigators, according to authorities.
Earlier this year, the DNA Thompson provided matched evidence found at the crime scene, authorities said. Thompson, who was on parole, was arrested Friday.
Cleveland Police Chief Darrel Broussard said investigators never gave up on the case.
“Sometimes such small pieces of evidence can solve a case and in this case that piece of carpet that was found inside the home that had a spectacle of blood on it,” Broussard told KHOU-TV.
Jail records did not list an attorney for Thompson who could speak on her behalf.
Rodriguez was a U.S. Army World War II combat veteran, KHOU reported. After the war, he and his wife raised 13 children while working in the farming community of San Benito by harvesting and selling produce.
“They were great parents, very loving, forgiving, compassionate and sometimes you wonder maybe that’s why people took advantage of that,” Tejeda told KHOU-TV.
