A Texas man has been charged with murder after remains found behind a house where he lived were identified as a woman reported missing more than five years ago.
Don Edward Bullard Jr. and Angelique Yvonne Hataway shared a rental home in Denton when family members reported Hataway, 41, missing in April 2019, saying they had not heard from her since January of that year, according to the Denton Police Department. Bullard was believed to be the last person to see her before she disappeared, but little progress was made in the investigation until September 10, 2024.
Police said they interviewed Bullard “several times” in the course of the investigation, but he always told them he “had no knowledge of her whereabouts.”
But on September 10 of this year, the owner of that property contacted Denton police and reported finding human remains in the backyard, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Denton police secured a search warrant for the property and recovered the remains, along with personal effects “which were consistent with items known to belong to Hataway.”
The remains were sent to the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas Health Science Center for DNA comparison with samples provided by Hataway’s family, and the body was positively identified on Tuesday. A cause of death has not yet been released.
A warrant for Bullard’s arrest on the murder charge was secured on Thursday. Bullard, now 60, was already in the Denton County Jail on unrelated charges and was given a $1 million bond for the murder charge.
According to The Charley Project, Hataway suffered from multiple sclerosis and used a wheelchair or a walker for mobility at the time of her death.
