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Woman’s body found buried under burn pit, Texas sheriff says. 52-year-old man arrested

Following a tip, deputies found a woman’s body buried under a burn pit in Leader and arrested a 52-year-old man, Travis County Sheriff said.
Following a tip, deputies found a woman’s body buried under a burn pit in Leader and arrested a 52-year-old man, Travis County Sheriff said. Getty Images/iStockphoto

Investigating a tip, Texas authorities found a woman’s body buried in a burn pit. Now, a 52-year-old man is under arrest.

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office received a tip on Oct. 31 about a possible homicide from someone with secondhand knowledge , the office said in a Thursday, Nov. 3 news release. The person told deputies that a woman may have been killed and her body kept on a property in Leander.

Detectives began investigating and evidence of a possible homicide began to mount, the release said.

The sheriff’s office obtained a search warrant and began searching a rural property, officials said. There, detectives found a woman’s body buried under a burn pit.

Her identity and cause of death have not been released, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies consider her death a homicide.

A 52-year-old man was arrested on Nov. 1 on a charge of driving without a license and was later charged with tampering physical evidence with the intent to impair a human corpse, according to jail records. He is being held at the Travis County Correctional Complex with bail set at $100,000.

The sheriff expects additional charges will be filed against the suspect.

Leander is about 35 miles northwest of downtown Austin.

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This story was originally published November 4, 2022 at 9:33 AM with the headline "Woman’s body found buried under burn pit, Texas sheriff says. 52-year-old man arrested."

Aspen Pflughoeft
McClatchy DC
Aspen Pflughoeft covers real-time news for McClatchy. She is a graduate of Minerva University where she studied communications, history, and international politics. Previously, she reported for Deseret News.
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