Mom found hanged at dock in staged suicide, Texas cops say. ‘My sister didn’t do this’

A 30-year-old mother of four was recently found dead, hanging from a rope tied to a dock, but investigators don’t believe she died by suicide, Texas police told news outlets.

Officers responded to a call at about 1:48 p.m. Friday, May 31, after the woman was discovered at a marina in League City, the police department said in a news release.

“Callers told LCPD the woman appeared to have been lifeless as she hung by a rope from the dock,” police said.

Details were initially scarce with police revealing little about their investigation, though the department said it spoke with witnesses and friends of the woman — including her boyfriend, who was on a boat nearby.

“A man who was possibly the victim’s boyfriend, became very distraught and would not come out of his boat,” police said, adding that officers eventually convinced him to come ashore and speak with them.

However, nearly two weeks after Giselle Salazar-Tapia was discovered dead, police are saying they believe she was killed and her suicide was staged, League City police told Galveston newspaper The Daily News.

“In this particular case, what’s suspicious is the positioning of one of the victim’s arms being in an upright position with nothing holding it up,” Officer Jose Ortega said. “Detectives believe the victim passed away in another location with her arm raised.”

The arm stayed up due to rigor mortis, causing it to stiffen and stay in place instead of falling, he told the newspaper.

Salazar-Tapia was a mother of four children, and she had moved to League City to escape an abusive relationship, her family told KPRC.

“She was trying to change her life,” brother Nathan Paz said.

Salazar-Tapia was “the most charismatic person you’d ever meet,” he said. “She was always looking for the best in people.”

Police say they’ve narrowed the investigation down to two “persons of interest,” but they didn’t say who, and no arrests have been made, KTRK reported.

“I just want everyone to know my sister didn’t do this to herself. She didn’t commit suicide,” Salazar-Tapia’s sister, Esperanza Alegria, told the station. “We just want justice for her. We want whoever is responsible, who did this to my sister, we want them to get charged for what they did to her.”

Since March, she had been living with her boyfriend, James Hart, on his boat, the station reported. He told the station that Salazar-Tapia left the boat at some point in the night and he didn’t know she was dead until she was found the following afternoon.

“I assumed she had gone for a few days,” he said.

Hart says he had a pair of surveillance cameras facing the boat, but one was removed and the other was turned to face away on the night Salazar-Tapia disappeared, and he doesn’t know who did it, Hart told the station.

“I would never hurt Giselle,” he said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact investigators, and can do so anonymously by calling Galveston County Crimestoppers at 409-763-8477, police said.

League City is a roughly 25-mile drive southeast from downtown Houston.

This story was originally published June 11, 2024 at 7:55 AM with the headline "Mom found hanged at dock in staged suicide, Texas cops say. ‘My sister didn’t do this’."