County ‘cold case’ may be at an end as belongings of missing teen found

BY DAVE LEWIS, Examiner publisher

A note of quiet resignation was evident in Don Sowell’s voice as he trekked along the sandy trail through the dense undergrowth to the site where what is believed to be the remains of 18-year-old Carlos Rodriguez Jr. were found Oct. 2.

The Grimes County Sheriff didn’t state emphatically the remains were those of Rodriguez — DNA testing will have to confirm it — but there was little doubt in his mind that the disappearance of the teen had been solved almost four years to the date Rodriguez disappeared.

After a few quiet words with David Medina, the youth’s stepfather, and Sheila Medina, his mother, Sowell headed west toward the forest behind the couple’s home on C.R. 178 near Singleton, following a path searchers had carved from the undergrowth earlier in the day.

Carlos Rodriguez Jr. had graduated from Anderson-Shiro High School barely five months before he went missing from his home in the early morning darkness on Oct. 4, 2004. His wallet and other personal effects were left in his bedroom. He had taken no extra clothes, but his .22 rifle was missing.

Authorities began an immediate search for the troubled youth, whom Sowell said had reportedly had some psychological problems and a history of minor drug involvement.

As the weeks wore on without a trace of Rodriguez, rumors began to surface. Law enforcement officers followed each one, but to no conclusion.

“This is one of those cases we’ve always kept — not old, not cold but active for us,” said Sowell as he continued up the sandy path toward where the remains were discovered — just 200 yards from where the had teen lived. “On a gut feeling, speculation, we just wanted to come out and redo the scene. The mom and stepdad always kept us informed of rumors,” Sowell continued.

County sheriff’s office investigators and investigators with the district attorney’s office conducted numerous interviews in the intervening months and years in a effort to determine Rodriguez’ whereabouts.

Initial search efforts had focused on part of the 90-acre wooded tract adjoining the Medina residence, but given the terrain, it is entirely possible those who searched earlier could have missed the spot where the remains were eventually found.

With the fourth anniversary of Rodriguez’ disappearance approaching, county deputies Travis Higginbotham and Blake Jarvis worked with the Drug Enforcement Agency’s air wing in Conroe to conduct an aerial survey of the area near the Medina home on Oct. 1. The flyover, the two said, revealed several locations that the two investigators thought needed to be searched.

The following morning at 8:30 a.m., after a briefing at the sheriff’s office, a team of more than a dozen officers from various agencies began their search of the areas pinpointed in aerial photos.

At approximately noon, one team found a tennis shoe matching the description of those Rodriguez was known to have worn. By mid afternoon last Thursday, not far from where the shoe was recovered, the skeletal remains were discovered, along with pieces of clothing and a .22 caliber rifle matching the type of gun Rodriguez had received on his sixteenth birthday. It appeared there had been no attempt to bury the body, indicating death may have been self-inflicted. However, Sheriff Sowell said the case is still being considered as a homicide.

Because of the condition of the rifle found at the scene, it could not be determined if it had been fired or if a spent cartridge was in the chamber.

“We had a lot of strangeness in this case,” Sowell said. “First of all, he vanished. His wallet and all his items were there at home in his bedroom. All his items of interest someone would normally take were still there. He had had some MHMR issues. That April, he had been taken to Austin State Hospital. He’d gotten out and come back and had been known to run with some of the persons in the area in the drug culture.

“We looked at people of interest, questioned them thoroughly and there was never a connection that would cause us to accuse anybody, so it was treated as a missing person (case). We had a rabbit trail here, a rabbit trail there, a speculation here, coffee shop opinions here and there, but nothing that would develop.”

Sowell said his deputies were talking about the case after a body was found near Shiro recently that at first was thought could have been Rodriguez. “We said let’s revisit our areas. It was a needle in a haystack.”

Throughout the Rodriguez investigation, Sowell said, area landowners had given authorities carte blanche to search anywhere and everywhere they wished in an effort to cooperate and possibly bring to a close the speculation surrounding the case. Local and area media had also been active in seeking leads on the disappearance.

On Friday, Oct. 3, a team returned to the woods and recovered more of the skeleton and evidence, which are now being analyzed at the forensics laboratory at the University of North Texas, one of the state’s leading forensic facilities.

“There won’t be an autopsy,” said District Attorney Tuck McLain. “Right now, an anthropologist can give us more information than the typical medical examiner.”

While the books are not officially closed on Carols Rodriguez Jr., there can be at least a measure of closure on an incident that has left Grimes County people wondering when, or if, the case would be solved.