Days before murder trial, man accused of killing his girlfriend goes missing
AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) – A suspected killer who was slated to face a jury trial on his murder charge this week is nowhere to be found.
Kevin Michael Waguespack, 34, is accused of killing his girlfriend, Catherine Dyer, in their north Austin home on Nov. 16, 2015. According to court documents, Waguespack called 911 the following day after Dyer was found dead and stated he “killed this woman and her name is Catherine Dyer.”
Waguespack was taken into custody after a short standoff with police in Adams County, Miss. the day after he called 911 to report the homicide.
Waguespack was out on a $250,000 bond and was initially ordered to wear a GPS tracking monitor until April of this year, when Judge Tamara Needles agreed with a defense motion to disable the monitoring over the objections of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.
The lack of the monitor had not been a problem before, Travis County prosecutor James Booher said. Waguespack showed up to all his pretrial hearings until Thursday, when he was supposed to appear in court at a final hearing before the start of his trial on Monday, Oct. 23. The defendant was a no-show, and Judge Needles ordered his bond revoked and issued an arrest warrant for him.
Booher told KXAN it’s “hard to say” what’s going through Waguespack’s mind. His attorney did not answer a message left at his office Thursday evening.
Beverly Dyer, Catherine Dyer’s mother, told KXAN by phone that this is a blow to their family. The victim’s parents live in the Houston area and have been driving to Austin regularly for months as the case progressed. They believed their trip Thursday would be the final one before the start of the trial next week, but now, Beverly Dyer said, they’re not sure what will happen next.
She didn’t think the monitor should have been removed in the first place, and she said her family didn’t even find out about it until a few weeks later. Now she feels Waguespack could be dangerous to others.
Christina King, Catherine’s sister, lives out of state and wasn’t in the courtroom for the hearing, but said it turned into a “very emotional” day for the family. She, too, thought the two-year ordeal would soon be coming to an end and now they’re left wondering where Waguespack is and whether he’ll be caught again.
“He needs to go away for a very long, long time,” King said.
Booher said Waguespack could be charged with felony bail jumping in addition to the murder charge, but his office hasn’t decided if they want to charge him yet. The priority, he said, is getting him back for the trial Monday.