Texas teenager kills his parents for money
Sam22
Police say 19-year-old hired the killers; girlfriend, 2 others also
arrested
By Susan Schrock;Anthony Spangle
MANSFIELD - A 19-year-old man was arrested Wednesday and accused of
hiring two people to kill his parents in their Walnut Creek Estates
home in December, police said.
His girlfriend, an Arlington man and an Illinois woman were also
arrested in connection with the slayings.
Andrew Wamsley and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Chelsea Richardson of
Forest Hill, were arrested Wednesday on a charge of solicitation to
commit capital murder.
Rick Wamsley, 46, was found shot and stabbed to death on the couple's
living-room floor Dec. 11. Suzanna Wamsley, 45, was found fatally shot
on a couch nearby.
Investigators declined to discuss a motive. A probate case is pending
to divide the Wamsley estate, police said.
The arrests conclude a long and difficult investigation, with pressure
from the community to move quickly while forensic test results
trickled in slowly, police spokesman Paul Carson said.
"It's been complicated, and there were things we had to work through,"
Carson said. "We were trying to investigate any possible avenue. We're
certainly glad this is over and these people are off the street."
On Monday, Mansfield police and a member of the Texas Rangers arrested
Susana Toledano, 19, in Addison, Ill., with the assistance of local,
state and federal authorities. She is being held on a charge of
capital murder. Police said her arrest was based on DNA evidence.
Mansfield police said Toledano provided statements that led to the
arrest Tuesday of Hilario Cardenas, 24, of Arlington on suspicion of
capital murder.
"He was not a name that had come up in our investigation prior to her
arrest," Mansfield Police Chief Steve Noonkester said.
Police said Cardenas provided statements that led to the arrest of
Andrew Wamsley and his girlfriend. Police watched the couple for seven
hours Wednesday before they were arrested at a McDonald's restaurant
in Forest Hill.
Bail has been set at $1 million for each suspect, police said.
Toledano is being held in Illinois awaiting extradition. The other
suspects are being held in the Mansfield Jail.
In January, investigators obtained grand-jury subpoenas to collect DNA
samples from at least eight people, including Andrew Wamsley,
Richardson and Toledano. On Friday, police got lab test results from
the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office that showed a positive
match between DNA collected from the home and Toledano's sample,
Noonkester said.
Investigators are not clear on how Toledano and Cardenas know each
other but said both know Andrew Wamsley and Richardson. Police are
interviewing the suspects to determine what roles they might have
played in the slayings.
Police said at the time that Mansfield residents should not be afraid
and that the slayings were an isolated incident. But investigators
could not say why they thought the killings weren't random, police
said.
"It didn't appear to be a random thing at the time, and it certainly
doesn't look like a random thing now," Carson said at a news
conference late Wednesday.
The department had come under fire from residents for appearing to
move slowly.
"I'm sure the people in that neighborhood were scared to death. We
could not step up and say what we were doing," Noonkester said. "If we
revealed anything, it could jeopardize the investigation and make it
take longer than it did."
Neighbors were relieved to hear about the arrests and shocked that
Andrew Wamsley is a suspect.
"I hate to hear their son is involved," said Paul Clarke, whose wife
was close friends with Suzanna Wamsley. "If someone would have come up
to me the day of the murders, I wouldn't have thought he could have
done it."
Mansfield police discovered the Wamsleys' bodies Dec. 11 after
responding to a 911 call that was "just silent" from their home in the
800 block of Turnberry Drive. The Wamsleys' neighborhood surrounds the
fairways of Walnut Creek Country Club.
"It was dialed and set down," Noonkester said. "That means somebody
wanted those bodies found."
Authorities believe that the couple was killed late Dec. 11.
The next morning, Andrew Wamsley drove up to the house in the family's
1998 Ford Mustang, which had been missing. Richardson was also in the
car, police had said.
Andrew Wamsley was described by police as distraught when he learned
that his parents were dead, police said that morning. He and
Richardson were initially cleared as suspects, a police spokesman said
the day after the killings.
An autopsy revealed that Rick Wamsley had multiple knife wounds on his
palms, indicating that he had tried to fight off his attacker.
Rick Wamsley died of gunshot wounds to the head and back and multiple
stab wounds. He was stabbed at least 21 times and suffered dozens of
other scratches and cuts, including several to his face, the reports
show.
Suzanna Wamsley died of a gunshot wound to the head and was stabbed at
least 18 times.
Nothing was missing from the home, and there were no signs of forced
entry, police said.
About a month before the slaying, the couple's sport utility vehicle
was struck by a bullet on Interstate 35, just north of Texas 174.
Police have compared the bullet with evidence in the slayings but
declined to say Wednesday whether there was a match.
"We feel very strongly there is a connection," Noonkester said.
The Wamsleys, who grew up together in Bartlesville, Okla., had
celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary five months before they were
killed. Rick Wamsley worked from home as a certified public
accountant. The Wamsleys also left a daughter, Sarah Wamsley, 24.