Tiffany Rowell
imd_qbc
with 3 friends at her house in houston, clear lake. she worked at a
strip club. i believe she was 18 and fresh out of high school. just
wondering if the case has all but gone cold.
Bo Raxo
"imd_qbc" <amor...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:d0606533.04011...@posting.google.com...
Police have interviewed over a hundred people, but apparently have no leads.
The families of the other victims have raised a $100,000 reward; Rowell's
family declined to take part.
It's an unusual crime: two shooters, which usually rules out jealousy, and
not apparently a robbery.
Anyone with information can call 713-222-TIPS anonymously; information
leading to the arrest and conviction of the two shooters qualifies for the
reward money.
Maggie
>news:d0606533.04011...@posting.google.com...
>> Anyone have any follow-up info about Tiffany's murder? She was killed
>> with 3 friends at her house in houston, clear lake. she worked at a
>> strip club. i believe she was 18 and fresh out of high school. just
>> wondering if the case has all but gone cold.
>
>Police have interviewed over a hundred people, but apparently have no leads.
>The families of the other victims have raised a $100,000 reward; Rowell's
>family declined to take part.
>
>It's an unusual crime: two shooters, which usually rules out jealousy, and
>not apparently a robbery.
>
>Anyone with information can call 713-222-TIPS anonymously; information
>leading to the arrest and conviction of the two shooters qualifies for the
>reward money.
***IIRC, at least one of the dead men was involved in selling drugs. I suspect
the women may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Maggie
"Here’s a quick note from the estate of the late Senator Strom Thurmond –
Happy Kwanzaa!" -- Jay Leno
imd_qbc
I think she was with her boyfriend and his cousin. I dont know which
was said to be a drug dealer. Her job at a strip club also aroused
suspicion.
Maggie
>I think she was with her boyfriend and his cousin. I dont know which
>was said to be a drug dealer. Her job at a strip club also aroused
>suspicion.
***Her boyfriend was the one that her friends thought might be involved with
drug dealing (he had a minor burglary record but no known drug convictions),
but IIRC, not much was known about the cousin.
FWIW, the girls were not strippers, but did work as waitresses at a strip club.
Bo Raxo
I doubt the strip club job had anything to do with it. That would
most likely be a sexual assault (at least that would be the intent, if
not the outcome), which suggests a single perp and catching her alone.
It was two perps, and they obviously weren't worried about trying to
corner her alone. Plus, a stripper assault usually happens when the
perp tracks them as they leave the club, and tends to be impulsive.
Not someone who tracks them to their home and then plans an attack for
later.
Of course, strip clubs are terrific crime generators. Another
stripper doesn't like competition, somebody witnesses the owners or
their business associates committing some illegal act, etc. So you
can't rule it out entirely.
But from the m.o. the drug angle sounds promising, especially if the
perps tossed the house looking for a stash.
I found it mighty curious that Rowell's family did not care to
participate in the fundraising appeal to generate reward money.
Perhaps they had a bad relationship with their daughter, but it also
suggests the possibility that they know something and don't care to
create an incentive for the information to come out.
I'd bet the body positions might tell you a lot about this crime.
Were they all shot immediately? Were some shot execution style? Were
any of them beaten first? Body position, number of rounds fired, wound
location, these would tell you a lot about who was the target and who
was a bystander, whether it was business or personal.
Cricket
"Bo Raxo" <Cheneys...@deathsdoor.com> wrote in message
news:81bfcfe1.04011...@posting.google.com...
I don't recall it well, but there's something nagging at the back of my head
that says there was something squirrely about the body positions - looked
like one had been shot well before the others or something like that, that
ruled out the element of surprise? Someone will remember...if I wasn't
thawing frozen pipes while passing through here now and again I'd go look it
up...
imd_qbc
> Were they all shot immediately? Were some shot execution style? Were
> any of them beaten first? Body position, number of rounds fired, wound
> location, these would tell you a lot about who was the target and who
> was a bystander, whether it was business or personal.
Houston Chronicle, July 19, 2003
Four found shot to death in Clear Lake
By ROBERT CROWE
Neighbors who first entered the Clear Lake home initially thought the
man and woman on the couch were watching TV.
Then they saw the holes in their heads and a profuse amount of blood.
The victims were still sitting up, with their heads bowed as if they
were asleep. Except for the blare of the TV, the house was eerily
silent.
On the living room floor in front of the TV was the body of a young
woman, face down in a pool of blood; behind the couch was the body of
a young man. All four had been shot multiple times and two of them had
suffered blunt trauma to the head.
The grisly scene was discovered about 6:30 p.m. Friday in the
well-tended Brook Forest subdivision off El Dorado Boulevard by
friends who had stopped by the home, then ran outside, screaming
frantically that people had been shot.
The victims were identified Saturday as Tiffany Nichole Rowell and her
best friend, Rachael Ann Koloroutis, both 18; Rowell's boyfriend,
Marcus Ray Precella, 19; and Precella's cousin, Adelbert Nicholas
Sanchez, 21. Three of them -- Rowell, Koloroutis and Precella -- were
former Clear Lake High School students. The women had graduated in
May.
Police said they don't know the motive for the slayings. There were no
signs of forced entry, and police could not tell if anything had been
stolen. No arrests had been made by late Saturday.
Angel Amador, one of the neighbors who discovered the bodies, said the
living room was strewn with beer cans, pizza boxes and trash.
"It looked like they had a hell of a party, and they just hadn't
cleaned up," he said.
Rowell lived at the home in the 3700 block of Millbridge - - a quiet,
tree-shaded cul de sac -- and her boyfriend frequently stayed there.
Her mother died several years ago of cancer, and her father, Chester
Rowell, who owns the home, usually stays with his wife on a farm in
the Brazoria County town of Manvel, neighbors said.
Rowell, 57, was out of state helping his wife's daughter move when the
tragedy occurred, friends said.
He is a music professor at San Jacinto College's Central Campus, plays
clarinet for Theater Under the Stars, and also has played for the
Houston Symphony and Houston Ballet's Orchestra, friends said.
He could not be reached for comment Saturday night because he was
still driving back from Kansas after learning of the killings.
"I really believe he's in the first stages of shock," said his friend,
Ruth Stone of Deer Park, who spoke to him on the phone Saturday. "He
said, `I'm driving down the road, and I can't comprehend what has
happened.' "
Tiffany Rowell had stayed at the Clear Lake home so she wouldn't have
to change high schools, but her father looked in on her because he
taught school nearby, friends said.
Police think the shootings may have happened about 3:15 or 3:30 p.m.
Friday based on noises neighbors reported hearing, but the bodies
weren't found until friends stopped by the house several hours later.
"I think it happened very quickly," Houston Police Department homicide
investigator Phil Yochum said of the crime. "But it was very, very
violent. It looks like some type of confrontation happened at the
front door, then moved into the living room."
Evidence suggests two victims were taken by surprise, while the others
may have tried to flee or perhaps defend themselves or their friends,
police said. Investigators would not specify which victims suffered
head trauma.
The tragedy transformed the quiet street Friday night into a sea of
flashing emergency lights, crime tape and sobbing bystanders.
One frantic relative pulled up in her car, ducked under the crime tape
and ran up to police officers, pleading, "Tell me it's not the Rowell
house, tell me it's not the Rowell house."
When officers confirmed her worst fears, the woman fell to the ground,
weeping. Officers later escorted her elsewhere so she could grieve
privately.
One victim's father anxiously stood by, pleading with officers to tell
him whether his child was in the house. When officers couldn't tell
him anything immediately because of the ongoing investigation, the
father responded, "My daughter may be in there." He then broke down in
tears.
Young people and cars were frequently seen coming and going from the
house, neighbors said.
"This is very shocking -- it's unbelievable," said Jerry Wilson, who
lives across the street from the Rowells. "I don't care what was going
on in there -- young people being shot like that, it's tragic."
One of Clear Lake High School's assistant principals, who lives next
door to the house where the slayings occurred, declined to comment.
A friend of Rowell's who stopped by to put flowers on her doorstep
Saturday said Precella had some questionable acquaintances.
"I would have to say they were hanging around with the wrong people, I
feel," former classmate Jesse Wilson, 19, said of the victims.
Precella, he said, "had the wrong ties."
The women had been working for the past month as waitresses and
bartenders at the adult entertainment establishment Club Exotica near
Almeda Mall, but resisted invitations to become dancers because they
were too bashful, co-workers said. When they failed to show up for
work Friday night, co-workers called them all evening, but got no
answer.
Employees at the nightclub were stunned to learn of the women's
deaths. "Oh, my God," manager Randy Patterson exhaled, pressing his
fingers against his forehead.
"They were both very bubbly girls," Patterson said. "They were
friendly, outgoing, weren't afraid to talk to anybody. Everybody loved
them."
Precella worked as a waiter at Landry's restaurant in Kemah,
acquaintances said. His family members at a home blocks away in the
same neighborhood declined to talk.
A steady stream of cars flowed down the street throughout the day
Saturday and paused in front of the Rowell home. Some inside the
vehicles were seen openly weeping.
"I've known Tiffany since the sixth grade -- she was a really sweet
girl," said Kristin Salinas, 18, wiping tears from her eyes as she
talked about her friend. "I honestly don't understand why they would
do that ... for somebody to take somebody's life when they have so
much going for them. I mean, we just graduated a month and a half
ago."
Chronicle reporter Ruth Rendon contributed to this story.
imd_qbc
Houston Chronicle, 1 Oct 03
Reward being offered in Clear Lake slayings
By RUTH RENDON
More than two months after four young people were shot to death in a
Clear Lake-area home, some of the victims' families are raising money
for a reward.
"The plan is this: Collect as much money as possible, put it all
together and set up a supplemental reward contract with Crime Stoppers
to get the word out and draw these animals out," George Koloroutis
wrote in an e-mail sent to the Houston Chronicle.
Koloroutis' 18-year-old daughter, Rachael, was among those killed July
18.
The Koloroutis family, along with the families of cousins Adelbert
Sanchez and Marcus Precella, have set up tax-deductible charitable
accounts to go toward a reward.
The family of Tiffany Rowell has chosen not to take part, George
Koloroutis said.
Chester Rowell, Tiffany's father, could not be reached for comment
Wednesday.
"We want to offer a reward large enough to compel the capture of these
murderers in a swift and timely fashion. We also want to send a
message to others that would contemplate committing such horrible
acts. You will not escape justice," Koloroutis wrote.
The Houston Police Department has interviewed more than 100 people,
but no arrests have been made.
The bodies of Rachael Koloroutis and 18-year-old Tiffany Rowell were
found shot to death at Rowell's home in the 3700 block of Millbridge.
Also fatally wounded in the home's living room were Precella, 19, who
was Rowell's boyfriend, and Sanchez, 21. There was no sign of forced
entry.
Police say at least two shooters were involved and that more than 20
shots were fired.
George Koloroutis said that if an arrest is made and the reward is
unclaimed, the money would go to the Parents of Murdered Children Inc.
organization. Crime Stoppers already is offering a reward of up to
$5,000 for information in the slayings.
"We are a family in pain," George Koloroutis wrote. "My wife, Ann, and
daughters, Tiffany, 19, and Samantha, 9, are having a hard time coping
with this. I can tell you as a father, my heart is broken and I
struggle making it from day to day."
He said an announcement about the reward's amount would be made later.
imd_qbc
pictures at this link, new article also