HOUSTON, TX – A disquieting event rattled northeast Houston when a man allegedly murdered his girlfriend and later killed himself in Louisiana. This was according to information released by the local police department on Monday. The suspect locked his girlfriend’s son, a two-year-old toddler, in a separate room in a home located on Fir Ridge Court near Lake Houston, before proceeding with his fateful actions.
The Houston Police Department (HPD) initially responded to a welfare check in the morning around 8:40 a.m. With no response from anyone inside the house, the officers had to retreat. They returned close to midday after receiving a second welfare check request for the same address. Assisted by the suspect’s daughter, they managed to enter the premises on the second attempt.
Upstairs in the house, the officers discovered two locked doors secured with wire to the staircase’s handrail. The faint sound of whimpering coming from one of the rooms prompted the officers to cut through the wire, gaining access to the room where they found the two-year-old boy.
Further investigation led to the discovery of a dead woman in the other locked room, with the cause of her death yet to be determined.
Reports from HPD recount that the suspect admitted to his daughter over a call that he had killed his girlfriend. He was then on the way to Louisiana, where his relatives lived. Following his arrival at a family’s house in West Baton Rouge close to noon, the suspect tragically ended his own life with a gunshot.
The suspect, who was found not to be biologically related to the toddler, had been in a romantic relationship with the dead woman, who was also the mother of the child. Apart from the traumatic experience, the child, expected to be released into the custody of family members, was in a healthy condition.