Murder investigation after woman found dead at UT Austin

Just saying the police probably have a pretty solid case on him if they're not pursuing any other suspects at this time. Sorry for making a brash racial overtone in my previous post but if you think this guy is innocent your head is in the sand. Just my two cents right now.

There's probably other video evidence or physical evidence the cops have and aren't releasing right now tying him to the actual murder itself. I'm sure they're in the process of taking a DNA sample from him to try and match it with any he may have left on the victim.

 

So I just found out the alledged suspect is the brother of my friend's girlfriend.

Crazy

 

If anyone, homeless rich etc tried to run up on me outside & I felt in danger. I'm shooting to kill no matter what.

 

is the background on his upbringing true then?

 

All those homeless people on Guad and the ones squatting in the Union are going to get chased out now because of this.

 

Not sure. I don't know his girlfriend nor did I ask about his background. All he told me was the kid ran away from home a couple months ago and they found him by the news of all this.

 

Agreed, really starting to leak in from the D&D.

 

It's not thinking he's innocent, it's not knowing whether he's innocent or guilty until we have more facts.

If there is DNA, video evidence and other stuff that convicts him, then it's great that they caught the guy. But none of us know about any other evidence. So there's no reason to rush to judgment until then.

Nobody gets a prize for being willing to condemn the guy before he's actually proven to be guilty.

 

Bail Set at $1 million

 

Full warrant affidavit is included in that link and notes that Criner was also in possession of Haruka's MacBook, that featured a Portland-related sticker on it, at the time of his arrest.

 

Copy Pasted the warrant below.

TLDR:
-Victim passes suspect and walks toward a path behind the Alumni Center. The suspect then grabbed a shiny riged object from his pocket and followed the victim down the path out of view of the cameras. He then came back into view about 2 hours later with a limp and a bag that he did not have before which friends of the victim later identified having belonged to the victim
-Austin Firefighters responded calls about a man burning items the next day. They believe it was the suspect because they took his bike from him and it matched the description of the suspect in the security footage.
-Austin Police responded to the same call and identified the man who started the fire as Meccbaiel Khalil Criner. They sent him to a homeless shelter.
-The Camera footage inside the police vehicle that transferred Criner to the shelter showed that Criner appeared to be wearing the mane pants and shoes as the murder suspect in the UT security footage.
-Austin police showed a picture of the bag that Criner had inside the police car to a classmate of the victim who saw her leave their class Monday night with that same bag
-Austin police returned to the building where Criner was caught burning things and found a shoe he recongized as a small Doc Martin and a burned notebook that had college classwork and a black jacket that looked like the one the victim was wearing in the security footage.
-Austin police obtained a search warrant for Criner's locker at the shelter and found a macbook with a Portland sticker on it (something the family told police was on her computer before the search was conducted), shoes identical to the ones observed on the surveillance footage, an article of evidence that matched the same texture, age and appearance of an article seized on or near the victim's body.


I mean.... Jack Mccoy has done more with less.



On Sunday, the 3rd day of April 2016, Haruka Weiser placed a telephone call to her friend Sylvia
Feghali, at approximately 2130 hours, to advise that she was "on thew following conclusion of her class at the F. Loren Winship Drama Building located at East 23 !(.'. Street and San Jacinto Boulevard. The telephone call was placed to Feghali from Woiser's Apple iPhone 6 .

On Monday, the 4th day of April 2016 at ·1102 hours, The Univenity ofTeus Police
Department received the report of a missing person when Ha.rub Weiser did not show up for her Monday morning classes in Austin, Travis County, Texas. According to her roormoate and friends, Weiser was last seen wearing a long sleeve black mock turtle neck ahirt, black stretch pants, and brown Doc Martin shoes. Her roommate also stated that she left their donn room canying a blue duftle bag. Inside the duffie bag was her Mac Book Computer, her iPhonc 6, an Clltra jacket and study materials for school. UTPD officers conducted a cursory searcli in Waller Creek for Weiser but did not locate her.

On Tuesday, the s• day of April 2016 at approximately 9:45am, UTPD Police began to cavass and search in the area Haruka W ciser wM known to walk. This route was known by her friends as the path she would use to get back and forth from her dorm to some of her claascs. Whilesearching the area they found the mnaios of a young fClllSlc with obvious trauma to her body.
The Austin Police Homicide Unit was notified by UTPD penonnel that a deceased fClllSlc of co111Parable stature was discovered behind the ur Etter-Harbin Alumni Center at 211 O San Jacinto Boulevard in Austin, Travis County, Tcus. The body, which was later identified as that ofHaruka Weiser, was pronounced deceased by Austin-Travis County EMS Medical Director Dr. Ackrcll on this date at 1045 hours.

On Wednesday, the 6�� day of April 2016 the autopsy of Haruka Weiser was conducted by the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office. Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns noted obvious trauma to the victim's body and ruled the death as a homicide.
Austin Police Homicide Detective Ray Tynes #44 lS was in charge of processing the scene where the victim's body was located. Tue items that were described as being in the victim's possession were not found on scene. Detective Tynes was able to seize swabs of suspected biological matter from the scene as evidence for future analysis. As investigators continued the investigation, UTPD detectives began to look at surveillance
video along the route that Weiser usually took from Wimhip Hall to her dorm near 21" Street. While reviewing the surveillance video from the College of Liberal Arts building, they observed a suspicious black male ride up on a red or pink women's bicycle attempting to open the doors of a van that was parked in the bay area. Tue black male was dressed in a black jacket (possibly motorcycle type jacket with shoulder pads and white slrips on the sleeves), orange shirt under jacket, grey pants (possibly sweat pants), red or orange athletic shoes with light colored stripe or design on the sides and a large back pack on his back. Tue suspect appeared to be around 6' 0 feet tall, athletic build, wore glasses and looked as if he were a student. Tue suspect initially arrived at approximately 9:20 pm Tue suspect continued to look arowid the area and then got back on the bike to leave this location. The video then showed him returning to the van at approximately 9:38 pm. As the suspect returned to the location on his bike, the figure of a f=le dressed in all black and looking at her cell phone could be seen walking toward the alumni center. As the figure passed the suspect and continues toward the bridge, the suspect watched her, puts the kickstand down on the bike, reaches into the back of his pants with his left hand and pulled out what appeared to be a shiny rigid object. The suspect then followed the female across the bridge and onto the sidewalk that extends bd1ind the Alumlli center and runs along the west bank of Waller Creek. The suspect is not seen again until 11 :47pm. In this portion of the surveillance footage the suspect is seen walking along side of the same bike, eastbo�� up 23"' Street with a slight limp. From the footage it appeared as if the suspect suffered from some type of injury to his left leg. The suspect was also now seen in the footage canying aDOther bag that was not seen in the video before. This new bag looked to be a small duffle bag. This suspect was last seen in camera
footage walking northbound on Robert Dedman from 23"' Street.

On Thursday, the 71h day of April, 2016, a portion of the video footage was released to the public in hopes of eliciting leads as to the identity of the suspect. Al approximately 4:08pm Austin Fire Department Captain Lenard called the Austin Police Homicide Unit. He informed Investigators that on Monday, the 4111 day of April, 2016, at approximately 8:21am firefighters were dispatched to a fire call at 2911 Medical Arts Street. This location is in the same direction the suspect was last seen walking towards. (See Austin Police CAD call 16--0950373) Captain Lenard continued by saying that this address was an abandoned ��ding and a young black male was found inside, burning items. The fire was put out and Austin Police wen: called to the scene because the young black male stated that he was 17 years of age and homeless. Captain Lenard also stated that they took custody of the young man's bicycle for him for safe keeping. The bicycle matched the one seen of the footage and was being held at this time at Fire Station Number 3.

When Austin Police arrived to the scene they were able to identify the subject as Meccbaiel Khalil Criner B/M 06/30/98. Officers agreed to transport Criner to Life Works because of his lack of a place to stay. Before transporting Criner, Officers seized what he stated were his belongings for transport. These items included several bags and a back pack. He was then transported to 370& S. 211d Street (LifeWorks) and assigned to live in rooin nUDlbcr 9. The interaction with Criner and Austin Police was recorded on in-car digital video.
Affiant observed the police in-car video and noticed that Criner was wearing tbe same pants and shoes as seen on the tITPD surveillance footage. Affiant also noticed that Criner matched the physical description as the suspect in the video. Aftiant then obscived that one of the bags that Criner claimed to be bis was a small blue duftle bag. Aftiant was able to capture a still photograph of this bag and show it to the victim's roommate, Sylvia Fegbali. Sylvia was able to show the photo to the victim's friend Ginnifer Joe. Ginnifer, a friend oftbe victim, was in the
same dance class with the victim on the night of her disappearance and observed the victim with the bag. Affiant spoke to Ginnifer and asked if she recognized the bag. Ginnifer immediately stated that the bag depicted in the photograph belonged to the victim and was the one she bad with her when she left the dance building. With this infonnation Detective Tynes went to the abandoned building located at 2911 Medical Arts Street. There be located the scene where the fire was set. Inside of the ashes Detective Tynes immediately observed a one sboe that he recognized as a small sized Doc Martin brand. Detective Tynes also found a burned notebook that had college level course work inside.
Detective Tynes then located a black jacket identical to the one seen on surveillance footage. This jacket was located near the burned items. The bicycle was then seized at the fire station. It 100 was identical to the one seen on the surveillance footage.

At approximately 5:20pm, Officers from the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force located Criner at
LifeWorb (3708 S. 211d Street, Austin, Travis County, Texas). He was detained for the suspected tampering with evidence and transported to the Austin Police Homicide Unit. Officers were informed by Life Works staff that Criner was issued room number 9 that he shared with another male. Inside of this room Criner was assigned a beige steel stand up locker to the right of the other. Criner's locker was pointed out as having a combination lock with a purple dial. The room was secured by Officers and a search warrant was obtained. The search warrant for the residence of Criner was reviewed and signed by Travis County District Judge Brenda Kennedy. When searching the room Investigators found shoes identical to the ones observed on the surveillance footage. They also found an article of evidence that matched the same texture, age and appearance of an article seized on or near the victim's body. Detective Tynes the located a Mac Book with a sticker placed on it that mentioned the city of Portland. The family ofHaruka Weiser previously infonned Detectives that a Portland sticker was on her Mac Book. Affiant believes that there is sufficient probable cause to support the: charge of Murder (PC
19 .02) including, but not limited to, witness statements and physical evidence which implicates Mccchaiel Khalil Criner of knowingly and intentionally causing death to the victim, Harulca
Weiser.

 

Good!

 

Well your head doesn't have to be stuck in the sand to know that there have been a number of wrongly convicted people here in Texas so I am reserving judgement until more evidence is offered. But, if they have no physical or DNA evidence and only a confession, then I will be extremely skeptical that they actually have the right guy.

Well, the APD is a really good police dept so I'm inclined to agree with you here. But I just read the arrest warrant posted by Brando2101 so it would appear that the police have the right dumbass in this case. The evidence they found in his locker at the shelter confirms this. Should be pretty easy for the Travis County DA to prosecute this one. He's looking at life without parole and I hope he serves EVERY second of it..

 

Bridge by the Alumni Center

 

You're f***ed up dude. This story is about a girl getting murdered, allegedly by a black man. It has nothing at all to do with Black Lives Matter, nor does this man's skin color have anything to do with murder.

You clearly have an ax to grind with an entire race of people. Do you not realize how f****ed up that is? To have disgust with hundreds of millions of people you don't even know.

 

Did you read my post above? I suppose most of the evidence is circumstantial however it is a tad overwhelming. Seeing him follow the victim after pulling out a shiny object into the secluded area that she was believed to have been thrown off of isn't proof but it's pretty damming. The other possibility is he just found her stuff and took it after she was attacked... but he did follow right after her. It also doesn't really explain the new limp. There is also this bit, "They also found an article of evidence that
matched the same texture, age and appearance of an article seized on or near the victim's body." I can't tell if that means they found something on him that was also next to her body in the creek. I get you but I think it's fair to say that it's a little beyond circumstantial.

 

Read all the evidence they have in the arrest warrant / charging instrument and get back to me. Not even Marcia Clark and Chris Dardan could botch this conviction.

Suspect is placed at the scene of the crime immediately before the murder occurred.
Suspect is seen on tape following the victim after taking a shiny rigid object out of his pants pocket
Suspect is seen on tape leaving the area after 2 hours have passed
Suspect is found burning Doc Martin shoes and other objects that the victim had on her person
Suspect has victims belongings (MacBook) in his locker at the shelter he was staying at

The police also collected swabs of suspected "biological matter" from the victim. If they match that with a sample from the suspect it'll be hard for him to beat the charge.

I think victim was walking home and was texting on her phone and didn't notice this suspicious looking person who began following her. He ambushed her, sexually assaulted her, she fights back (hence his new limp when he gets back on his bike) and he kills her in a fit of rage. He takes her clothing and other personal items to destroy / sell.

But who really knows?

 

Yes, my post hit just before yours so I edited my response. Please look at my revised post. They got the right guy.

 

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