Illegal Immigrant Faces Capital Murder Charges In Death Of Texas High School Cheerleader
Texas police have arrested a suspect in the slaying of 16-year-old Lizbeth Medina. Her body was discovered in the bathtub of her home by her mother on December 5th.
On Sunday, the Edna Police Department announced that 23-year-old Rafael Govea Romero, an “undocumented migrant,” had been arrested in Schulenburg, Texas, in connection to the death of the high school cheerleader.
Edna Police Chief Rick Boone announced the arrest of Romero in a statement on Sunday.
Romero was taken to the Jackson County Jail after being placed under arrest by the Texas Rangers and Edna police in Schulenburg, about 75 miles north of Edna.
He has been charged with capital murder.
“Edna Police Department and Texas Rangers immediately traveled to Schulenburg where Romero was placed under arrest for capital murder and transported to Jackson County Jail,” the department announced in a Sunday morning press release. “Although Romero is apprehended, we recognize Lizbeth’s family and friends are grieving and still need support from the community. The citizens of Edna can now sleep in peace!”
Medina was set to perform with her high school cheerleading squad at a Christmas parade in Edna on Tuesday, according to her mother, Jacqueline Medina.
However, Medina never showed up at the Christmas parade. Her mother said that she went searching for her and ended up finding her daughters deceased body in their apartment.
“I decided to go look for her. And I kept calling her phone nonstop, and it would take me straight to voicemail. I called a bunch of people and nobody knew anything. It wasn’t until I walked into the restroom that I was on the phone with my friend asking him to come help me look for her – is when I [saw] her foot, and it was in the bathtub. And so I opened the curtains. There she was,” the cheerleader’s mother said.
When the girl’s mother was asked whether she knows or recognizes the suspect she responded saying, “not at all.” She is still waiting for more information from the police.
Romero was apprehended one day after the Edna Police Department declared that it was searching for a vehicle and a person of interest related to the murder of Medina.
Authorities speculate that Romero is the person of interest shown in photos taken close to the Cottonwood Apartments, which is the location of where Medina’s body was found. The pictures appear to show a man with a tattoo possibly behind his right ear, dressed in a hooded “Volcom” jacket. The individual was seen driving away in a silver Ford Taurus sedan.
Romero was detained on Saturday night at a gazebo outside the Jackson County Courthouse in Edna, which was at the same time as a candlelight vigil for Medina organized by classmates and locals.
Medina called her daughter an “amazing, good girl.” She loved her friends and family dearly and was “very mature.”
“I just want everybody to know that she was an amazing child,” Medina said. “She wasn’t a normal teenager getting in trouble for doing crazy stuff. She was very mature for her age. She was a caring and loving person who, as far as I know and from the messages I received, she changed a lot of people’s lives. I just want everybody to remember her that way and not the way that she was taken from me.”
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