HOUSTON – Authorities are searching for the estranged husband of a woman whose body was found in a ditch, according to the Navarro County Sheriff's Office.
Officials said the Sheriff's Office was dispatched on Dec. 12 to a possible human body found in a ditch along SE 1190A, near Richland.
Detectives observed a clothed, badly decomposed human body, which had been partially covered by vegetation, lying near the road, officials said. The detectives began conducting a homicide investigation.
Officials said preliminary results of an autopsy showed the unidentified victim to be an African-American woman possibly in her 30s, who died as a result of homicidal violence with multiple gunshot wounds.
A social media site was found that possibly identified the victim as missing from Houston, officials said.
Detectives uncovered additional information and evidence that ultimately led to the positive identification of the victim, Charine Marie Wilson (Charine Young), according to the Sheriff's Office.
After consulting with homicide investigators from the Houston Police Department, officials said it was determined that the victim was last seen on Nov. 10 in Houston and that a welfare concern call to a Houston apartment complex on Nov. 12 led to a homicide investigation.
Her estranged husband, Johnny Leon Wilson, 48, - also last seen Nov. 10 - was caught on surveillance video going to and from the apartment complex’s dumpster several times, police said.
Officers said they found blood in the apartment and a piece of carpet missing, which gave them enough evidence to charge Wilson with murder.
Sheriff's Office detectives were advised by Houston police homicide detectives that they have issued an arrest warrant for Wilson, charging him with her death, officials said.
Charine’s heartbroken mother says she had a gut feeling about her son-in-law.
"She's dead. My daughter is gone. I feel deep down in my heart that he killed my baby. He took my child away from me," Susan Young said. "They had enough evidence to say she had been murdered. And they had him going back and forth to the dumpster on the camera. My baby is gone. I will never have no more Charine.”
Police said Wilson took Charine's 11-year-old son to a nearby fast food restaurant shortly after he was seen on the apartment’s surveillance video, only to leave him there. He is now is Young’s custody.
Anyone with information about this homicide or Johnny Wilson's whereabouts is asked to call the Houston Police Department's Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.