HOUSTON – A murder charge has been filed in the case of a Harris County woman who has been missing since Friday, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said in a tweet Wednesday that Jeffrey Andre McDonald, 46, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the disappearance of 58-year-old Rebecca Suhrheinrich.
Investigators believe that a torso found in Greens Bayou belongs to Suhrheinrich, though they are waiting for confirmation.
Officials said McDonald was arrested by Houston police after he was found removing his clothes near the intersection of Lockwood Drive and the 610 Loop.
“He was pretty out of it. He was in one of those states of excitement, removing clothes and that is indicative of somebody who's on drugs. They're trying to relieve the body temperature so they're removing clothing and that's what HPD saw when they came up on him,” said Chris Sandoval with HCSO's homicide division.
Officers arrested McDonald and took him to a hospital.
Investigators said that it appears McDonald frequently visited Suhrheinrich's apartment complex, and the pair appeared to have been dating for about a month.
"They've seen him at various times at the apartment so therefore we can put him there. We have linkage with him being there, knowing her and having this relationship with her. There's also information that he had driven her car on several different occasions so we can also put that in the mix,” Sandoval said.
Suhrheinrich’s co-workers reported her missing after she didn’t show up to work Friday and Monday, Gonzalez said.
Investigators said those co-workers were let into Suhrheinrich’s Dominion Park Drive apartment and found the place ransacked. Blood was also found by detectives inside the apartment, investigators said.
An upstairs neighbor to Suhrheinrich told investigators that she heard a woman yell, "Help me!" one time around 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Approximately two hours later, the neighbor heard "very loud banging from the apartment below hers, which she described as 'a body being thrown against the wall'" and persisted for approximately two to three minutes, according to court documents.
The next day, the upstairs neighbor saw a man driving Suhrheinrich's car, documents show.
Documents also show that a friend had called McDonald's sister telling her McDonald needed to be picked up at a nearby park Saturday. The documents indicate that his sister took him to her home where he had a shower and nap.
He then asked her for Clorox, Clorox wipes and latex gloves and told her he needed to go back to the park, according to the documents. While McDonald's sister was driving along the 16000 block of West Hardy, near Greens Bayou, the documents show McDonald abruptly asked his sister to stop and McDonald exited the car.
Court documents stated that the body was found dismembered and wrapped in a bed sheet along the bayou. Investigators said the bed sheet matched the bed sheets in the victim's apartment. The apartment was found covered in hot sauce, wine and vinegar, according to the documents.
Investigators believed that someone had tried to remove DNA evidence using those items.
The medical examiner's office has yet to officially identify the body or a cause of death.
McDonald has a long criminal history dating back to 1993. His convictions include possession of a controlled substance, evading arrest, assault causing bodily injury and unlawfully carrying a weapon.
The sheriff held a news conference Wednesday to discuss new developments in the case.