How police say burned body, 2 arrests connected to $1.3 million heist

HOUSTON – Houston police and the FBI are still investigating the robbery of an armored truck courier that sounds like a Hollywood movie.

Three suspects are accused to taking more than $1 million in cash in a daylight robbery the day after Christmas. 

Only one of those men has been arrested. Another is on the run and the third is dead, possibly murdered.  

On Dec. 26, a Garda armored truck courier made a routine pickup at the Frost Bank in the 9300 block of Kirby Drive. 

He was confronted in the parking lot by armed men wearing masks who forced him to hand over two currency pouches from him that contained $1,387,000 according to court records. 

Denzel Miles, 25, was almost immediately identified as suspect. He’d formerly worked for Garda as a courier on the same route, but was fired last October after refusing to participate in an internal theft investigation.  

Miles was located by police on Dec. 28 where they found a pistol and more than $14,000 in his car. 

According to court records, Miles admitted being involved in the robbery and told police he’d stashed his cut of the stolen money at a friend’s apartment in the 3500 block of Woodchase Drive in Southwest Houston. 

Police searched the apartment and found more than $396,000 hidden in a closet. 

Miles identified another suspect in the heist as 28-year-old Ronald Freeman. 

But just two days after the robbery, a friend reported Freeman missing. 

Police found his body on a deserted dirt road in Southeast Houston. He had been set on fire. 

The Harris County Medical Examiner is working to determine the exact cause of Freeman’s death. 

Police identified a third suspect, Davione Owens, 20, after Freeman’s body was found. 

Owens showed up at Freeman’s apartment and told a woman there he was planning to leave the country. Miles later identified him as being involved in the robbery. 

Owens is charged with armed robbery along with Miles. 

Owens is now in custody after he was picked up by the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force.

Meanwhile Miles is free, awaiting trial after posting a $40,000 bond.  

Homicide investigators are trying to determine exactly what happened to Ronald Freeman, and to hundreds of thousands of dollars he took from the robbery.