No search for Stewart's body, county says

The latest development in the murder of Texas A&M student Tynesha Stewart: Yesterday, Harris County sheriff's officials announced that they will not search area landfills for her body, saying that finding the body would be "virtually impossible." Meanwhile, sheriff's investigators did finally get a confession from Stewart's ex boyfriend, Timothy Wayne Shepherd, who on Wednesday had led police to a Dumpster where he told activist Quanell X he disposed of Stewart's body after killing her. "They had a fight about their relationship, and her relationship with a new boyfriend," Lt. John Denholm with the Harris County Sheriff's homicide division told the Chronicle. "He said he choked her. ... He said he put her in a large plastic tote, and then put her in his car and took her to the Dumpster."

The issue was that the Dumpster had been emptied at least twice since Shepherd put Stewart's body there, which means no one's really sure where the body is. Sheriff's and Waste Management officials said there's a 65 percent chance that Stewart's body is at the Atascocita Recycling and Disposal Facility at 3623 Wilson Road in Humble, and they even know a two- or three-acre area in which the body is likely located. But even that information doesn't help much because Stewart's remains could be buried beneath 40,000 tons of waste. "It's not 100 percent impossible, but it's very, very, very rare to find what you are looking for," Waste Management senior district manager Chuck Rivette said.

As you might expect, the news that the county won't look for the body didn't sit well with Stewart's family. "We want her body so that we can give her a proper burial," Gale Shields, Stewart's mother, told KHOU. "She wasn't trash! She was not trash! She was a human being. She was an Aggie." Stewart's family members told KTRK that they'll look for the body if the county gives them permission: "If we have to get the clearance and take the shot to do what we need to do, and go check that trash, then by all means, my sister will be found," Stewart's sister Gayla Taylor said.