Ex destroyed Stewart's remains on grill, police say

A series of developments and twists over the weekend brought the case of murdered Texas A&M student Tynesha Stewart to a grisly point: Investigators said there would definitely be no search for her remains because there aren't any remains to be found. "There are no remaining body parts," Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said in a news conference Saturday night. "We have determined through this investigation that the defendant dismembered the victim and burned her body parts. There is no body to be found. Based on that information, there will be no search. The family is aware of this, and they understand."

The news came after the Harris County sheriff's department said Thursday there would be no search because the likelihood of finding Stewart's remains, which confessed murderer Timothy Wayne Shepherd said he put in a Dumpster at his apartment complex, was so low. That decision drew criticism, which led Commissioners Court to approve $500,000 for a search Friday afternoon; groundwork was laid for the search on Saturday before Thomas announced that Stewart's body had been destroyed. Thomas said he knew the body had been burned, but couldn't disclose that information because of the ongoing investigation. It was "one of the toughest things I've ever been through," Thomas said.

So here's what we know: Shepherd, who was Stewart's ex-boyfriend, told investigators he strangled her during an argument about her seeing another man. He reportedly dismembered her body and, on March 15 — the last day Stewart was seen alive — he began burning her remains on two barbecue grills on his apartment's patio. One of the grills was Shepherd's and the other belonged to next-door neighbor James Hebert, with whom Shepherd often cooked out. Hebert said he asked asked Shepherd for some of what he was cooking, but Shepherd wouldn't let him have any, saying it was for a wedding. Another neighbor, Louis Evans, told the AP that he became concerned after seeing flames leaping from Shepherd's grill; he called 911 and firefighters showed up, but Shepherd told them everything was OK. "[Shepherd] came to the door real quick," Hebert said. "His face was real sweaty." On March 17 or 18, Hebert's wife, Dionne Whitaker, said she saw Shepherd carrying his and Hebert's grills to the garage bin; she assumed he was throwing them away because he had burned them up cooking whatever he was cooking. When she learned what had really been going on, she said she "wanted to vomit."

Now Shepherd — who reportedly comes from a fine family — is being held on $250,000 bond and is on suicide watch in jail. "This certainly turned out to be one of the most heinous crimes I've ever seen in my 38 years [in law enforcement]," Thomas said.

Update: The Chronicle is reporting that Shepherd's attorney, Chip Lewis, said Shepherd won't try to make bail because he may be safer in jail than he would be in the community.