I previously blogged about a woman who had the odd hobby of clipping newspaper articles for crimes where the perpetrator had the middle name “Wayne.” The blog News of the Weird also has reported on this phenomenon.
The latest gruesome crime out of Texas doesn’t break the mold:
What, neighbors at the Red Oak Place apartments wondered, was going on in the unit where 27-year-old Timothy Wayne Shepherd lived? What was he burning at all hours, for days at a time? The answer turned their stomachs.
According to law enforcement officials, Shepherd dismembered, and then burned the body of his former girlfriend, Tynesha Stewart, a 19-year-old Texas A&M University student. Nothing remains of Stewart’s body, Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said at a press conference Saturday.
(hat tip to R. Hamp Nettles)
15 Comments
This post deserves more comments but it is so complete on its own that I think people are not sure what to say.
I find the X Wayne X crimes very interesting - please keep us updated, even given few responses.
(Perhaps this is also an answer to Stephen’s recent question about why people post on blogs: Because they detect a missing link to fill in. They don’t post if there is nothing left to say.)
— kahMy middle name is Wayne. Does this make me predisposed to some future criminal act?
— rubemodeYes. But relax. This is just known as Texas divorce.
— egretmanThis crime was so gruesome. What a sick guy. I guess we can say he’s another Wayne.
— RheaMy middle name is Wayne too! I’m sending this blog to my parents!
— brothersevenWhat’s with the reporting of murderers’ middle names anyway? In any other journalistic endeavor, the story just relates first and last names. I smell a tautological conspiracy…
— frankendufps- for those who consider the Iraq invasion mass murder, ponder the “W”…
Egretman, as a student at Texas A&M and a friend of Tynesha Stewart, I find that comment offensive.
To equate a legal matter handled in a court with the greusome chopping up and burning of a body is sick.
I hope this guy gets the needle, that’s what we call Texas justice.
— CollegeCatThe needle, CollegeCat? No, this guy deserves a Texas divorce. I say string him up by his thumbs, cut off his toes, let him bleed to death, then cut up and burn the body.
— egretmanI am the goddamn Batman Bruce Wayne!
— ChewxyUm.. while the crime as described is gruesome, doesn’t anyone wonder about the inconsistency in the report?
In one part, it says nothing remains of the victim’s body. In another part, it says destroying human remains by fire takes extremely high temperature and no explanation was given for how this might have been accomplished on a backyard grill.
After reading that report it sounds like another case where prosecutors have made up a story around some circumstantial evidence — a story which is inherently doubtable but emotional enough that a jury will want to convict despite a possible lack of evidence. Let’s hope they have more evidence that wasn’t reported so that if this allegation is true, the perpetrator is appropriately punished for the crime.
— sjkSJK: you can’t take that article as the whole story. They’ve got a confession, they’ve got blood droplets in his bathroom (which was scrubbed so clean as to be suspicious in itself), and he’s already tried to commit suicide while in custody.
Her remains weren’t cremated, he just - ugh - burned the pieces and scattered what was left in dumpsters around the area. By the time he was caught and confessed, the dumpsters had been filled and emptied twice already.
The Houston Chronicle is the hometown newspaper writing about the murder, you can read up on it at http://www.chron.com .
— mgraboisPeople do what they do. It’s our fantasy that attaches import to their middle names.
— 3612In reply to frankenduf, I believe that murderers have their middle names reported because murder is a very serious offense and one wouldn’t someone with a similar name to be mistaken for a murderer. Or it could be a conspiracy….I guess. Either way, the “W” you’re thinking of is Walker.
— synapticmisfiresANOTHER WAYNE KILLER
And this one looks MEAN…
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/051807dntexdeputieskilled.256ee17.html
— BenBradshawtimothy was a neighbor of mine and it breaks my heart to see him go down this road. no one expected anything like this from some one who was quiet yet friendly person. my heart goes out to his and her family they both have lost someone precious to them
— texasprincess