“There is a dead body in there,” the 23-year-old suspect said, according to an arrest affidavit. “It’s my mom.”
”There is a dead body in there,” the 23-year-old suspect said, according to an arrest affidavit. “It’s my mom.”
“There is a dead body in there,” the 23-year-old suspect said, according to an arrest affidavit. “It’s my mom.”
FORT WORTH, Texas — Graphic content warning: This article contains descriptions of a murder that may not be suitable for some readers.
A 23-year-old was arrested in Fort Worth after police say he murdered his mother and sent pictures of the crime in a Snapchat group chat.
According to an arrest affidavit first obtained by our content partners at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Alexander Taylor Valdez, 23, of Fort Worth, struck his mother, 58-year-old Teresita Sayson, multiple times with a blunt force object, killing her.
An anonymous caller told Fort Worth police they had received a photo in a Snapchat group chat of a woman on the ground covered in blood around 1:32 a.m. on Friday, the affidavit reads. The affidavit says the caller told police the photo came from someone living at 9920 Farmers Branch St.
According to the document, when police arrived and announced themselves, a man came to the door with blood on his face, neck, chest, torso, hands and feet with a Bible in his hands.
“It was an exorcism,” the affidavit claims the man said. The document says when police sat him down and asked why he had blood on him, the man responded, “I was doing witchcraft to kill my mom.”
Police then asked if anyone was inside the home, to which he said, “There is a dead body in there. It’s my mom,” according to the affidavit.
When officers detained the man, they identified him as Valdez.
When officers searched the home, they found a woman, later identified as Valdez’s mother, Teresita Sayson, in the main bedroom covered in blood with trauma to her face, the document states. A dead dog was also found in the room, the affidavit says.
First responders pronounced Sayson dead around 2:53 a.m., according to the affidavit.
Per the affidavit, Valdez had sent the photo of that scene to several of his friends via Snapchat. The document says one of the friends opened the image and immediately texted the others not to open it. Many of those friends showed up on the scene, and one showed officers the photo, according to the affidavit.
Upon learning of Sayson’s death, officers took Valdez to the Fort Worth homicide office for an interview, where he refused to answer questions and requested an attorney, the document says.
Later, a search warrant was executed on the home, the document states, and officers found a broken jewelry box with blood and human hair on it in the same room where Sayson was found.
Valdez faces one count of murder.