From Brian Chasnoff at the Express-News
Police were looking for a missing mom.
Alexandria Countryman, 24, had not been seen since Dec. 8, when she'd attended a party at a North Side apartment. When investigators knocked on that door two weeks later, a man who lived inside and told police he's a drug dealer had an elaborate story to explain the blood pooled beneath the carpet and splattered on a wall, an affidavit for an arrest warrant said.
It was someone else's, he told police.
Police knew he was lying about some details, according to the affidavit, but nothing at the time directly linked Luis Trevino to the disappearance of Countryman, a singer in a local rock band (Krybdus) and the mother of a 5-year-old girl.
Two months later, DNA evidence showed some of the blood in the apartment belonged to Countryman, the document said, and Monday a witness told police he'd seen Trevino beat Countryman to death with a metal chair.
Trevino, 21, was arrested Wednesday and remained in Bexar County Jail without bond on a charge of murder. On Tuesday, an unidentified source led police to a decomposed body buried off Thousand Oaks Drive.
Medical examiners hadn't identified the body Wednesday, and police spokesman Sgt. Gabe Trevino said it was unclear if the body belonged to Countryman. But the victim's mother, Esperanza Carrera, said investigators told her they believe it's her daughter.
Police on Wednesday still hadn't fully investigated Luis Trevino's story, which included his insistence that two strangers murdered another man inside his apartment on the same night that Countryman disappeared.
An unknown male's DNA was found along with Countryman's in the blood inside the apartment, the affidavit said. Investigators were trying Wednesday to determine if it matched the suspect's DNA.
"People set me up," Luis Trevino told reporters Wednesday as police walked him to jail.
A motive in Countryman's apparent slaying was not clear Wednesday.
But the affidavit describes a party held at Luis Trevino's apartment that began with the host complimenting Countryman on her beauty and ended with a crude act of violence that left the singer on her hands and knees, covered with blood.
A witness told police that cocaine and Xanax were being used at the party, and that Countryman had been drinking. A witness told police she heard Luis Trevino tell Countryman "he always had a crush on her" and "how pretty she was," according to the document. Countryman was at the party when the witness left around 6 a.m.
About 7 a.m., another witness awoke to a crashing sound. He emerged from a bedroom to find blood streaming down Countryman's face and the singer struggling to get up from the floor, the affidavit said.
"We have to kill her," said Luis Trevino, holding a gun to her head, according to the witness' account in the document.
The witness picked up a phone to call an ambulance, but Luis Trevino pointed the gun at him and threatened to fire if he made the call, according to the affidavit. Luis Trevino, who weighs 330 pounds, picked up a metal chair and struck Countryman with it in the head at least five times, the witness said in the document.
Questioned by police Dec. 19, Luis Trevino told a different story.
At least one murder had occurred in his apartment, he told investigators, but two unknown men had committed it. They had arrived at the party with a third man and beat him to death, he said.
When Countryman emerged from the bathroom, one of the men hit her on the head with a beer bottle, he told police. Luis Trevino then left to buy shovels, lights and a trash bag to dispose of the man's body, according to his story.
"Trevino claimed that when he returned, (Countryman) was no longer in the apartment, and he made a vague reference to her being placed in some unknown car with some unknown person to watch her," an affidavit for a search warrant said.
Carrera said she suspected her daughter was in trouble when Countryman didn't call her grandmother on Christmas. She recalled her daughter as a former Navy seaman who gave birth to a daughter in Italy and could sing classical opera in five different languages.
"She used to do an Ave Maria that would make (former) Archbishop (Patrick) Flores weep," Carrera said.
Why someone would kill her daughter mattered little to Carrera, she said.
"My job as a mother is to find my daughter, give her a proper burial and start the healing process," said Carrera, struggling not to weep herself. "Knowing why is not going to make it any better."
