TYLER, Texas – A 24-year-old Mexican national has been jailed on a capital murder charge after his 10-year-old female cousin was found dead in an East Texas water well.
Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith says 24-year-old Gustavo Zavala-Garcia was booked Saturday into Smith County Jail on a federal immigration detainer. Smith said an arrest warrant was issued for Zavala-Garcia Monday, charging him with capital murder. No attorney or bond setting for Zavala-Garcia is listed in online jail records.
His cousin by marriage, Kayla Gomez-Orozco, was reported missing after a Nov. 1 service at a church in Bullard, about 15 miles south of Tyler. Hundreds of volunteers searched the area for days until the girl's body was found Saturday down the well of a rented house about 2½ miles southeast of Bullard.
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