Inset left: Michael Wayne Hatcher (Palo Pinto County Jail). Inset right: Leah Dawn Adams (Palo Pinto County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Brazos River area in Mineral Wells, Texas, where Adams’ body was discovered (Google Maps).
A North Texas man has been jailed after authorities say he killed a woman he later described as having been “flirting” with him, before allegedly returning home and passing out in his front yard, according to state law enforcement officials.
Michael Wayne Hatcher, 50, is facing a capital murder charge in connection with the death of Leah Dawn Adams, 32, the Palo Pinto County Sheriff’s Office said.
The case opened in the predawn hours of Aug. 27, when investigators were called to the Brazos River after Adams was found dead, officials said.
Not far from where her body was located, Adams’ Dodge Ram 1500 was found burning, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by Dallas-based ABC affiliate WFAA and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Authorities said Adams was discovered face up in the water at Oaks Crossing in Mineral Wells, a historic Brazos River crossing once used to move and ferry livestock during cattle drives.
Investigators reported finding a blanket near Adams’ body, while court records say she appeared to have suffered “severe trauma” to her face. An open knife was recovered along the riverbank, and Adams’ driver’s license was later found downstream.
Palo Pinto County deputies called in the Texas Rangers to assist with the homicide investigation, and authorities soon focused on Hatcher as a suspect.
Palo Pinto County Sheriff J.R. Patterson announced the defendant’s arrest later that same day.
Family members of the victim told investigators that Adams’ cellphone had last sent a location signal at a residence in Mineral Wells, according to the affidavit. Authorities said Hatcher and another woman he is in a relationship with were the occupants of that home.
During an initial interview with law enforcement, Hatcher said he was fishing at the river on Aug. 26 when he met Adams, who “had begun flirting with him,” according to the court document. The defendant said he later rode in the victim’s truck to a gas station.
As for his own truck, the man said the victim never got inside, but she did sit on the tailgate, according to law enforcement. Hatcher allegedly went on to say he left the river “sometime after midnight” and returned “right before sunrise,” according to the affidavit.
The defendant added that “only he and Leah were at the river together after midnight,” authorities said. The man allegedly said he saw her truck but not Adams herself when he returned the next day.
In the affidavit, rangers wrote that an investigator saw a “transfer stain consistent with blood under the front pocket of Hatcher’s jeans.”
Investigators then spoke with the woman who lived with Hatcher.
She told authorities the defendant was lying on a wooden bench in the front yard when she woke up to take her children to school that morning, according to law enforcement. She is also the legal owner of the Ford F-150 that Hatcher drove down to the river, law enforcement said, and she consented to a search of the vehicle.
Inside the F-150, investigators found blood, a bloody and sand-covered shirt, and a backpack containing a journal, authorities said. The journal itself allegedly contained Adams’ expired license.
Once the victim’s driver’s license was located, the search was stopped until a search warrant could be obtained, according to the search warrant affidavit.
After returning to the residence with a search warrant, investigators seized human hair, a blue shirt stained with blood, a Taurus GX4 handgun, and a backpack containing Adams’ belongings.
Hatcher is being detained in the Palo Pinto County Jail without bond.
The post Man with blood on his jeans claimed woman was ‘flirting’ with him before he killed her and left her face up in a river, police say first appeared on Law & Crime.
