Inset: Image of Charles Byrd (courtesy of Bexar County Sheriff’s Office). Background: A SWAT team conducts a search warrant and apprehends Byrd in Texas (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office).
A 49-year-old man in Texas has been arrested for allegedly killing his wife and hiding her body in their home for more than a month.
Charles V. Byrd was apprehended early Sunday evening and faces a charge of felony tampering with evidence intended to impair a human body related to the death of Angela Byrd, as per records examined by Law&Crime.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office reported the incident commenced shortly after midnight on Sunday when deputies were dispatched to a residence in the 22100 block of Pleasanton Road. This response followed a call from a relative of Angela Byrd expressing “concern” for her due to troubling comments made by Charles Byrd suggesting he might have harmed his wife.
The relative had not gone into the Byrd home, but was able to let deputies in. Once there, authorities said they “very quickly smelled the odor of decomposition — of a body.” They soon found a body — presumed to be Angela Byrd — wrapped in some kind of plastic material inside the home.
Authorities said they believe that Angela Byrd was the victim of a homicide, but are waiting for the results of an examination from the medical examiner to formally determine the manner and cause of death.
“Over the course of the weekend, Charles Byrd was in the wind,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference. “
Multiple units within the sheriff’s office were deployed to search for Charles Byrd, who was located hiding inside of a home in the 21000 block of Pleasanton Road, which Salazar said was about a mile from the original crime scene. A SWAT team executed a search warrant on the residence where Charles Byrd was taken into custody.
Salazar said that several other individuals were arrested in connection with the case. He did not go into detail about the other persons charged, but said that information would be provided in the near future.
Detectives with the sheriff’s homicide unit interviewed Byrd, who allegedly provided details about fatally attacking his wife.
“He did describe a physical attack that happened on or about June 16, so a little over a month ago,” Salazar said. “He did describe a physical confrontation between himself and Angela which he believes led to her death. He then, over the course of the next 32 days, spent that entire time living in that residence with the corpse of Ms. Byrd, at times taking certain steps to mask the odor and trying to explain away the source of that odor to family members. He was very matter-of-fact as he described this violent encounter with Ms. Byrd.
Vasquez said one thing that made a “huge impression” on him was Byrd allegedly explaining that he had “never been arrested before” and never “committed a crime before” and “then blurted out to our investigator, ‘Go big or go home.'”
“That was pretty shocking to me — to hear that he used that to describe what we believe to be evidence of the murder of his wife, and he made a very flippant comment to the effect of ‘go big or go home’ being his first time committing a crime” Salazar said. “I just find that very shocking.”
Charles Byrd was booked into the Bexar County Jail where he is currently being held without bond. Salazar said Byrd will likely be facing “at least a murder charge” once the medical examiner has completed the autopsy.
It was not immediately clear when Byrd would make his first appearance in court.
