This week, investigators in Texas made a significant breakthrough in a cold case that has remained unsolved for nearly 40 years. Bobby Charles Taylor Sr. has been arrested on charges of capital murder.
The 60-year-old suspect was apprehended in Mexico, thanks to the advancements in DNA technology that enabled Montgomery County deputies to make this critical development.
Taylor is accused of the murder of Deanna Ogg, a 16-year-old whose body was discovered on September 27, 1986, by the roadside in Porter, Texas. She had left home around 5 p.m. to attend a family gathering.
Merely two hours after she left, local children stumbled upon her body. It was found approximately seven miles from her home, along a logging road in a small town just north of Houston.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, Deanna had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and stabbed.
Initially, another man was arrested and convicted in connection with the case the following month. However, subsequent DNA testing proved his innocence and led to his exoneration, as stated by the agency.
As the case went cold for almost 40 years, forensic genetic testing led investigators to Taylor, whose DNA was collected at the scene.
In March 2020 the Texas Rangers identified Oggâs case for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative program, according to Texas DPS, and the following year previously exhausted evidence was submitted for advanced DNA testing and genealogy research through Bode Technology.
Taylor was then identified as the suspect in 2024 thanks to advanced DNA testing and genealogy research.
“Upon his identification, investigators learned that Taylor was a fugitive from justice on an unrelated felony charge and was believed to be hiding in Mexico,” Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle said.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies coordinated to secure charges for bond jumping. Taylor ultimately turned himself in for an unrelated felony charge on April 24, 2026, in Mexico City.
At a news conference on Wednesday, authorities released seven different mugshot photos from Taylor’s previous arrests spanning from as recently as 2020, all the way back to 1985.
Ogg’s mother was present for the Wednesday news conference put on by the MCSO.
Doolittle read a letter on her behalf. It said in part, “Deanna wasn’t on this earth for a long time. She was here for a good time. Her love of Jesus and love of family has withstood a lifetime.”
