17-Year-Old Murder of Texas Couple Solved With a Bloody Rug

            The cold case murder of an elderly couple in 2005 is believed to have been solved and will be heading to trial in the coming year. According to Texas Rangers, DNA evidence has linked the murder to a killer who they have taken into custody now as they continue to investigate.

            In 2005 Cleveland Texas, Antonio and Luz Rodriguez (both in their 80s) were found in their living room bludgeoned to death by one of their thirteen children, Carolina Tejeda. According to KHOU 11, at the time of the initial case, investigators took numerous blood samples from around the home, including from the blood-soaked rug, and entered these samples into a DNA database, but with no initial hits, the case turned cold.

            That is until March 2 of 2021, when suddenly there was a hit on the DNA that led them to Shelley Susan Thompson-Lemoine (41) who was currently serving a sentence in a Texas prison for an unrelated crime. Investigators went to interview Thompson-Lemoine, and she denied any involvement or even knowledge of the Rodríguezes, but with a second DNA sample and test, they confirmed a connection.

            Thompson-Lemoine was arrested on July 5 for the 17-year-old murders. Tejeda is pleased with investigators finding a culprit, but according to ABC 13 she has no recognition of who this woman was or if she knew her parents, and there is still no known motive.