By Kim Hilsenbeck
Details in the murder of Samantha Dean continue to seep out of the investigation, building what appears to be a connection between her death and the alleged father of her unborn child, Austin police officer VonTrey Clark.
Autopsy details show Dean, who was a Kyle Police Department victim services coordinator, was seven months pregnant when her body was discovered just off Texas 71 in Bastrop on Feb. 4. She was shot three times in the head, including once at close range.
The most recent details connecting Clark to Dean were unearthed when an extensive search warrant of the officer’s home was unsealed Monday. The affidavit was held as confidential for about two months.
According to the search warrant, Clark told Dean his life would be ruined if she had a baby. The warrant also reveals that he wanted her to have an abortion.
This is the first court document that links Dean’s murder to Clark.
Dean also told co-workers if she turned up dead “Clark would be responsible,” and she felt at one point “Clark was going to murder her.”
Clark was placed on paid administrative leave in February because of his relationship with Dean. Clark’s lawyer, Bristol Myers, confirmed in May that his home was searched as part of the murder investigation. In a statement, she said investigators took several pairs of shoes and multiple electronic devices. A judge sealed the search warrant of his home for at least 30 days.
Muddying the waters in June was the introduction of three people who may have been involved in her death. Court documents named Kevin Watson, 31, from Houston as a suspect. Authorities arrested Watson’s girlfriend, Kyla D. Fisk, on charges of evidence tampering for allegedly hiding a sweatshirt that police believe Watson was wearing the day of Dean’s death.
A third person, Aaron Lamont Williams, was in the Bastrop County Jail on a charge of retaliation after investigators said he sent a threatening text message to an Austin Police Department counselor five days after Dean’s death.
Police have not yet filed any formal charges in Dean’s death; however, the warrant does give details of an alleged conspiracy to kill Dean that involved multiple people, including texts about selection of murder location.
The Hays Free Press will continue to report on this developing story.
