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Someone
Is Missing - Latoya Finley
Latoya Finley Murder Mystery Unravels
After more than a month of searching for missing 22-year-old Latoya Finley, Travis Co. Sheriff's investigators on April 19 charged Finley's aunt and uncle, Karen Bunton and William "Tony" Holmes, with her murder. Bunton and Holmes were pulled over in Abilene driving Finley's silver Hyundai sedan; investigators found human remains in the trunk, later identified as Finley. "This has been very emotional," TCSO spokesman Roger Wade said, "in part, because we've been dealing so closely with the family."
On March 5, Vickie Finley called the Travis Co. Sheriff's Office to report that her daughter Latoya was missing. The 22-year-old Latoya, an aspiring singer/songwriter, set off for L.A. in late February to make music-industry contacts; she told her mother she planned to leave Austin on Feb. 24, that she'd call when she arrived in L.A., and that she'd return home a week later. But Latoya never called, never checked in to the Homestead Suites in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and she never returned home to Austin. Vickie Finley told sheriff's investigators that her sister, Karen Bunton, and Bunton's husband Tony had helped Latoya, who had cerebral palsy, get packed and started on her trip.
Bunton told investigators that on Feb. 24, she and Holmes helped get Latoya's belongings including a red suitcase and a desktop computer loaded into Latoya's silver Hyundai sedan, then drove her to the Wildwood apartments in Northeast Austin, where Latoya allegedly said that her boyfriend, someone named Ryan Smith (whose identity, according to an arrest affidavit, has yet to be confirmed), lived. Latoya told Bunton she could use her car while she was gone, said Bunton, and that was the last time she saw her.
Travis Co. Sheriff's investigators searched for Latoya Finley a little over a month, mostly following leads supplied by Bunton. For the first two weeks, Bunton remained in steady contact with TCSO Det. Chris Rowland, relating details about her and Holmes' final visit with Latoya and stories about being contacted by Latoya, and, later, offering suggestions about where Latoya might be found. In mid-March, when investigators discovered that Bunton pawned several items that belonged to Latoya including a gold pendant with a pink stone, a white gold ring with a blue stone, a digital camera, and a car stereo Bunton said that she and Holmes needed money, but planned to get the items out of hock before Latoya got home. Bunton also told Rowland that Latoya told the couple that she planned to go to Marble Falls with her boyfriend to stay with Smith's family for several weeks after returning to Austin from Los Angeles. When Rowland said he needed to search Latoya's car, Bunton told him that she and Holmes left Latoya's Hyundai in Irving (in a location she could identify only generally) after hearing that police were looking for it but said they would return the car as soon as possible.
In late March, when Rowland began to question some of the information Bunton was supplying, Latoya's aunt cut off all contact with police. By the end of March, Bunton and Holmes, along with Latoya's silver Hyundai, were nowhere to be found. "Karen Bunton became nervous" during a March 22 phone conversation, Rowland wrote in an arrest affidavit, and ended their call. She didn't call Rowland again the next day as promised, and instead "terminated all communication," Rowland wrote.
Up to that point, investigators were certain they were looking for a missing person, Wade said, and were convinced Latoya would come home. Bunton's attitude shift left investigators with a sinking feeling, though: "[Rowland] realized, 'Man, this isn't a missing person, this is a homicide,'" Wade said. Shortly thereafter, the gruesome details of Latoya's demise were spelled out for police.
According to the arrest affidavit, an unidentified source on April 4 finally came forward to tell investigators that on Feb. 28, four days after Latoya supposedly left for California, Holmes asked the source to meet him at an East Austin park. When the informant arrived at the park, Holmes was already there, sitting in Latoya's silver Hyundai. "Holmes stated that he wanted to apologize," the witness told police, "for accusing the [source] of leaking some information about his past" specifically, that Holmes was dealing drugs. Holmes told the source "he had found the person responsible," reads the affidavit, and "he had killed the person responsible and [said] that the person was in the trunk of the vehicle they were sitting in." Holmes didn't reveal the name of the responsible party, but said he'd "smothered her" and put her in the trunk. Then, reaching into the back seat over a red suitcase and a computer monitor, toward a trunk-access panel Holmes offered to show the source his handiwork. Spooked, the source got out of the car; as Holmes drove away, the source "noticed what appeared to be many flies around the trunk area," Rowland wrote in an arrest affidavit.
An additional tip to police placed Bunton and Holmes in Abilene, driving Latoya's car. Finally, on April 14, Abilene police spotted Bunton and Holmes in the car and, after a brief chase, arrested the couple Bunton for evading arrest and Holmes on an outstanding warrant. In the trunk of the car police made a grisly discovery: bones, bodily fluid, and tissue wrapped in the "strong odor of biological decomposition" remains positively identified the next day as those of Latoya Finley. The motive for Finley's murder isn't entirely clear, aside from Holmes' April 14 statement to Rowland that he "found out" that Latoya had told someone at the Travis Co. courthouse that Holmes was a drug dealer an admission that mirrors the unidentified source's story. "Holmes stated that he got angry with [Latoya] because she was telling lies about him, but Holmes stated that he discussed the incident with Latoya and forgot about it," reads the arrest affidavit.
On April 19, TCSO investigators charged both Bunton and Holmes with first-degree murder punishable by up to life in prison and with tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, punishable by between two and 10 years in prison. At press time, the two were still in jail in Taylor County, awaiting their return to Austin.
Previous Update - Click Here
Karen Bunton (r) and Tony Holmes are (c) suspects in
the murder of their niece, Latoya Finley (l).
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Search for missing woman goes on
4/7/2006 9:58 AM
By: Reagan Hackleman - link
Travis County Sheriff's deputies still need help to find a missing woman. Latoya Finley, 22, has not been seen since Feb. 23. That's the last time her mother spoke with her.
Finley, an aspiring singer, told her family she was going to California to pursue her dream. She promised that she would call when she got there. She never made the call.
"I'm so worried something bad has happened to her. I just get this feeling," mother Vickie Finley said.
But a Travis County Sheriff's Office investigator believes Latoya is still alive. Detective Chris Rowland said it first looked like Latoya just wanted to disappear.
"I don't know if her dreams got dashed or it was financial troubles. Maybe she's just embarrassed by the situation and wants to run and hide," Rowland said.
Travis County detectives continue their search for Latoya Finley.
"Latoya wouldn't do that," her mother said. "She's young. She doesn't care about bills. She would never disappear like that."
The last family members to see Latoya were her aunt and uncle, Karen Bunton and Tony Holmes. Bunton and Holmes were cooperating with the Travis County Sheriff's Office at first, but now they are not.
"They're definitely persons of interest in this investigation. They've had some suspicious behavior in this investigation and we really want to talk to them more in detail," Rowland said.
There is a $2,500 reward for any information about Latoya's whereabouts. She is 5' 8", weighs 110 pounds, has brown eyes and black hair. She also walks with a noticeable limp. Police believe she may still be in the Central Texas area.
Tips can be called in to Det. Rowland at (512) 854-3245 or to Crimestoppers at (512) 472-TIPS.
Details needed in missing woman case
3/23/2006 5:25 PM
By: News 8 Austin Staff
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=157998
Travis County Sheriff's Office detectives have exhausted all leads in a missing person case.
Now, they're asking for help to find an Austin woman missing since last month.
Latoya Finley, 22, was supposed to be headed to Los Angeles. She never made it to California, her family said.
Finley is 5' 8" tall, 110 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. She also walks with a noticeable limp or with crutches from a disability.
She was last seen driving her car in Austin a 2000 four-door silver Hyundai Elantra with a license plate 082-FYC.
Finley's family believes she was with a boyfriend named Ryan Smith who may live around the Marble Falls area.
Detectives have not been able to locate him either.
The circumstances surrounding her disappearance now make detectives and family members believe that she may be in danger.
If you have any information that can help the sheriff's office, call Det. Chris Rowland at (512) 854-3245.
What's become of Latoya Finley?
Two uncooperative relatives, many unanswered questions have Travis detective fearing foul play.
By Tony Plohetski
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/30missing.html
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Latoya Finley called her grandmother on the chilly February morning she was supposed to leave town.
"Grandma! Grandma! I'm just so excited!" Finley, 22, told Sarah Bunton in a brief telephone call to say goodbye Feb. 24. "I'm trying to start a life of my own."
Finley, who was diagnosed at birth with cerebral palsy and had other health problems, had been telling Bunton for weeks that she wanted to go to Hollywood and become a musician. She told her grandmother that she had a flight out of Austin that night and a meeting with a California recording company.
Bunton said she was worried, but Finley told her: "If something happens to me, I'm going to be with the Lord anyway."
Finley promised to call the minute she got to California.
Bunton hasn't heard from her since.
Detective Chris Rowland of the Travis County sheriff's office has spent the past month trying to find Finley.
"We do now fear that there is the possibility foul play may be involved," Rowland said Wednesday. "It's a mystery as to what the heck is going on here."
Rowland said he is trying to find and question Finley's aunt and uncle, Karen Denine Bunton, 38, and Tony Holmes, 26, the last people known to have seen Finley alive.
"They were cooperating with the investigation, and now they have stopped," he said.
Bunton and Holmes could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Rowland said he doesn't think Finley, who walks with a limp and often uses crutches, had a plane ticket to Los Angeles. Her credit card receipts don't show an airline ticket purchase, and she never checked in at the airport, he said.
He's not sure Finley ever left Travis County, he said, even though her mother said she had packed her red suitcase the night before her disappearance with some of her favorite outfits and jewelry.
Finley's aunt and uncle told Rowland that they dropped Finley off at her boyfriend's apartment near U.S. 183 and Cameron Road so he could take her to the airport.
Officials have not been able to find the boyfriend, whom the aunt and uncle identified as Ryan Smith. Finley's mother, Vickie Finley, said she often heard her daughter talk about a man named Ryan, though she never met him.
Rowland said Bunton and Holmes stopped taking his calls last week and didn't fulfill a promise to turn over Finley's 2005 Hyundai Elantra to him.
Rowland said Bunton had told him that she had permission to use Finley's car while her niece was in California.
The detective said the last time he talked to Bunton was March 21, when she told him that her husband had spoken to Finley a day earlier and that she had returned from California.
Bunton was charged earlier this month with pawning a Samsung digital camera from Finley's car and claiming it was hers.
Texas law prohibits people from pawning goods they don't own. A warrant has been issued for her arrest on the charge of making a false statement to obtain credit.
Authorities on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Holmes, who failed to appear at a court hearing on a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He and his wife were arrested in November after Austin police spotted them in a rental car that had been reported stolen. Officers found a 9 mm handgun in Bunton's purse.
At her eastern Travis County home, Vickie Finley said she's been a protective parent because of Latoya's disability.
The younger of two, Latoya Finley lived with her mother and in recent years had tried to become more independent, Vickie Finley said.
"She was so determined to go and make a career of her own," Finley said. "She was grown, and I couldn't put chains on her and make her stay, you know."
Finley said she has not spoken with her sister or brother-in-law in weeks they have stopped taking her calls, too and has no idea why they are no longer cooperating with the investigation.
"I just keep praying," Finley said. "I pray that she is all right, that she is still alive somewhere."
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Notes
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If
you have any information that can help the sheriff's
office, call Det. Chris Rowland at (512) 854-3245. |
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