HARLINGEN — A Cameron County man has been accused of stabbing a woman to death in rural Harlingen.
Sheriff’s deputies and a neighbor found Estela Dowdy, 61, dead on the floor of her home at 19077 Thieme Road, in Harlingen’s southern outskirts, Sunday morning, Chief Deputy Gus Reyna Jr. said yesterday.
The neighbor contacted the sheriff’s office after not having seen Dowdy for several days, he said.
Reyna said officers pieced together a chain of events that implicated Rogelio Suarez, 50, in the killing.
Suarez confessed to the killing after being confronted with the facts in the case, Reyna said. It was not immediately known when he was arrested.
Suarez was last seen at Dowdy’s residence three to four days prior to being arraigned on July 23 on aggravated assault charges involving the stabbing of his common-law wife in a separate case and being released on bonds totaling $135,000.
Suarez was to be arraigned yesterday on capital murder charges in the Dowdy case.
Reyna said Suarez left the crime scene in Dowdy’s 2013 Nissan Rogue, later abandoning the vehicle in Harlingen. He remained jailed at the Carrizales–Rucker Detention Center in Olmito, pending arraignment.
