MISSOURI CITY, Texas (KTRK) — The skeletal remains that investigators located in a deeply wooded area of Missouri City on Monday belong to a 61-year-old woman who disappeared about three weeks prior, police said on Friday.
According to the Missouri City Police Department, the Fort Bend County Medical Examiner positively identified Karen Miles’ body through dental records. The medical examiner additionally determined her death to be a homicide caused by a single gunshot wound.
MCPD confirmed it has transitioned into a homicide investigation, and aggravated robbery and capital murder charges were filed against Davante Clark, who investigators identified as the person who drove Miles’ stolen vehicle in the days after her last confirmed contact with anyone.
“I would never have thought in a million years that something would have happened to a beautiful soul because that’s what she was,” Miles’ sister, Patricia Evans, told ABC13 Friday night. “My hope is that Karen didn’t suffer when he shot her in the back of the head, that she did not suffer.”
According to charging documents, Miles was held at gunpoint in the parking lot of her senior living complex in the 10000 block of the South Sam Houston Parkway. Clark approached her with a gun as she was getting into her Ford Explorer and a witness also saw Clark get into the vehicle, records state.
She was last heard from on Aug. 21 at about 10:45 p.m. She was last believed to be at her apartment. Her family said she would leave for work in the pre-dawn hours.
Miles did not show up for work the next morning but wasn’t reported missing until Aug. 28, when her family could not get in touch with her.
Missouri City police said information obtained through their investigation led them to a field on Monday, the 16000 block of Blue Ridge Drive, where remains were located in a heavily wooded area.
On Aug. 28, Davante Clark, 29, was arrested by Pearland police. He was found to be driving Miles’ car bearing a stolen license plate from Arkansas, according to a spokesperson for the Pearland Police Department. Clark was arrested on charges initially related to the stolen vehicle, but not for her disappearance and booked into the Brazoria County jail where he remains on Friday.
There is no timetable on when he will be transferred to Harris County.
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