Cold case solved: After 40 years there is finally justice for Deanna

Porter (Texas) – “Deanna wasn’t on this earth long. She had a great time. Her love for Jesus and her love for her family lasted a lifetime.” With these touching words, the mother of Deanna Ogg (†16) remembered her daughter, who was murdered 40 years ago. The killer has now been arrested in Mexico. Numerous US media outlets reported on the cold case.

The Teenager had left the house in the Texas town of Porter on the evening of September 27, 1986. Deanna was last seen alive at a grocery store. She wanted to hitchhike to a family reunion from a neighboring street corner. But the student never got there.

The victim had been stabbed

Only about two hours later, children found her body in a forest. The 16-year-old had been abused and stabbed multiple times in the neck. At the crime scene, the police a Marlboro cigarette and hair for sure.

Shortly afterwards, then 21-year-old Roy Criner was arrested and even convicted for the crime in 1990. It wasn’t until ten years later that the state pardoned what his defense said was a mentally impaired man. With the help of one DNA-Comparison made it possible to establish Criner’s innocence beyond any doubt.

It was also DNA that now convicted Bobby Taylor. The 60-year-old has been arrested seven times in his life, most recently in 2020. He then fled to Mexico for an unspecified crime. There he turned himself in at the end of April 2026, where he was arrested and taken to prison USA was transferred.

Police had Taylor in their sights as early as 2024

It is unclear whether Taylor knew that he was with the Murder was associated. What is known is that the investigators had a breakthrough in the cold case as early as 2024. Even back then, when they opened up the case, they were able to match the DNA from the crime scene to that of the criminal. Alone: ​​The killer had gone into hiding.

At the news conference announcing the resolution of the case, Sheriff Wesley Doolittle of Montgomery County said: The chance that Bobby Taylor is the killer “is one in a quadrillion. So it would be unreasonable to assume that he isn’t.” Deanna Ogg’s mother was also present, but had her touching words read out.