Murder and pedophilia cases lead to recent charges against Comal | Community alert

Defendants charged in a 1986 murder at a Canyon Lake campsite and the homicide of a woman on a residential street in New Braunfels have surpassed the November and December grand jury indictments released by the prosecutor last week. criminal Jennifer Tharp.

On June 7, the Comal County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests of Tracey Keith Loy, 56, of St. George, Utah, and Mark Allen Gatten, 57, of Quaker City, Ohio, charged with the murder. of Charles Robert Hardin, 56, of Houston. .

On August 26, 1986, OHCC MPs and investigators discovered Hardin’s body at a campsite in Jacob’s Creek Park at the eastern end of Canyon Lake. A subsequent autopsy determined Hardin’s death to be homicide.

The CCSO said DNA evidence from the crime scene, processed at the Texas Department of Public Safety’s laboratory in Austin, identified the two men as persons of interest. Subsequent interviews led to their arrests for murder, with arrest warrants served in their cities and states of residence on May 27.

In early September, Texas Ranger Joshua Ray, who helped resuscitate the Cold Case, accompanied Gatten from Guernsey County Jail (Ohio) and sent him to Comal County Jail where he remains on bail. of $ 500,000. Loy, extradited to Texas on May 31, also remains in the county dungeon on $ 500,000 bail.

Clifton Adam Meneley, 39, of Selma, has also been charged with the October 26 murder of Kathleen Josephine Johnson, 34, also of Selma, whose lifeless body was found with “multiple” gunshot wounds in inside a Dodge Ram pickup truck at the intersection of North Live Oak Avenue and West Mill Street.

It took the city nearly 24 hours to report the incident, in which police used non-lethal force to subdue Meneley, found holding a handgun as he stood next to the truck. Meneley, also charged with murder and domestic violence with a deadly weapon, remains in the county dungeon on $ 1,500,000 bail.

Canyon High School teacher Emily Marie Anderson was also charged with two counts of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy on the school campus on separate occasions in May and July.

Anderson, 34, of New Braunfels, was arrested in August. His arrest affidavit, requested by the Herald-Zeitung under the Texas Public Information Act, indicated the discovery of sexually explicit texts between the educator and the student, who then admitted to having had dates. you sex in campus classrooms.

Anderson was arrested following an interview at the New Braunfels Police Department headquarters and transported to Comal County Jail. She was released after posting bail for two counts of child sexual assault following the arrest, and was released again last week after posting a total of $ 150,000 on bail after acts indictment on these charges and two indictments alleging an inappropriate relationship between an educator and a student. Independent School District executive director of communications and government affairs Steve Stanford Comal said Anderson resigned from the district shortly before the winter recess.

Aaron Arnaldo Gomez, 28, of New Braunfels, has been charged with several counts, including two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against an official, resulting from a September 15 altercation in the parking lot of a business in block 200 of Commerce 35 Sud.

Gomez, suspected of aggravated kidnapping earlier today, had active arrest warrants alleging illegal possession of a firearm by a felon and was wanted for parole violation on a conviction for aggravated theft of 2015.

Police said Gomez attempted to ram his vehicle into other parked cars while trying to escape officers, who shot at the car and seriously injured Gomez, who was taken to Seton Hays Hospital in Kyle.

Two NBPD agents placed on paid leave pending the results of internal and external investigations have since resumed their duties. Gomez has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault against a public official, four counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, escape from arrest with a vehicle and escape from arrest or detention with a conviction earlier.

Gomez was released from hospital on September 30 and held in Comal County Jail, where he remains on bail totaling $ 500,000 for the indictments and without bail for the release violation. conditional issued by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.