In a press release made public today by the Lufkin Police Department, Winfred Kilgore has been charged with the murder of Joy Bybee who was found dead under a Lufkin bridge several days ago.

Excerpts from that press release follow the jump 

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Last night, Lufkin Police Department detectives arrested Winfred Montgomery Kilgore Jr. (White / Male / 02-26-1956) for the murder a Joy Yvonne Bybee, whose body was discovered August 11, 2011 beneath a bridge at Chestnut Village shopping center in Lufkin, Texas.

 

The detectives’ initial investigation revealed that Winfred Kilgore was with Joy Bybee the day before her death and they believed that he possessed information that would assist in determining her actions prior to her death. With assistance of local media outlets and the public, Jacksonville Police Department officers located Mr. Kilgore in Jacksonville and notified him of Lufkin Police Department’s investigation and the detectives’ need to speak with him. Mr. Kilgore waited at Jacksonville Police Department until the detectives arrived from Lufkin and interviewed him.

 

At that time, the detectives did not have information that suggested Winfred Kilgore was involved in the circumstances leading to Ms. Bybee’s death but during their interview, Mr. Kilgore admitted to being with her at the time of her death, stating that the slept under the bridge next to her and found her dead when he woke. Because Mr. Kilgore fled the area without notifying law enforcement of the existence of or location of a human corpse, the detectives sought, and a judge issued, a warrant for Mr. Kilgore’s arrest for a Class A Misdemeanor offense under Texas Penal Code 37.09(d)(2) - Tampering with or Fabricating Physical Evidence. Mr. Kilgore was booked into Angelina County Jail.

 

In a subsequent interview, conducted at Lufkin Police Department on the evening of August 22, 2011, Winfred Kilgore confessed to a Lufkin Police Department detective that he was responsible for the death of Joy Bybee.

 

Mr. Kilgore stated that while in the creek below the Chestnut Village shopping center bridge, he grabbed the back of Ms. Bybee’s neck and held her head and body under water until she died. He stated that he dragged her body from the water and onto the mattress on which her boyfriend later discovered her body. He said that he consumed the remaining beers from a thirty-count package he purchased earlier that evening, smoked a few cigarettes, and slept next to Ms. Bybee’s body. Mr. Kilgore told the detective that when he woke the next morning he saw Bybee’s dead body next to him and saw the drag marks from the creek to the mattress, so he destroyed the drag marks and left Lufkin to avoid law enforcement.

 

Detective JB Smith, Public Information Officer for Lufkin Police Department stated; “although the cause of death will be determined on completion of the autopsy performed August 12th, the detectives believe that Mr. Kilgore’s confession matches the physical evidence, like the fluid found in Ms. Bybee’s lungs. Based on the evidence, their investigation, and Mr. Kilgore’s confession, the detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Winfred Montgomery Kilgore Jr. for the Murder of Joy Yvonne Bybee”

 

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