The unresolved case of Cristian Rangel, a 24-year-old man whose body was found in a greenbelt in southeast Austin, continues to leave his family and police searching for more leads. Rangel went missing on April 8, 2024, a day marked by a solar eclipse, and was last seen leaving a south Austin Walmart. "Every time the phone would ring, you would just have a little bit of hope that it would always be him," Rangel’s mother, Misty Moon, told FOX 7 Austin in an interview. Despite the passage of time, the family has not yet found closure, feeling the void left by Rangel's unexplained death.
Kamery Wooldridge, 31, was arrested in connection to the investigation after police found evidence tying her to the vehicle Rangel was seen getting into. She has been charged with tampering with a human corpse and is currently out on bond. "Someone that could do such a horrific thing to a human being should not be out walking around, so just, you know, we'd like justice for Cristian because he deserves that," Moon expressed. The Austin Police Department is hoping to gather more information to potentially upgrade the charges, but as of now, no one has been charged with Rangel's murder, as reported by KXAN.
Homicide Detective Patrick Reed from the Austin Police Department outlined the difficulties of the investigation due to the state in which Rangel's body was found. "Cristian was abducted and not found for about 10 days," Reed told KXAN, which has made forensic testing challenging. DNA evidence and forensic processing are critical in constructing a case, and the Texas Department of Public Safety lab handling this case also serves the entire state, leading to inevitable delays. In a statement obtained by FOX 7 Austin, Moon described her son as having an "infectious personality" and being "loved by many," reinforcing the pain and loss felt by his absence.
A reward of up to $10,000 has been offered for information that could lead to an arrest, with Rangel's family having contributed $9,000 to the original $1,000 put up by the Austin Police Department. "Putting together complicated homicide cases is kind of like putting together a puzzle," Detective Reed explained to KXAN. He emphasized the importance of seemingly small details that could substantially aid in comprehending the fuller picture of Rangel's case. Tips can be submitted anonymously through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program and may be eligible for the reward if they lead to significant breakthroughs in the investigation.
