Deputies responding to a welfare concern at a home in the 6400 block of Trace Bend just after 9 p.m. Wednesday found a woman dead from a gunshot wound, and by the time the immediate search ended that night, the suspect was dead too, nearly a hundred miles away in northern Harris County.
The Brazos County Sheriff's Office identified the victim as 59-year-old Veronica Tussey-Taylor, a Brazos County resident, according to kbtx.com. Investigators determined that Tussey-Taylor's vehicle was missing from the residence, a detail that quickly became central to the search for whoever was responsible, as Click2Houston also reported.
Authorities soon identified a suspect: John Goodwin, 54, of College Station. The sheriff's office said Tussey-Taylor and Goodwin were known to each other, though it did not provide further details on the nature of that relationship, per the same account.
Cameras Track the Car Across County Lines
With a suspect named but not yet located, investigators turned to technology to trace the missing vehicle. They used automated license plate reader technology, including Flock cameras, and the footage showed the car had left Brazos County entirely and was somewhere in the Houston area.
Brazos County investigators then received information that the vehicle might be sitting at a property in northern Harris County. A Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter was brought in and located the vehicle on that property, narrowing the search to a single address far from where the shooting happened.
A Standoff Ends Before Deputies Enter
With the vehicle pinpointed, Harris County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to the property, while Brazos County deputies who had traveled to the area arrived in an unmarked vehicle to provide surveillance support.
Before deputies entered the property, the suspect took his own life using a gun, according to investigators. Law enforcement confirmed Goodwin was dead when they reached him, closing out a search that had stretched from a quiet Brazos County street to a property deep in Harris County.
The Brazos County Sheriff's Office, the Harris County Sheriff's Office, DPS and other agencies said they continue to investigate the case. No additional details about the relationship between Tussey-Taylor and Goodwin, or about what led to the shooting, have been released.
