Bexar County deputies arrested a 24-year-old man Thursday evening in connection with the 2019 death of Megan Gonzalez, a 20-year-old San Antonio woman whose burned body was found dumped in a field in southwest Bexar County. Joey Emiliano Tovar-Vargas has not been charged with murder, but he was booked on a charge of tampering with evidence tied to disposing of her body, along with an unrelated human-smuggling warrant out of another county.
According to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, Gonzalez was last seen alive around November 11, 2019, with Tovar-Vargas in her vehicle, though another account from News 4 San Antonio places her last sighting on November 10, 2019, in the 100 block of Basswood near West Avenue. The sheriff's office said Gonzalez was reported missing to San Antonio police on November 15, 2019, while FOX 7 Austin reported she was reported missing three days after she disappeared, on November 14, 2019.
A Truck, Blood Evidence And A Field In Southwest Bexar County
Investigators found Gonzalez's truck on December 2, 2019, in the 5300 block of Northwest Loop 410, where they discovered blood in the truck bed that DNA testing later linked to her, according to a report from foxsanantonio.com. The next day, her body turned up in the 12000 block of Wisdom Road in southwest Bexar County. Officials said it was burned and badly decomposed, and wrapped in a blanket with a distinctive pattern, per the sheriff's office account.
Tovar-Vargas was suspected early in the investigation, Sheriff Javier Salazar said, but investigators said there was little evidence tying him to the case at the time. Leads eventually dried up and the case went cold.
Cellphone Evidence Breathes New Life Into The Case
The break came when investigators revisited evidence already in hand. The sheriff's office said its cold case team applied technology that was not available in 2019 to that material, chiefly Tovar-Vargas's cellphone, while a separate account from foxsanantonio.com indicated the office's cold case team analyzed data from his phone in 2025. Investigators said phone records placed him near locations where Gonzalez's belongings were found dumped in a neighborhood and near the apartment complex where her truck was found.
The phone also contained searches about how long fingerprints last and how to delete social media accounts, investigators said. Separately, foxsanantonio.com reported that a witness told investigators Tovar-Vargas asked for help moving a body, and that witnesses reported seeing him dump evidence after Gonzalez disappeared.
Case Still Open As Sheriff's Office Seeks Tips
The sheriff's office said the case remains under investigation and asked anyone with information to call 210-335-6000. As of August 2025, the sheriff's office had said it continued to investigate the case despite the years that had passed, and a nonprofit helped create an AI-generated video of Gonzalez in 2024 to bring renewed attention to her disappearance, according to an earlier KSAT report. No further details on charging decisions, court proceedings or Tovar-Vargas's custody status have been released.
