Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
A young girl studying to earn a career in nutrition at the Texas Women’s University would head out for the night to have a few drinks. She would decide to call it a night and head home. But when she hadn’t been seen the following day, a brutal discovery that would be made which would unlock one of the most disturbing cases EVER covered
this universty students would be captured on CCTV enoying a night out drinking.
not an uncommon side rund denton texas with university of north texas and texas women university close by
while the footage itself is uneventful it what would happen after this that would haveeven the season investigators running out of a crime scene of wretch and disgust.
the university of north texas and texas women’s university have thousands of students that attend them , looking to gain qualifications in a career in their chosen field .
24 year old jackie vandagriff was one such individual who looking to gain a degree in nutrition
since leaving high school, she had not been sent on any particular path for her career,but would find her purpose and enroll at the Texas women’s university which is known to have a great healthcare program.
she would post this video on social media , talking about her career aspirations .
jackie didn’t really know anyone at the university and her roomates while nice were still strangers to her
she had previously had a boyfriend but they had gone seperate ways with the breakup being mutual so she was somewhat alone at the university
on a tuesday night ,she would decide to head to downtown Texas for a few drinks , and maybe be open to the possibility of meeting someone
she wouldhead to an area of bars and resturants known to be frequented by university students .
unknown to her there was a danger looking around the same area that night that would cross paths with a petite blond girl in the worst way imaginable.
it was a brisk morning when a man walking his dog along his regular path in the acorn woods in grapevine Texas .
would see smoke rising from the shrubbery close by to the parking area curious as it what could be he would make his way through the trees and bushes to discover a small fire burning heavily amongst the greenery
he would hear the squee of tires and turn to look behind him and would observe a silver four-wheel drive vehicle driving from the parking area ftantically.
vy a stroke of luck , he would run back to the parking area and a truck belonging to the parking recreation employees would be pulling up at that very minute .
the man would hastily brief them on a situation before they would spring into action,grabbing a buckety they had been using the wash paintbrushes and using it to extinguish the flames.
the parks and wreck employees would begin to look at exactly what was burning before to the morbid realization
they would immediately call 911 and authorities would make their way to the scene.
as officers and fire personnel would descend on the scene they would discovered a smoldering remains of what appeared to be a blue kitty pool
along with the melted kitty pool a dismembered human body was also found, the damage to the body from the fire was so severe that it was hard to tell if it was a male or female.
and given the size it was summarized it may have been a child or teenager because of the bizarre nature of the crime.
and the way in whichit had happened, further resources were allocated to solving the case.
the FBI would lend a forensic investigative team to Grapevine PD in an effort to preserve as much evidence as possible.
the texas rangers would also get involved with a certain individual who will feature later in the case
allthough parts of the body had significant burn damage,what was apparent to the officers on scene was that it was dismembered.
the legs had been cut around knees and a the arms were severed at the elbows which were placed on top of the body
the head had also been removed and placed with the body in the kitty pool and the torso cavity had also been cut open with organs clearly visible.
a pungent smell of gasoline emanated from the area where the attempted incinerating the body had occured.
what was left of the body would be sent off for an autopsy because of the quick action of the civilian and the parkand wreck employees and extinguishing the fire
some of the clothing had been preserved: a pair of blue jeans whilst heavily burned damaged could be made out and also a gray t- shirt which appeared to have the words, texas women’s university written on it .
the hands – which were found in a plastic bag had been burned severely however one was still able to provide partial fignerprintswhich could help in identifying the victim.
what appeared to be skin material was also recovered from underneath the fingernails, the victim had indeed thought for her life
an examination of the torso which was found cut open at the crime scene was then performed at the crime lab
strangely the heart appeared to have been removed
but for what reason ?
medical examiners were puzzled, the head had been burned so severely that hey were not able to get a positive ID
and would have to rely on medical forensics or old fashion police work to identify the victime.
it was concluded that the body was that of a young woman 5 foot tall and weighing likely under 100 lb
detectives would set out to find out who this was and they didn’t have to wait long,as just hours later the body would be much as jackie vandagriff
the first step would be to track her movements leading up to her death
the investigators would started at her apartment,where her three roomates would claim that she rarely went out and was laser focused on her university degree
they hadn’t seen her in several days and related that she appeared to have no boyfriend ,nothing was found at her apartment,no clues as to where she was going or how she’s met her demise.
her car would be located in the parking lot outside but had not been moved in several days
later forensic testing would show nothing of significance in relation to her vehicle
police would now look into jackies phone records,she had spoken to two people recently one washer old boyfriend and the other was a women named sherry bogue , initially suspecion would fall on the ex -boyfriend
but after it was found out that he had an alibi and his phone records show he was nowhere near great bine Texas on the night in question ,he was quickly ruled out as a suspect.
moving on to sherry , she would be able to provide police with some valuable information, she had gone out on the night jackie had disappeared
with two other friends to the fry street public house a bar frequented by young people .
CCTV was obtained which showed jackie next to sherry and her two friends beside them was a bald man who appeared to be joining in on the conversation .
sherry and jacky can be seen exchanging phone numbers and shortly after sherry and her friends would depart to go to a different barnamed shots and crafts
only a short distance away .
jackie would also leave and make her way to the same bar with the bald man appearing to follow her to the location
at this new bar jackie and sherry would continue talking and appearedt to be getting along well .
jackie had made a new friend, sherry would recount to investigators that the bald man pictured on the CCTV from the previous bar kept interrupting the conversation and apperead to be trying to gain the attention of jackie
after an hour at the shots and crafts bar sherry and a group of friends would head home with jackie saying she she was going to do the same and they would all go their separate ways .
police would head down to the bar where they were able to talk with the bartender katie allen who was working that night in a stroke of luck it turned out that the bartender knew the bald man
and explained that she had been out with him several times before as a friend, but no relation ship had formed
he had confided in her that he had gone through a bad breakup and was still struggling with it. having ongoing issues both mentally and legally
police would also obtain footage from a pizza store located just a few doors down from the bar .
it would show the same man earlier in the day who had gone in to buy pizza and would be return to fry street public house to share that pizza with the bartender katie.
his vehicle would be barely visible in thetop o right ofthe frame being silver in color
several hours later ,his vehicfle a silver mitsubishi outlander can be seen parking on a road opposit fry street public bar ,he would be observed waking back into the bar at 5;57.
three miutes later jacki walks into the bar wearing a black satchel bag where she would first meet the bald man.- this man .would be 30 year old chrles bryant a gym instructor
charles bryant was known to police,while his raptured consisted of mostly petty crimes including possession of marijuanna and forgery his record would also sshow a misdemeanor charge of assault out of washingtonthat wasn’t all though he had a protective order taken out against him from an ex-girlfriend.
charles had dated the small petite 18 year old girl 12 years younger than himself and she had broken off the relation ship with him after onlty 3 months together .
he wouldnot take the break up well and began stalking her ,trying everything he could to keep the relationship going
this woukd eventually lead to his arrest and removal from the campus after his ex-girlfriend called in
claimed that he had kept running past the room ,looking in to quote to unqueote check on her this behavior is what led to the protective order being issued against him
the police on campus at the north texas university had been made aware of charles and that he was not to make contact with his ex.girlfriend
charles would ignore the order and show up at the dorm room with flowers with her 4 monts anniverserary and beg her to to take him back
she denied his advances and began to call police and charles would leave campus before authorities would arrive.
a warrant for breaking the prtective order,we pick up the story at the bar and that fatful night…
as drinks were being consumed at the bar, the rain begin to fall outside jackie had walked to the bar from her appartment and after after sherry andher friends decided to call it a night jackie would do the same
charles offered to give jackie a ride home, so she didn’t haveto walk in the rain.- a true gentleman .
the two would be observed running to his vehicle through the rain at 8:47 p.m they would sit in the veichle for a further 20 minutesperhaps having a conversation but we can only speculate
shortly after they picked up ona camera at a 7 Eleven where jackie ca nbe seen in the car while charles head inside,
he would pick up two alcoholic drinks and a snack for the road before returning to the vehice. the last time jackie would ever be seen alive again
again from cell hpone data ,police were able to obtain jackie’s phone was pinging until 1:32 a.m where it would simply disappear .
the last ping would come from a cell tower located on blue mound rouad only 3 miles from charle’s home and would suggest that the last pings had it traveling in the direction of his house.
police were able to arrest charles on the violation of the protective order while they gathered physical evidence related to the death of jackie .
police would be stationed outsid of his home at 14017 ,san hills drive in hasset Texas waiting for any sign of charles so that he could be arrested search warrant would also be issued for his house,cell phone and car
officer stationed outside his home would observe him getting into his vehicle and driving off where after traveling only a block they would pull him over and arrest him inside him of his vehicle
police found a 22 caliber pistol and a stun gung which still had strands of long blond hair attached to it
several zip ties were found,some of which still had blond hair attached to them as well .
these were consistent with the same types found at the location where the body was burned .
blood stain was also found throughout the vehicle ,most notable in the rear cargo area along with small blue plastic flakes wich matched the blue kitty pool which the body had been placed in.
as the search warrant would be carried out on charle’s home his roomates would fully cooperate with the investigators.
several more blue kitty pools were found in some of the spare bedrooms being used to grow marijuana and a futher blue kitty pool was located in the backyard for charles’s dogs to play in.
all of these would be the same brand and model as the one found during at the acorn woods.
a circular spot of dead grass would also be observed where it appeared another pool once sat.but had since been removed.
assumingly the one the body had been placed in
a black bag with lettering texas vomen’s university would also be located in the garbage
which appeared to match the exact one that jackie was seen wearing on the night she went missing.
a larg knife was found which appeared have blood residue on it and a red gas can would also be found .
charles would be observed on a security camera at a gas station filling up this gas can just a few hours before the fire at acorn woods was reported
a receipt would also be found inside of his bedside drawer for his showel
police were able to obtain footage of charles going to wallmart and bying a shovel at 4:45 a.m
on the morning the fire and body were eventually located .
when his roomates were awoken by the sound of digging just after 5 a.m they asked charles what he was doing to he responded that he was installing a koi pond.
subsequent analysis on his computer would find some alarming searches he had previously searched terms such as how to remove person’s heart
how much formaldyhyde would it take to preserve a human heart and how much celar resin would it take to make an art piece.
these were all searches before that fateful enounther with jackie.
so we can only speculate as to what his plans were
also found on his computer were thousands of images of child pornography
charles would now be brought in for questioning
the wight of evidence against charles was overwhelming but they couldn’t extract a confession out of him claiming he did it but doesnt’ remember doingit,is not something police can use in courts, they needed detail ,when how and why.
this is when Texas ranger jim holland would enter the investigation.
jim holland is a man know to produce results and if your’re criminal he’s the last paerson you ever want to see .
charles would continue the narrative that he couldn’t remember anything and that he balcked out
ranger hollan would continue questioning him and after hours ,he begins to divulge a few minor details.
it was believed that charles had such a hatred for his ex-girlfriend dumping him that jackie was a very close resemblance.that he may have snapped in a drunken rage and took his anger out on her
he would eventually be sent to trial, where he would be found guilty of first degree -murder fot the homicide of jackie vandagriff.
charles bryant would be given life in prison plus an extra 30 years for tamping with evidence,he would also be charged with a class three felony
with a child imagery found on his computer.
it is believed that had he not been caught his ex-girlfriend that he had been stalking likely would have faced the same terrible fates that jackie had succumbed to.