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Episode 39 - "The Murder of Tynesha Stewart"

Death Dames Podcast

Release Date: 11/06/2019

Episode 39 - Tynesha Stewart

  • Well, here we are, back again to regular episodes after our Halloween season. I hope everyone enjoyed the themed episodes, and all the horrible stories, but of course, the horrible stories aren’t going to stop because Halloween is over… this is a podcast about death so… I mean, that’s why you’re here though, so with that, let’s cover a seriously upsetting story about the murder of a brilliant young woman, whose promising life was ended by a monster possessed by his jealousy. Today we will cover the murder of Tynesha Stewart, a university student who had just started her journey into the world of education. This case is pretty under covered, so I wanted to shed some light on it. Before we get started however, I do want to preface this by saying this case deals with domestic abuse, so if that is something that you’re uncomfortable with, I would recommend skipping this story section. But with that, let’s get into this depressing case, which echoes the stories of so many people all over the world who find themselves stuck in abusive relationships.

  • On March 19th, Gale Shields called police. Shields had not heard from her daughter, 19 year old Tynesha Stewart, which was unusual for the young girl not to be in touch with her mother. Shields, growing concerned, reported her daughter missing. That same day, a deputy from the Harris County Sheriff’s office went to Shields home to interview her and find out more. There they learned that last thing anyone knew, Tynesha had gone to her ex-boyfriend’s house. Tynesha’s mother told police something else that made them worried… This ex had a history of violent, possessive behavior to her daughter, and that he had once held Tynesha hostage in his apartment during a fight. Police, armed with this knowledge, immediately went to the apartment of 27 year old Timothy Wayne Shepherd to find out what he may know of the young woman’s disappearance. Shepherd was surprisingly welcome to give information, and allowed the deputy to walk his apartment, and gave him permission to look at his car as well.


    [Pictured: Tynesha Stewart's 2006 School Photo. Photo Credit: The family via the Houston Chronicle]

  • Shepherd confirmed that he had seen Tynesha on March 15th, telling them that between 3 and 4 am that morning, he had gone to pick up Tynesha from a friend’s house where the pair returned to his apartment. While there, Tynesha and Shepherd got into an argument, and that she had stormed out in a rage, carrying her cell phone with her. Shepherd claimed that this was the last time he had heard from her. Police, finding no obvious signs of criminal activity in their initial investigation, left Shepherd’s home and entered Tynesha’s name into the missing person’s database. However, the next day, March 20th, the county homicide detectives would join the investigation, and the case would heat up.

  • Tynesha Stewart was born in 1988, as one of six children. She grew up in Aldine, Texas, a poor community in the Houston area. Her father died when she was very young, just six years old, but Tynesha would go on to show her brilliance in school despite the adversities she faced growing up. Through high school, Tynesha managed the girls’ basketball team, while juggling a part time job for almost all 4 years of school. She also participated in other extracurricular activities at school, but that didn’t stop her from excelling in her classes, as when she graduated from Nimitz High School, Tynesha was in the top ten percent of her class. In 2005, she won a scholarship in which she was one of 15 students chosen from a pool of hundreds of applicants. With the help of this scholarship, Tynesha was able to follow her dream and began her freshman year at Texas A&M University, where she studied Civil and Chemical Engineering. Her family was incredibly proud of her and it was believed that she would go on to have an extremely bright future, having overcoming such hurdles and hardships in her young life. Unfortunately, her killer thought otherwise.


    [Pictured: Tynesha Stewart. Photo Credit: en.wikipedia.org]

  • On March 20th, investigators, along with the help of the Texas EquuSearch team, began searing the woods around Shepherds apartment, hoping for some clues as to where she went after leaving his apartment. Tynesha’s friends and family pooled together to search, and students at Texas A&M organized a prayer vigil. Dogs were used to canvas the area, but nothing was discovered. It was as though Tynesha had never left Shepherds home… On Wednesday, March 21st, Shepherd was taken in for questioning. He was interviewed for 10 hours, but stuck to his story, and investigators were unable to get anything else from him. They let him go again, but luckily, Shepherd reached out to a man named Quanell X, who was a local community activist and the leader of the Black Panther Party in Houston. Quanell X frequently helped police with cases that involved the African-American community in Houston, and in this case as well, his assistance was the key to solving the murder. Although often a polarizing figure in the media due to the way he works with people, but regardless of his image, Quanell X had helped around 25 fugitives, including murder suspects, surrender to police. Understandably, many members of the African-American community in Houston were afraid of police, but Quanell X has assisted in many cases, as he was able to work as an intermediary between the police and the community. And in the case of the murder of Tynesha, his help was vital, as Quanell X was able to convince Shepherd to confess. After breaking down in tears to Quanell X, Shepherd was convinced to call police. Upon their arrival, Shepherd lead police to a dumpster near his apartment. Unfortunately, the dumpster had been emptied. It was there he claimed to have dumped her body, but all police could find was blood on the bottom of the dumpster.


    [Pictured: Activist Quanell X. Photo Credit: The Houston Chronicle]

  • Shepherd was arrested, and police began a thorough investigation into his home. After a clean sweep of the apartment, police found that it had been heavily cleaned with ammonia and bleach, and that some areas of the apartment had been freshly painted. Regardless, police were able to find a few specks of blood, on the bathroom light switch, on the edge of the bathtub, and at the base of the toilet. Shepherd’s confession almost immediately sounded dubious to police. According to Shepherd, Tynesha’s death was an accident, which was done in self-defense. While at his apartment, Shepherd had begun to pressure Tynesha about someone she had reportedly begun seeing romantically. Their breakup was volatile, so Tynesha did not want to get into a conversation about her new partner, but Shepherd would not let it go, instead pressuring her and pushing her. According to Shepherd, at this point Tynesha grabbed a knife from the table and brandished it at him, swinging it at him in anger. Allegedly, she managed to slice his fingers, and with that small wound, Shepherd, terrified she would stab him, allegedly, grabbed the young woman and choked her to death out of anger and "self-defense." Shepherd would later say that there was blood pouring from Tynesha’s mouth. It was then he realized he had killed her. From here, Shepherd had a decision to make, and he decided that his best course of action was a cover up. He left his apartment and went to a hardware store where he purchased a jigsaw and some other tools, which he then returned to his apartment with. From here, he undressed Tynesha’s body and dumped her in the bathtub, where he began to dismember her. He then claimed he put the body parts in plastic bags, which he then transported to the dumpster. He had, in his words, simply snapped. However, as time went on and police continued their investigation, a much more sinister story began to form.

  • Unfortunately, the events of the couple’s relationship seemed to lead up to this murder, and many members of Tynesha’s family had worried that something like this would happen with the two. It was known by several members of Stewart’s family that Tynesha was afraid of her boyfriend. They began dating when Tynesha was in high school, a young woman of 16, and Shepherd was 24. Not long into the relationship, Shepherd became jealous, possessive, and controlling. At one point, Shepherd had choked Tynesha and threatened to kill her, but then let her go. He had also apparently once violently shaken Tynesha when she answered a cell phone call from someone that Shepherd did not want her to speak to, and this was done in front of Tynesha’s sister. The relationship broke apart when Tynesha left for college, however, Shepherd was still possessive of her, and would call Tynesha several times a day during her first semester. Eventually he stopped once he got word that she had begun seeing someone else, but by February of 2007, Shepherd had gone back to calling Tynesha daily. According to Stewart’s roommate, things had gotten so bad that Tynesha was crying almost every day because of Shepherd’s stalking, and that she was terrified to go back home for spring break, worried she would bump into him. Despite her reservations about Spring Break, Tynesha still decided to come home, and it was there that, just as she predicted, Shepherd’s predatory stalking resumed.

  • The fact of the body remained. Where was the body of Tynesha Stewart? The public believed that a search should have been done on the local landfills in the area, as, according to Shepherd, he had disposed of her body that way, but, shocking the public, the Harris County Sheriff announced the Saturday after Shepherds arrest that no search for Tynesha’s body would continue. The Sheriff stated that they had done everything they could, and that they did not believe there were any remaining body parts of Stewart remaining, and therefore, there would be no further search. This understandably outraged many members of the public, as there was some concern that the search was being called off due in part to the victim’s skin color, which was definitely understandable, given the relationship of the police to the local African-American community. However, one thing police had figured out at this point was that Shepherd had not been honest about his disposal methods. In fact, they had learned something far more brutal had occurred. And the story had been pieced together using the evidence from his home, and several testimonies from some friends of Shepherds, and his neighbors.

  • On March 16th, at around 7:45 pm. just a day after Tynesha disappeared, firefighters arrived at Shepherd’s apartment. They knocked on his door, and Shepherd greeted them, wondering why they had been called. Apparently, one of Shepherd’s neighbors had called 911 when he saw flames climbing out of a grill that Shepherd had been cooking at on his patio. The caller had watched the flames, massive ones, almost catch the roof of the balcony aflame. The caller was terrified that Shepherd would catch the whole apartment complex on fire, so they had called 911. By the time the firefighters arrived, however, the flames had gotten under control, but they still wanted to enter the apartment and make sure there was no fire anywhere. Shepherd had argued with them, but eventually he allowed them inside. The firefighters walked the apartment, but ultimately ended up leaving, stating they had not seen anything they considered strange. However, they did state that they saw several pieces of meat, including rib bones, floating in the bathtub. They also said they saw some charred chunks of what they believed to be meat on the stove in the kitchen. So you know, nothing strange...

  • After Shepherd was arrested, his neighbors and friends came forward, telling a terrifying story. For two to three days, neighbors of Shepherd were overcome by the acrid smell of burning. The smell was coming from Timothy Shepherd’s apartment, where he had begun systematically burning the body of Tynesha Stewart. Black smoke and flames were coming from two barbeque grills he had on the balcony of his apartment, where he was cooking something for over two days. It was not the smell of cooking meat, but of burning food. Shepherd was on the patio cooking day and night, thick black smoke pouring out of the cookers. It was seasonably cool those few days, but neighbors noticed that Shepherd had all his windows open, fans running inside, and his air conditioner was on blast. Neighbors also noticed that there was a constant sound of running water for two days as well, and there would be moments when his garbage disposal would be run for several minutes at a time.

  • One of the two grills belonged to a man named James Hebert, an 18 year old neighbor of Shepherds. The pair often hung out together, playing video games, or barbequing together. They did that so often that James simply kept his smoker on Shepherd’s patio. Interested in the strange behavior of his friend, and wondering why he had not been invited to this mass barbeque, James visited with Shepherd and asked him what was going on. Shepherd replied that he was cooking food for an entire wedding, and that he needed to save every bit of meat he was preparing. That was why he could not share any of the meat with James. When another neighbor asked about the smell, Shepherd simply told her that it was due to the spices that was on the meat, per the request of the wedding party. Also, a family member came forward to the police about something that had been said to him by Shepherd. Apparently, Shepherd told his cousin before the disappearance of Tynesha that he could “get away with killing someone” and that he would just “boil someone and eat them.” It is unknown if Shepherd ever consumed any of Tynesha’s remains. A neighbor, a woman names Dionne Whitaker, testified that she saw Shepherd carry the grill and smoker, which he had been using nonstop for days, to the garbage bin after he had finished cooking. She thought this was suspicious, considering he had just been cooking for a wedding, as he had claimed. These two items were never recovered. Shepherd had undoubtedly discarded the grills so he would not be linked to the crime. After throwing the two away, Shepherd met a friend for dinner. Somehow, he still had an appetite after what he had done. During the investigation, police would find over 100 items from the home that they would use as evidence in his trial, including a sink plunger, a bath knob, a mop, two hammers, a vacuum cleaner, and empty bottle of ammonia, and cans of paint he had used to cover up blood. That was not all that was found, unfortunately. When investigating the garbage disposal, police found several human teeth and some fragments of bone. Also, on the patio, police found several burned bone fragments with jagged cut marks on them. All in all, 30 pieces of bone were found. DNA on the teeth confirmed what police had suspected. It matched Tynesha.


    [Pictured: Shepherd at his Trial. Photo Credit: The Houston Chronicle]

  • Shepherd’s trial began in late 2008, and during the course of the trial, more information came to light, most notably, that Shepherd had little remorse for his murder and subsequent disposal of the body. Shepherd believed that he had a license to kill Tynesha because she had, quote, disrespected him, by moving on from their violent relationship. When asked why he had not called police after he had accidentally killed Tynesha, Shepherd claimed that he had panicked and did not think that police would believe his self-defense story. So he instead dismembered and burnt the woman’s remains for days. When asked about this, Shepherd simply replied, “I decided I had to cover my tracks.” He also said that he did not want to be caught through dental records, so before cooking, he had removed her teeth with pliers and dumped them down his garbage disposal. However, most damning, were the recordings that had been made during jailhouse phone calls. While speaking on the prison phone, Shepherd said, according to prosecutors, “The bitch is going to make me money from the grave. I’ll just write a book about it.” While on the stand, Shepherd claimed he said no such thing, but the prosecution had the jailhouse recordings. Lawyers on the side of the defense claimed, infuriatingly, that Tynesha clearly loved Shepherd, and that she actively pursued a relationship with him. Basically, that it was her choice to stay with him. However, prosecutors argued that this was a textbook domestic abuse case, and that she stayed with him because she was afraid to leave. Citing the age difference, her youth and inexperience in relationships, the recorded acts of violent and controlling behavior against Tynesha, and not to mention, the fact that he killed her, the defense’s “she had it coming” angle failed miserably, and on October 9th, 2008, after the jurors deliberated for just four hours, Timothy Shepherd was found guilty and given the maximum sentence of 99 years in prison. He showed no emotion, but members of Tynesha Stewart’s family broke down in tears.


    [Pictured: Shepherd, demonstrating how he murdered Tynesha. Photo Credit: The Houston Chronicle]

  • This story is really hard. Domestic violence is one of those topics where, we all know it happens, but so many people turn a blind eye on it. Or, as the defense did, they simply blame the victim, saying that if she was so unhappy she should have left, etc. Those who think this way have a blissful ignorance about the way that domestic abuse works on a victim. The practitioners are master con-men (and women) who are able to manipulate and alter a person’s thoughts, making the victim think they deserve the treatment, or that the abuser will change. If it was so simple, then the numbers would not be as high as they are. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 4 women experience severe intimate partner physical violence. 1 in 4. And it’s not just women. 1 in 9 men experience the same, which, although it is not as high, is still a startlingly large number. In American, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner, on average. That is horrible. To put that in perspective, I’ve been talking for about 20-30 minutes. That means in the time I’ve told this story, 400 - 600 people have been abused by a partner. And, unfortunately, this abuse often turns to murder. 40% of female murder victims are killed by their intimate partners. And in the case of Tynesha Stewart, she became one of these numbers, of victims who live in fear from a person they were supposed to trust the most. For those of you listening who think that people in these situations should just get out, I urge you to look into the NCADV website, and read about the real people who live through this every day. We need to get these numbers down, because no one should ever have their lives stolen, just like what was done to Tynesha Stewart.


    [Pictured: Domestic Abuse Statistics. Photo Credit: NCADV.org]

Sources for the Story Portion: 



Research Topic - Chemical Engineering

 Sources:
https://www.livescience.com/48134-what-is-chemical-engineering.html
https://www.aiche.org/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HKP-nx4AAAAJ&hl=en

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