Texas

Texas City man sentenced to probation for hiding woman's body in car trunk

Published

1 year ago

March 5, 2025

Texas City man sentenced to probation for hiding woman's body in car trunk

GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A Texas City man was sentenced to probation after he hid a woman’s body in the trunk of her car, according to the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office.

On Tuesday, Christopher Lee Maldonado, who was accused of a second-degree felony, was indicted for tampering with a corpse for concealing the body of Angela Mitchell in the trunk of her car.

The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Maldonado was a former jailer and relieved of duty after being arrested and charged with assault by Texas City police in 2019.

Former GCSO deputy arrested in connection to woman’s body found in her trunk, police say

In 2022, Mitchell’s decomposing body was discovered in Texas City in the trunk of her own vehicle. Her friends started to worry when she did not come to pick up her baby boy.

Her cousin used the Find My Friends app to track Mitchell’s iPhone to its last known ping, which was near Maldonado’s home.

On May 11, 2022, Texas City police found Mitchell’s body on 4th Avenue in Texas City.

According to Texas City police, Mitchell was a sex worker whose last known employment was on May 5, 2022, at Maldonado’s home in Lago Mar.

Because of the decomposition, the medical examiner was unable to identify the cause of death. Nonetheless, they ruled out overdose and death from natural causes. The cause of Mitchell’s death is still unknown.

Maldonado’s trial began on Feb. 26. Judge Jeth Jones ordered Maldonado to serve 120 days in jail followed by 10 years of probation.

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Texas

Texas officials monitoring two residents who were on board ship with hantavirus outbreak

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2026

Press Room

Texas officials monitoring two residents who were on board ship with hantavirus outbreak

AUSTIN, Texas (KBTX) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has notified the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) that two Texas residents were passengers on the MV Hondius, a ship that experienced an outbreak of hantavirus while traveling in the Atlantic Ocean. The passengers left the ship and returned to the United States before the outbreak was identified.

“Public health workers in Texas have reached the two individuals, and they report they are not experiencing any symptoms and did not have any contact with a sick person while aboard the ship. They have agreed to monitor themselves for symptoms with daily temperature checks and contact public health officials at any sign of a possible illness,” the agency said on Thursday in a statement.

DSHS will not release additional personal details about the passengers to protect their privacy.

“This is not the next COVID, but it is a serious infectious disease,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the World Health Organization. “Most people will never be exposed to this.”

More than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing nearly two weeks after the first passenger died on board.

Health authorities on at least four continents are now tracking down and in some cases monitoring the cruise passengers who disembarked on April 24, and trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.

That includes two people in Georgia who are also being monitored, according to our affiliate WTOC.

Hantaviruses are usually spread through contact with wild rodent droppings or urine. The strain in the Hondius outbreak, Andes virus, can spread from person to person in limited circumstances. It typically requires close, prolonged contact with a person who is actively sick with the disease.

It is not known to spread through casual contact such as shaking hands or being in the same room for a few minutes. There have been no documented cases where a person without symptoms spread it to someone else.

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Texas

Judge orders DHS to release Maine teen from Texas facility

Published

14 hours ago

May 7, 2026

Press Room

Judge orders DHS to release Maine teen from Texas facility

PORTLAND (WGME) – A Portland woman who has been held in a Texas ICE facility for more than six months is reportedly set to be released by Friday.

That’s according to Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, who traveled to the facility this week to demand that ICE release 19-year-old Olivia Andre.

Pingree says a federal district court judge ordered Andre to be released no later than Friday.

Andre and her family were arrested by ICE when they were seeking asylum in Canada.

DHS previously said Andre is in the United States illegally but didn’t explain why the rest of her family was released and she wasn’t.

Pingree called the conditions at the facility inhumane, and Andre’s lawyer says her physical and mental wellbeing deteriorated from not having access to clean drinking water, palatable food and appropriate medical care.

“Olivia and her family should never have been detained. The federal court ordered her release because the Trump administration had no lawful basis for detaining her,” Pingree said. “She suffered in detention for six months in violation of federal law and the U.S. Constitution’s protections.”

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