Slain College Student's Twitter Updated After Her Dismembered Body Was Found

Did Jacqueline Vandagriff's killer use her cellphone to tweet from her account?
Police say Jacqueline Vandagriff's Twitter was updated after she was killed. Charles Dean Bryant, 30, has been charged in her slaying.
Police say Jacqueline Vandagriff's Twitter was updated after she was killed. Charles Dean Bryant, 30, has been charged in her slaying.
Huffington Post Illustration

Authorities investigating the slaying of Texas college student Jacqueline “Jackie” Vandagriff are trying to determine who updated her Twitter page after her dismembered body was found at a Grapevine park.

“Never knew I could feel like this,” reads the tweet that mysteriously appeared on Vandagriff’s page on Sept. 15, the same day police say the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office performed an autopsy on Vandagriff.

“We’re looking into it,” Grapevine police Sgt. Robert Eberling told The Huffington Post. He added that it’s “undetermined” whether the tweet had been scheduled prior to Vandagriff’s slaying.

Authorities said they haven’t located Vandagriff’s cellphone, raising the possibility that someone used the device to access her Twitter account. According to The Dallas Morning News, cellphone tower data obtained by police indicates her cellphone was last used near Haslet.

Vandagriff, a waitress who was studying nutrition at Texas Woman’s University, was found dead on the morning of Sept. 14. Firefighters made the gruesome discovery after extinguishing a fire inside a blue plastic kiddie pool at Acorn Woods Park.

On Sept. 18 ― three days after the mysterious tweet appeared ― police arrested 30-year-old Charles Dean Bryant, of Haslet, and charged him with capital murder in Vandagriff’s slaying. He was being held at the Grapevine jail on $1 million bond.

Investigators tracking the young woman’s movements prior to her death found surveillance video showing her leaving a bar with Bryant just hours before she was found dead.

Authorities have yet to say how Vandagriff died or how she was dismembered. According to police, the medical examiner’s office identified her by her fingerprints.

At the time of his arrest, Bryant was free on bond following recent arrests for criminal trespassing and stalking, WFAA-TV in Dallas reported.

Eberling said authorities have yet to determine how Bryant and Vandagriff knew each other, or why Bryant allegedly killed her.

“We don’t know of [a motive] yet,” the sergeant said.

Charles Bryant, seen here in a police mug shot, could face the death penalty.
Charles Bryant, seen here in a police mug shot, could face the death penalty.
Grapevine Police Department

The night she disappeared, Vandagriff tweeted that she had been chatting with someone on the online dating app Tinder. She wrote she “dodged a catfish” and decided to go to a bar.

Bryant, who recently lost his job at a local gym, reportedly took to Facebook the day after Vandagriff’s body was found and posted, “Full moon, let’s see what trouble I can get into.”

It’s unclear Thursday if Bryant has retained an attorney. If convicted of the capital murder charge, he could face the death penalty.

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