Provided/Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office
Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office deputies repossessed a Heights home on Monday, July 6, 2026, after a man allegedly attempted to claim ownership of the home where Christa Bauer Gilley was murdered in 2024.
A Houston Heights home tied to a high-profile murder case has been turned over to the family of its previous owner after a man allegedly attempted to claim ownership of the million-dollar property, according to the Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office.
Constable Alan Rosen said Monday his office was investigating potential felony charges against a man accused of trying to claim adverse possession of the home where Lee Gilley allegedly killed his wife in 2024. Adverse possession, sometimes called squatter’s rights, is a legal process in Texas in which a person makes a claim on a property that did not previously belong to them.
The home, located in the 800 block of Allston Street in the Heights neighborhood, was the scene of the murder of a pregnant woman, Christa Bauer Gilley. Her husband, Lee Gilley, was charged with capital murder in connection to her strangulation death. Lee Gilley is reportedly in police custody in Italy and fighting extradition to the U.S.
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Rosen has not released the name of the man accused of trying to claim ownership of the home, but said the man has a history of targeting vulnerable properties.
Harris County property records show that Matthew Jackson signed affidavits of adverse possession and warranty deeds in May for the Gilley home as well as the River Oaks home of local restaurant owners Matthew and Thy Mitchell, who were found dead along with their two children in an apparent murder-suicide earlier in May.
“He seems to be picking houses where there’s been a crime, or there’s been a death and knows that the people or the owners of the home are away,” Rosen said during a Monday news conference. “This family has got their house back, and we do have an active current criminal investigation going on right now into the individual that did this.”
The repossession of the Gilley home comes less than a week after the Houston Chronicle reported that Jackson was trying to claim ownership of several Houston-area properties, including the Gilley and Mitchell homes. Both properties have appraisal values of more than $1 million, according to the Harris Central Appraisal District.
Messages for Jackson, left at the phone number and email address listed for him on the aforementioned property records, were not immediately returned Tuesday.
Rosen said his office worked with the family attorney for Christa Gilley to repossess the Heights home on Monday, adding that his office had been investigating the incident for approximately two weeks.
“He actually went into the home. He changed the locks. He put cameras up. He did a lot of stuff to show that he was now possessing that house,” Rosen said. “Well, as of today, as of this afternoon, our office, in conjunction with the attorney that represents the family of the deceased, went over and repossessed the house for the family.”
The man accused of trying to claim ownership of the property was not on site when deputies repossessed the home Monday, according to Rosen.
Last year, the Texas Legislature passed new laws meant to make it easier to remove squatters from properties. Rosen said his office utilized these new laws to repossess the Heights residence.
“I’m appreciative of the legislature to give us new laws that we can work in, and in this case, we worked very collaboratively with the district attorney’s office and made sure we did everything by the book,” Rosen said. “We put the proper notices on the home. … We had to dot our Is and cross the Ts to make sure that there was no side agreement going on with anybody and there wasn’t.”
Rosen did not provide any further details regarding what specific criminal charges his office was pursuing, but said they would be felony charges. He also asked that any resident potentially facing a similar situation should reach out to the constable’s office, which serves parts of the Houston area.