NEED TO KNOW
A Texas jury found a man guilty of murdering Houston mother Maria Rodriguez nearly eight years after she disappeared
Prosecutors said deceptive text messages and surveillance footage helped build the case
Rodriguez’s body has never been recovered
Nearly eight years after 29-year-old Maria Rodriguez disappeared without a trace, a Texas jury has found her boyfriend, Erik Arceneaux, guilty in her murder.
The guilty verdict was announced Thursday, July 3, nearly 2,933 days after Rodriguez was last seen, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said the sentencing phase of the trial will now begin, with Arceneaux facing anywhere from five years to life in prison.
Rodriguez, a 29-year-old Houston paralegal and mother, was last seen on June 21, 2018. Prosecutors argued that Arceneaux, Rodriguez’s boyfriend of six months, sent deceptive text messages from her phone the day she disappeared, according to the district attorney’s office.
Erik Fardell Arceneaux
Credit: Houston Police Department
At the time of Rodriguez’s disappearance, investigators told PEOPLE they were examining several text messages sent from her phone because of their “suspicious” nature.
A co-worker received messages saying Rodriguez would be late to work because she needed to pick up her sick daughter and later that she was on her way to the office, but she never arrived, PEOPLE previously reported.
Prosecutors also told jurors that surveillance footage from a Home Depot captured Arceneaux purchasing a chainsaw and a box of heavy-duty 42-gallon trash bags the same day Rodriguez vanished. They alleged the chainsaw was likely used to dismember Rodriguez’s body, which has never been recovered, according to the district attorney’s office.
The jury also viewed surveillance video showing Arceneaux driving Rodriguez’s truck in the area where authorities later found it abandoned, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez’s daughter, Destiny, was 3 years old when her mother disappeared, according to the district attorney’s office.
“Today was justice for Maria,” the Harris County District Attorney’s Office wrote in a social media post announcing the verdict. “And it was justice for Destiny, too.”
The conviction comes years after investigators accused Arceneaux of killing Rodriguez following what the Houston Police Department described as an extensive investigation into her disappearance.
Rodriguez’s family reported her missing after she was last seen in 2018. Investigators later determined that Arceneaux had killed her, and he was charged with murder in August 2019, according to the Houston Police Department.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Authorities arrested Arceneaux on Sept. 14, 2023, outside a business near the Gulf Freeway after members of the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force located him, according to police. He was subsequently booked into the Harris County Jail.
Despite extensive searches, including volunteer efforts organized by Texas EquuSearch in the weeks after Rodriguez disappeared, her remains have never been located.
According to Harris County criminal records obtained by PEOPLE, Arceneaux’s next court date is scheduled for July 6.
PEOPLE has reached out to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for additional comment.
Read the original article on People