{"id":126872,"date":"2026-01-17T06:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/126872\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T06:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:56:09","slug":"texas-fugitive-kruz-dean-wanser-arrested-in-margaret-pennington-death-probe-wearing-sweatshirt-with-chilling-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/126872\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas fugitive Kruz Dean Wanser arrested in Margaret Pennington death probe wearing sweatshirt with chilling message"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Texas fugitive wore an ominous sweatshirt threatening to abduct people as he was arrested in connection with the \u201csuspicious\u201d death of a 37-year-old woman.<\/p>\n<p>Kruz Dean Wanser was charged with felony tampering\/fabricate physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and parole violation, officials announced Thursday. <\/p>\n<p>Wanser was wanted by the Azle Police, the Texas Rangers and the US Marshals after Margaret Pennington was found dead in her Azle home last Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.80998914;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38208966\" width=\"478\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/616115947_1328010612703409_3467076772564501700_n.jpg\" alt=\"Kruz Dean Wanser was arrested in connection to a death in Texas wearing a shirt threatening to put someone in &quot;a trunk,&quot; on Jan. 15, 2026.\" class=\"wp-image-38208966\"  \/>Kruz Dean Wanser was arrested in connection to a death in Texas wearing a shirt threatening to put someone in \u201ca trunk,\u201d on Jan. 15, 2026. Azle Police Department<\/p>\n<p>Officials had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid027ApNJnaW8H1MUGZyGV4yGMsnoGLrLuKg99BgcqC7hL21TmD4T7Zq85XG7hqep6sol&amp;id=100064834475085\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">offered a $1,000 reward<\/a> for information leading to Wanser\u2019s arrest on Monday, a day after Pennington\u2019s body was discovered.<\/p>\n<p>Wanser was booked into Azle jail, where his mugshot featured the fugitive with a tattoo under his right eye as he was wearing a purple sweatshirt that displayed a threatening message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will put you in the trunk and help people look for you. Stop playing with me,\u201d the shirt read.<\/p>\n<p>Pennington was declared dead just before 7 p.m. at her home on the 100 block of Lakewood Drive in Azle, 20 miles northwest of Fort Worth on Jan. 11.<\/p>\n<p>The cause and manner of Pennington\u2019s death are still pending, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner\u2019s records viewed by The Post.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.87771739;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38208967\" width=\"518\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-17-at-12.44.36\u202fAM.png\" alt=\"Mugshot of a young man with a star tattoo on his left cheek.\" class=\"wp-image-38208967\"  \/>Officials had offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to Wanser\u2019s arrest on Monday, a day after Pennington\u2019s body was discovered. Azle Police Department<\/p>\n<p>Officials have not charged Wanser with Pennington\u2019s death and the relationship between the two has not been revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Police declared the investigation was still open and are still looking for information.<\/p>\n<p>Wanser has faced three separate criminal cases in Tarrant County since 2021. For evading police with a vehicle in 2021 and two separate drug possession charges between 2022 and July 2025, according to court records viewed by The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas fugitive wore an ominous sweatshirt threatening to abduct people as he was arrested in connection with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4028,10912,4225,9312,27,29,28,734],"class_list":["post-126872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-arrests","tag-deaths","tag-fugitives","tag-human-remains","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}