Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

Body Of Cabbie Found Stabbed And Burned In Justin

Selena Hernandez
JUSTIN (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 2: Justin petroleum well lease property where cab driver was found dead.
KTVT / KTXA
Click to enlarge 2 of 2: A video still released from the Denton County Sheriff's Office of a suspect in the cab driver death near Justin Thursday night
KTVT / KTXA

Close

numSlides of totalImages

It started out as a routine job for the Justin Fire Department. On July 2, firefighters responded to a grass fire located on a petroleum well lease at the southeast corner of Hwy 114 and John Day Road. But as crews worked to put the fire out, the partially burned body of a man was found in the field.

According to officials, the man has suffered several stab wounds and his throat had been cut. The body had no shirt or identification.

Three agencies - the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, Denton Fire Marshal Arson Investigators, and the Texas Rangers, responded to the scene.

As an investigation got underway a blue van, Freedom Taxi Cab van, was found about a mile from the body. Inside that vehicle investigators discovered a large amount of blood.

Freedom Taxi was immediately contacted and officials soon learned that there hadn't been any contact with the driver of the cab for more than an hour. Police also learned that the daughter of the cab driver had been trying to contact her father on his cell phone, but that he was not answering.

Officials with Freedom Taxi say the 59-year-old cabbie of middle eastern descent had been working at the company for about a month. Officials said his family is out of the country for the summer and had not been notified of his death.

Denton County Sheriff's investigators believe the cab driver was robbed and killed Thursday night after picking up two men near a bus station in Dallas who wanted to go to Wichita Falls. An arrest warrant in the case identified the victim as Hooshang Vatanpour.

Authorities have arrested three people in the slaying and charged them with capital murder. Noah Robert Whitehead, William Kirk Stephens, and Mariesha Lynne Ohlfs are being held in the Denton County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bond each.

Freedom Cab Co. said the driver last called in about 7:45 p.m. Thursday. His blue van was found in tall brush about a mile away from his body around 9 p.m. by Justin firefighters extinguishing a grass fire near the Texas Motor Speedway.

Authorities say two other taxi drivers were recently robbed in the area and their cabs were abandoned in the same area.