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Apr 21, 2009 1:48 pm US/Central
Police Make Arrest In Missing Coppell Woman Case
Anna Gonzalez
COPPELL (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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If anyone saw Tellgren and his dark green, extended-cab pickup truck on the night of April 16, they are asked to call police immediately.
KTVT / KTXA
Coppell Police have made an arrest in the case involving a 49-year-old missing woman.
Monday, police arrested 75-year-old Leroy Tellgren of Carrollton on charges of capital murder even though she is still missing.
Police say Tellgren was a friend of 49-year-old Kathleen Garza. She was last seen leaving the Market Street grocery store on the 700 block of North Denton Tap Road Thursday morning.
"I knew she was supposed to be meeting him for coffee that day," Raul Garza, Kathleen's husband, said. "I knew when I couldn't get a hold of her that I needed to call him."
Police are asking for the public's help in gaining more clues on the
investigation. If anyone saw Tellgren and his dark green, 1997 Chevy
S-10 extended cab pickup truck on the night of April 16, they are asked
to call police immediately. The truck's license plate number is 46X
WC5.
"This is the first step in the whole thing… it's good that this guy is
behind bars and great that he's on the $1 million bail," said Raul.
"But we still want to find Kathy."
Raul said Tellgren worked with Kathy and they had been friends for about five years. "She saw him as a father figure," he said. "My wife found him entertaining. He had a lot of stories to tell."
He continued, saying Tellgren seemed like a harmless old man. "The word harmless just can't apply. You just don't know… If you get feelings something is wrong, you might go with those feelings."
According to the arrest warrant affidavit for Tellgren, surveillance video from the grocery store shows Garza and Tellgren getting into his pickup truck at 9 a.m. on April 16, the day she disappeared.
The affidavit says that night, Carrollton police talked to Tellgren and examined his truck. The officer who examined the truck saw "what appeared to be fresh damage, sections of the seat cut out, as well as suspected blood in several areas including the seat frame, passenger side floor carpet, and passenger side door panel."
The affidavit also says Garza's purse was found in Tellgren's truck.
The next day, police found a trash bag in a dumpster about a mile from Tellgren's house. The affidavit says the bag contained parts of a seat and a seat belt that had blood on them. Garza's jacket was also in the bag, according to the affidavit, and blood was also on the jacket.
The affidavit also says when police interviewed Tellgren that night, they saw "what appeared to be a large bloodstain" on his shirt.
Dallas County Schools, which provides bus services for schools in the county, says Tellgren worked as a bus driver in the Coppell ISD in 2005 and 2006. There are no records of complaints from parents or students, but officials say Tellgren did have several disputes with coworkers.
Click here to read the arrest warrant affidavit for Tellgren.
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