The man accused of murdering his girlfriend, mutilating her body and possibly participating in cannibalism is telling investigators that “God told me to do it.”
Smith County Sheriff Lt. Larry Wiginton told the Tyler Morning Telegraph early Monday morning that Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, is now saying he was instructed by God to kill 21-year-old Jana Shearer over the weekend and then mutilate her body and cook parts of her flesh.
“When he said God told him to do it, one of the investigators just looked at him and said, ‘What did you say?'” Wiginton said. “He said God told me to do it.”
In a new development, the veteran detective said McCuin’s estranged wife had just talked with investigators last week in reference to being assaulted by her husband.
“The assault happened within the last two weeks, and his wife was in here Friday talking to investigators and we were actively working a case involving the murder suspect,” he said. “She didn’t require medical attention, but there was an assault.”
MURDEROUS RAMPAGE
Sheriff J. B. Smith told the Tyler Paper Sunday that investigators found Shearer’s body with chunks of flesh cut out, one ear boiling in a pot of water on the stove and a plate of human flesh with a fork on the kitchen table in the brick home at 423 Princess Place in Tyler.
Officials said McCuin killed the woman by beating her in the head with a blunt object after abducting her from her Whitehouse apartment, put her body in the back seat of his extended cab pickup, drove to his estranged wife’s home where he stabbed her boyfriend multiple times, ran from police, broke into a Tyler business and then finally went to his mother’s home where he asked her to come look at what he had done.
When McCuin’s mother and husband went to see what he had done they saw Shearer’s body.
The couple fled the home and contacted police about the same time McCuin himself called the Smith County Sheriff’s office and told the dispatcher he had killed his girlfriend and was cooking parts of her.
“We don’t know if he did or not, but he led us to believe he had committed cannibalism,” Smith said. “Only he knows if he did or not.”
He was arrested after a brief standoff at his mother’s home. He remains in the Smith County Jail on a $2 million bond.
Smith said McCuin has showed no remorse and is being closely monitored, but has not given any indications of suicidal behavior.
WHERE’S THE MURDER SCENE?
Wiginton said investigators are still working the case and that they need help in locating where the actual murder took place.
“We believe it happened somewhere in the Antioch area of the county, but we need help. If anyone has information or has seen something unusual that might be a part of this case we ask that they call us,” he said. “We know it didn’t happen at his mother’s home or in his truck.”
Wiginton said as investigators attempt to question McCuin he said he remembers going to several places, but when he is asked if he remembers killing Ms. Shearer or stabbing his estranged wife’s boyfriend he says he suffered blackouts and doesn’t remember.
Investigators will not speculate as to McCuin’s intentions at his estranged wife’s home on County Road 413 Saturday morning.
“He went there at 3 in the morning armed with a knife and broke in so one could assume a lot of things, but I don’t know what his intentions were,” he said.
Wiginton said it was possible that William Veasley, 42, stopped McCuin from murdering his wife.
Veasley remains in the ICU at Mother Frances Hospital recovering from the wounds he received during the encounter with McCuin.
“We just don’t know and may never know why he went there,” he said. “In this case there are a lot of things we may never know.”