Boyfriend arrested for murder of girlfriend whose body was burned
The family of a murdered woman says the woman's boyfriend is the one who told them she was missing. Now he's in jail charged with killing her.
Tammy Cullins is the victim whose body was discovered on fire in a remote area of Dallas County on Sunday. But it wasn’t until Tuesday that Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputies said they had the evidence to arrest her live-in boyfriend, Gerald Troup.
Family members suspected foul play as early as Sunday evening, when Troup visited Cullins’ mother.
"He came by my mama's house telling my mom Tammy's missing but he had her purse, he had her cell phone and he had her car,” said brother Keith Broadnax. “That’s a dead giveaway. My sister wouldn't give nobody her cell phone, especially him, or her car."
The family describes the relationship between Cullins and Troup as rocky, but they never expected things to become deadly.
"I really think she didn't want him,” Keith Broadnax said.
Cullins’ younger sister last saw her on Saturday.
"I put some music on a USB for her car she just got,” said sister Erica Broadnax. “The last time I saw her was at 6:44, when I brought the USB back to her."
The scene outside Cullins’ home on Tuesday was a busy one. Distraught family members could be seen outside and Cullins’ car was abandoned in the middle of the street.
Investigators, armed with a search warrant, focused on the car and Cullins’ home.
"When I went to the house and we opened the garage and that bleach smell was in there, I knew he had done something and tried to hide some evidence,” Keith Broadnax said. “I told Dallas police there’s a bleach smell in that garage, he's trying to hide some evidence."
Dallas County investigators have not discussed a possible motive.