Man Grills Ex-Girlfriend’s Body at Apartment Complex

By Mark Hoerrner

A case of grilling his ex-girlfriend turned into a literal case of grilling his ex-girlfriend. Timothy Wayne Shepard, 27, is currently being held on a $250,000 bond after authorities discovered that he had burned the dismembered body of his former lover on two different grills near Shepard’s second-story apartment home.

He’d been "grilling" Tynesha Stewart about her current relationship with another man and became enraged. In a confession, he said that he strangled Stewart, cut her into pieces and burned them on his two grills. To do so, Shepard would have had to keep both grills burning at an intensity that may have caused the two devices to disintegrate in the process. Human bodies are naturally hard to burn.

Neighbor James Hebert, who often grilled out with Shepard, told the Houston Chronicle that he noticed the day and night fires and smoke and asked why he had not been invited over. He said that Shepard told him he was preparing food for a wedding.

"We have determined through this investigation that the defendant dismembered Tynesha Stewart and . . . he burned the body parts," Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said during a press conference. "There are no remaining body parts."

Stewart was simply another college student home on Spring Break. Friends said she and Shepard had been broken up since the start of the new year. After her disappearance, authorities were concerned that Shepard had dumped her remains in a trash bin that had been emptied. Local lawmakers encouraged the Harris County Sheriff to apply for $500,000 in emergency funding to initiate a full search of the area and waste management facilities to locate the remains. But then Shepard allegedly confessed and the search was never started.

Louis Evans, whose balcony is across from Shepard's, was the one who eventually called the fire department.

"The smell was awful," Evans said. "I was wondering: What is he burning? Not cooking, but burning. There is a difference.

"I just don't know what to think about it. I thought he was a nice normal person. I guess you never know what your neighbors are doing."

Shepard has been charged with murder. Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said of the case, "This certainly turned out to be one of the most heinous crimes I've ever seen in my 38 years [of law enforcement]."