Murder in West Campus

I remember exactly what I was doing in the middle of August, 2005. In the span of a couple of days, my wife and I moved from our Salado Street bungalow to our still-being-remodeled 29th Street house and celebrated the birth of our first child.

Meanwhile, At the Orange Tree

Meanwhile, around the corner at the Orange Tree Condos, there had been a gruesome murder and botched cleanup, and very few details were being released. The case attracted a lot of attention, since the stories around it involved attractive young people, a love triangle, a flight to Mexico, and a botched cover-up attempt involving a Breed’s hardware store order straight from a black comedy (rubber gloves, bleach, a saw).

May It Please the Court

Over the years I saw various updates as the West Campus murder cases and appeals worked through the court system. Colton Pitonyak and Laura Hall both went to prison, but it seemed like there was never a clear explanation of what happened to Jennifer Cave. Was it an accident? How much was Laura Hall actually involved? Mostly, I forgot about the whole thing.

If You Liked the Serial Podcast…

Recently, a pair of UT journalism students looked at the murder in West Campus and aftermath with a fresh perspective and created an amazing podcast about it. In their audio deep dive, Haley Butler and Tinu Thomas interview all of the main surviving participants and reexamine the facts and theories about what actually happened that week. For me, still living in the neighborhood, it was surreal to hear the descriptions of people and places around me being involved in a sensational murder case. And as a parent of a now 15-year-old, it is heartbreaking to hear from the families of the victim and perpetrators.