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Page 16 □ THE DAILY TEXAN □ Tuesday, October 20, 1981Convicted killer charged in slaying of womanBy JENNIFER BIRD and SUZANNE MICHELDaily Texan StaffA 27-year-old man, previously convicted of murder and assault, was charged with capital murder late Monday in connection with the death of a young woman whose body was found floating in Town Lake over the weekend.Charles Henry Rector, of the Community Cross Road Home, 2935 E. 12th St., was originally arrested and charged Saturday with burglary and the kidnapping of Carolyn Kay Davis, 22, who was slain after she interrupted intruders at her 39th Street apartment.Charges were filed in the Municipal Court of Judge Steve Russell against Rector, who was paroled Feb 5 after serving seven years of a 14-vear sentence for the 1974 murder of an Austin man.Davis’ body was found near Tom Miller Dam on Town Lake Sunday afternoon. A spokeswoman for the Travis County medical examiner’s office said Davis died of a gunshot wound to the head above the right ear.Davis was still alive when her body wasthrown into the lake, the spokeswoman said, but she had not been raped.According to Austin Police Department reports, Davis was abducted from the La Paz Apartments, 402 W. 39th St., Apt. 204, at about 9 p.m. Saturday. Two rifles also were reported missing from the apartment.Davis was an employee in the credit office of Capital National Bank.Saturday night, Davis returned from grocery shopping when she entered her apartment and encountered intruders, according to police reports.Neighbor Lori Hood, a junior University student, said, “I was home all night, sitting in the living room studying, and I didn’t hear anything until she screamed and then the door slammed. It wasn’t a threatening scream, just like somebody had jumped into the pool.“Then we (Hood and her roommate) heard some shuffling feet, but I just thought it was somebody walking by. I went and looked over the balcony, but there was no one around, and her door was shut.’’Davis’ boyfriend, who lived with her, followed Davis from the grocery store in a separate car. Hood said. “He followed her hometo make sure she got home. Then he went to the bank, and when he got back, they (intruders) had already been there. He was so careful,” Hood said.A police department spokesman would not release the boyfriend’s name. “He is straight, good. He’s pretty upset about the whole thing,” the spokesman said. The spokesman also said the homicide division is investigating other suspects in connection with the murder.Neighbors disputed previous reports that intruders entered Davis’ apartment by scaling a decorative, wrought-iron trellis and climbing through the second story bedroomwindow.Apartment manager Don Hueske, a senior University student in petroleum land management, said, “All the other ones (trellises) are loose, too. They're not secure at all, just decoration. I’ve tried crawling up them before, and they’re not sturdy,” he said.Another UT student, who lives in an apartment next door to Davis', said he saw and heard three men outside his apartment window, which faces the second story walkway.“They were coming right at that door,” said Scott Eby, a University student in computer science. “One guy said, ‘Where is it?’ The other said ‘204,’ and the other guy just mumbled. Then they went right over there (to Davis’ apartment).”Hood said that when Davis’ boyfriend returned, he said the apartment door was open and the bedroom had been ransacked. The living room and kitchen were untouched.Davis’ boyfriend called the police about 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Apartment complex residents said Davis’ boyfriend was a University student but did not reveal additional information about him.Hood also said the victim’s boyfriend had not returned to the apartment since he spoke with police that night. “He was the real out-doorsy type,” Hood said. “She was real quiet, real nice — kind of shy.“Something like this doesn’t sink in until it happens real close, especially when you know the person. Why her? Why not the rest of us? Since this happened we’ve all been looking out for each other, but we can’t just not go places. You can’t apply the buddy sys-tpm fnrpvpr
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Austin Daily Texan
Austin, Texas, US
Tue, Oct 20, 1981
Page 16
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