TX - Rhonda 'Chantay' Blankinship, 25, beaten to death, Lake Brownwood, 15 May 2016

The body of 25-year-old Rhonda Chantay Blankinship was found at 5:20 p.m. Sunday along Country Road 424 in an abandoned house about five miles from her Lake Brownwood home...

Community members told KTXS the mentally challenged woman was known to walk through the streets of northern Lake Brownwood.

"When driving down the road, she'd always wave at you, carrying her phone, and listening to music," McDaniel said.

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The Brown County Sheriff’s Office possesses the weapon that they believe killed Rhonda Chantay Blankinship.

Brown County Sheriff George Caldwell said they’re running forensics on the weapon, but they refuse to release what the weapon is. According to previous reports, Blankinship was killed by blunt force trauma...

Caldwell said they also haven’t located Blankinship’s cell phone.

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Brown County Commissioners approved the sheriff’s office’s request Monday to hire a lab for DNA analysis on evidence in the Chantay Blankinship homicide, rather than waiting on the heavily backlogged state crime lab.

Commissioners approved Chief Deputy Vance Hill’s request to hire the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s lab, which will provide results in three weeks. It would take the Department of Public Safety Crime Lab at least six months to begin to look at the evidence even with a “rush” request...

Sheriff’s investigators have had “no major breaks” in 25-year-old North Lake Brownwood woman’s murder last month, Hill said Friday.

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Seated in his office in the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, Chief Deputy of Enforcement James Stroope spoke quietly about the one-year-old unsolved murder case in a North Lake Brownwood neighborhood. A hint of sadness betrayed Stroope’s normally stoic demeanor.

Chantay Blankinship was 25 when she was last seen on the evening of May 13, 2016 — a Friday — walking near her home in the Tamarack Mountain/Thunderbird Bay area of Lake Brownwood. Searchers found her body two days later on property off County Road 424, about five miles from the home where Blankinship lived with her grandfather. It’s a narrow, unpaved road that passes through isolated countryside with heavy vegetation.

An abandoned and dilapidated house, said to have been a gathering place for young people, is prominently visible on the property. Investigators have declined to say precisely where Blankinship’s body was found.

A gate, adorned with items including a teddy bear, a ribbon, a heart and flowers in honor of Blankinship, blocks a dirt driveway that leads to the house.

Blankinship died of blunt force trauma, investigators have said, declining to comment further on what caused her death. Investigators have recovered what they believe was the murder weapon but have not disclosed the weapon and have not revealed details about any other evidence.

No one has been arrested, and there are no suspects. Sheriff’s investigators, assisted by state and federal agencies, are working the case and following up on leads.

“It haunts us every day — everybody that works here,” Stroope said. “It’s a black cloud that follows you around. With it going unsolved, it wears on you. You don’t want to leave this unsolved and stones unturned — especially on a case of this magnitude.“

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A press release from the Sheriff's Office claims, "Evidence does support [Blankinship] to be a victim of homicide. She has been sent to Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office in Ft. Worth for an Autopsy."

http://www.bigcountryhomepage.com/news/family-brown-county-murder-victim-identified/458969851

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Brown County Sheriff’s officials have revealed little about their investigation into the murder of North Lake Brownwood resident Rhonda Chantay Blankinship, 25, whose body was found Sunday afternoon 5 miles from her home.


An arrest had not been made as of Monday afternoon, sheriff’s officials said. The Texas Rangers are also investigating.


Blankinship was last seen Friday night in the Tamarack Mountain/Thunderbird Bay area of Lake Brownwood, a Facebook post states.

http://www.brownwoodtx.com/news/20160516/few-details-released-in-north-lake-brownwood-womans-murder

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"She was beat up," said Tonie Thaden, Blankinship's great-aunt. "Nobody's got to see her."


Her body was found at an abandoned house along CR 424 in Brown County, about five miles from her home

http://www.ktxs.com/news/brownwood/...county-woman-was-found-badly-beaten/264544975

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tlcya said:

Chantay was reported as missing on a Friday evening and her photo was circulated on social media by concerned friends and family. As her photo was being circulated, a body was located near Lake Brownwood and approximately 5 miles from her place of residence.







Chantay's murder remains unsolved.

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tlcya said:

I don't recall the cheerleader, does she have a thread here at WS? I'd be curious to look at it if there is.

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tlcya said:

I don't recall the cheerleader, does she have a thread here at WS? I'd be curious to look at it if there is.

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Inthedetails said:

"Cops never suspected him in murder, until he confessed after DNA ‘sketch’"

https://nypost.com/2017/11/17/man-confesses-to-murder-after-dna-based-model-released/

WOW!

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Ryan Riggs won’t stand trial for the May 2016 murder of Chantay Blankinship of Lake Brownwood until the fall of 2019 — probably in early October of that year.

Those were among the details revealed in a pre-trial hearing Monday in 35th District Court. Riggs, 21, is charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty, although District Attorney Micheal Murray told District Judge Steve Ellis the state has not determined whether it will seek a death sentence.

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Ryan Riggs, 21, of Lake Brownwood, was arrested last year for capital murder in connection to the 2016 death of 25-year-old Chantay Blankinship.

On Tuesday, 35th Judicial District Judge Steve Ellis picked September 30, 2019 as the start of jury selection for Riggs' trial, which is a process that is expected to take more than a week.

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