Finley Murder Mystery Unravels
After more than a month of searching for the aspiring singer / songwriter, sheriff's investigators charge victim's aunt and uncle with her murder
By Jordan Smith, Fri., April 28, 2006
After more than a month of searching for missing 22-year-old Latoya Finley, Travis Co. Sheriff's investigators on April 19 charged Finley's aunt and uncle, Karen Bunton and William "Tony" Holmes, with her murder. Bunton and Holmes were pulled over in Abilene driving Finley's silver Hyundai sedan; investigators found human remains in the trunk, later identified as Finley. "This has been very emotional," TCSO spokesman Roger Wade said, "in part, because we've been dealing so closely with the family."
On March 5, Vickie Finley called the Travis Co. Sheriff's Office to report that her daughter Latoya was missing. The 22-year-old Latoya, an aspiring singer/songwriter, set off for L.A. in late February to make music-industry contacts; she told her mother she planned to leave Austin on Feb. 24, that she'd call when she arrived in L.A., and that she'd return home a week later. But Latoya never called, never checked in to the Homestead Suites in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and she never returned home to Austin. Vickie Finley told sheriff's investigators that her sister, Karen Bunton, and Bunton's husband Tony had helped Latoya, who had cerebral palsy, get packed and started on her trip.
Bunton told investigators that on Feb. 24, she and Holmes helped get Latoya's belongings including a red suitcase and a desktop computer loaded into Latoya's silver Hyundai sedan, then drove her to the Wildwood apartments in Northeast Austin, where Latoya allegedly said that her boyfriend, someone named Ryan Smith (whose identity, according to an arrest affidavit, has yet to be confirmed), lived. Latoya told Bunton she could use her car while she was gone, said Bunton, and that was the last time she saw her.
Travis Co. Sheriff's investigators searched for Latoya Finley a little over a month, mostly following leads supplied by Bunton. For the first two weeks, Bunton remained in steady contact with TCSO Det. Chris Rowland, relating details about her and Holmes' final visit with Latoya and stories about being contacted by Latoya, and, later, offering suggestions about where Latoya might be found. In mid-March, when investigators discovered that Bunton pawned several items that belonged to Latoya including a gold pendant with a pink stone, a white gold ring with a blue stone, a digital camera, and a car stereo Bunton said that she and Holmes needed money, but planned to get the items out of hock before Latoya got home. Bunton also told Rowland that Latoya told the couple that she planned to go to Marble Falls with her boyfriend to stay with Smith's family for several weeks after returning to Austin from Los Angeles. When Rowland said he needed to search Latoya's car, Bunton told him that she and Holmes left Latoya's Hyundai in Irving (in a location she could identify only generally) after hearing that police were looking for it but said they would return the car as soon as possible.
In late March, when Rowland began to question some of the information Bunton was supplying, Latoya's aunt cut off all contact with police. By the end of March, Bunton and Holmes, along with Latoya's silver Hyundai, were nowhere to be found. "Karen Bunton became nervous" during a March 22 phone conversation, Rowland wrote in an arrest affidavit, and ended their call. She didn't call Rowland again the next day as promised, and instead "terminated all communication," Rowland wrote.
Up to that point, investigators were certain they were looking for a missing person, Wade said, and were convinced Latoya would come home. Bunton's attitude shift left investigators with a sinking feeling, though: "[Rowland] realized, 'Man, this isn't a missing person, this is a homicide,'" Wade said. Shortly thereafter, the gruesome details of Latoya's demise were spelled out for police.
According to the arrest affidavit, an unidentified source on April 4 finally came forward to tell investigators that on Feb. 28, four days after Latoya supposedly left for California, Holmes asked the source to meet him at an East Austin park. When the informant arrived at the park, Holmes was already there, sitting in Latoya's silver Hyundai. "Holmes stated that he wanted to apologize," the witness told police, "for accusing the [source] of leaking some information about his past" specifically, that Holmes was dealing drugs. Holmes told the source "he had found the person responsible," reads the affidavit, and "he had killed the person responsible and [said] that the person was in the trunk of the vehicle they were sitting in." Holmes didn't reveal the name of the responsible party, but said he'd "smothered her" and put her in the trunk. Then, reaching into the back seat over a red suitcase and a computer monitor, toward a trunk-access panel Holmes offered to show the source his handiwork. Spooked, the source got out of the car; as Holmes drove away, the source "noticed what appeared to be many flies around the trunk area," Rowland wrote in an arrest affidavit.
An additional tip to police placed Bunton and Holmes in Abilene, driving Latoya's car. Finally, on April 14, Abilene police spotted Bunton and Holmes in the car and, after a brief chase, arrested the couple Bunton for evading arrest and Holmes on an outstanding warrant. In the trunk of the car police made a grisly discovery: bones, bodily fluid, and tissue wrapped in the "strong odor of biological decomposition" remains positively identified the next day as those of Latoya Finley. The motive for Finley's murder isn't entirely clear, aside from Holmes' April 14 statement to Rowland that he "found out" that Latoya had told someone at the Travis Co. courthouse that Holmes was a drug dealer an admission that mirrors the unidentified source's story. "Holmes stated that he got angry with [Latoya] because she was telling lies about him, but Holmes stated that he discussed the incident with Latoya and forgot about it," reads the arrest affidavit.
On April 19, TCSO investigators charged both Bunton and Holmes with first-degree murder punishable by up to life in prison and with tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, punishable by between two and 10 years in prison. At press time, the two were still in jail in Taylor County, awaiting their return to Austin.
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