Police: Friend told of Farmersville killing
Papers say suspect described strangling Farmersville woman
10:46 PM CST on Thursday, March 25, 2004
McKINNEY – A 20-year-old Farmersville man told a friend that he strangled a young mother last week and hid her body behind his house, according to court documents filed by police.
Moises Sandoval Mendoza told the friend he dumped the body of Rachelle O'Neil Tolleson at a remote site and set it on fire after police questioned him about her whereabouts, according to the paperwork that police filed to justify Mr. Mendoza's arrest.
Authorities arrested Mr. Mendoza on Wednesday night after matching an account given by friend Stacy Marie Garcia with evidence collected since March 18. That was the day Ms. Tolleson's family notified police that she had vanished from her home and that her 6-month-old daughter had been left alone in the house.
"I have to tell you something; you're going to be mad at me," Mr. Mendoza is quoted as telling Ms. Garcia. "I did it."
According to the statement given to a Texas Ranger and a Collin County sheriff's deputy, Ms. Garcia said Mr. Mendoza told her Tuesday night that he had strangled Ms. Tolleson. He said he picked her up from her home in Farmersville after her baby had fallen asleep.
However, police reports taken at the young woman's home after she was reported missing described furniture in disarray, which led them to believe Ms. Tolleson may have been abducted. The baby was left in a bedroom unharmed.
Hundreds of police and volunteers scoured the rural countryside surrounding Farmersville for five days before her body was discovered Tuesday in far eastern Collin County.
The latest police document did not give any account of why Mr. Mendoza would have killed the 20-year-old woman, whom he knew from high school in Farmersville. But according to Ms. Garcia's recounting of their conversation, Mr. Mendoza implied the two had an ongoing relationship.
The documents also don't explain Ms. Garcia's relationship to Mr. Mendoza. Ms. Garcia could not be reached Thursday night.
Farmersville police offered no comment on the case Thursday, except to say that Ms. Tolleson and Mr. Mendoza were "just acquaintances" who had known each other since high school, said Officer Vikki Pickett.
"Now, two fine local families are grieving over this incident," Officer Pickett said. "These are just good, local people."
Police told a judge who signed the arrest warrant that information in Ms. Garcia's statement included details that had not been released and "could have only been known by someone directly involved with the death" of Ms. Tolleson.
Mr. Mendoza has had three active warrants for his arrest since November for pending robbery charges against him in Dallas.
The Mendoza family did not return phone calls or answer their door Thursday. Mr. Mendoza was being held in the Collin County jail with bail set at $500,000. He declined requests for interviews.
Ms. Tolleson's family declined to comment on Mr. Mendoza's arrest. Her estranged husband, Andrew Tolleson, could not be reached.
Friends of the family tied purple ribbons on trees, stop signs and flag poles across town Thursday in memory of Ms. Tolleson, whose funeral will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church in Farmersville.
Residents expressed shock that one of their own had been charged with such a brutal crime.
Roy Blevins said he remembered when Mr. Mendoza cut grass in the neighborhoods as a younger man, and also worked with his father and older brother on occasion.
"He was a polite, hard-working kid," Mr. Blevins said. "If his father wasn't working, he was in church. A lot of townspeople are having a hard time believing it's him."
Fred and Dixie Bratton, who live across the street from the Mendoza family, had kind words for everyone in the family – except Moises.
"I'm very sorry for his family, he's got a good family," said Ms. Bratton. "But he wasn't a good boy. He never was."
An April 2003 Farmersville police report showed that Mr. Mendoza was charged with misdemeanor assault on allegations that he attacked his sister in the front yard of their home.
But the case was dismissed after his sister said she did not want to take the case to trial, according to court records.
Mr. Mendoza was awaiting trial on three counts of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in connection with two robberies in March 2003 at Richland College in Dallas, where three people were robbed in a parking lot at gunpoint by a group of four men.
According to the court documents, Mr. Mendoza told Ms. Garcia that he picked up Ms. Tolleson in his red-and-white Dodge pickup truck, had sex with her and then killed her and hid her body in some brush behind his house on Jackson Street, the documents show.
After police questioned him about Ms. Tolleson's disappearance, Mr. Mendoza told Ms. Garcia, he moved the body, wrapped in a tarp, to Brushy Creek on Monday.
A man hunting for arrowheads spotted two feet sticking out of a brush pile Tuesday afternoon and notified police.
The body had been badly burned, and the medical examiner identified it as Ms. Tolleson late Tuesday using dental records.
Mr. Mendoza burned the body to remove her fingerprints, according to Ms. Garcia's statement.
Staff writer Robert Tharp contributed to this story.
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