Man suspected of killing girlfriend, burning body - girl, 15, was halfway through pregnancy

The Dallas Morning News ^ | June 24, 2003 | By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

[MeekOneGOP]

Man suspected of killing girlfriend, burning body

Girl, 15, was halfway through pregnancy, authorities say

06/24/2003

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas police arrested a 25-year-old man Monday on suspicion of killing his 15-year-old pregnant girlfriend and trying to dispose of her body by setting it on fire in his back yard.

Shannon Meshack was taken into custody after Dallas firefighters responded to a call about an unconscious person at his home in the 3700 block of Ruskin Street near Fair Park about 11 a.m. Monday, police said.

Teshibra Lysha Bell was a student at James Madison High School before transferring to another Dallas school because of her pregnancy. She was more than halfway through the pregnancy, according to family members.

Mr. Meshack told firefighters he had been burning material in his back yard to repel mosquitoes, said Sgt. Larry Lewis of the Police Department's homicide unit.

Shannon Meshack

"One of the firemen saw a body in a back room covered up" with a sheet, Sgt. Lewis said. "He apparently had taken her outside and, with some sort of accelerant, tried to set her on fire. We think that he was trying to burn her ... and maybe seeing the firetrucks or hearing them, he brought the body back inside the house. He was telling the firemen there was nothing in there."

Dallas Fire-Rescue Lt. Joel Lavender said firefighters did their job.

"Part of our EMS training is to take into consideration your surroundings and questioning individuals," he said. "This came in as an unconscious person. We try to ask various questions to gather information at a scene."

Mr. Meshack was being held at Lew Sterrett Justice Center. Charges were pending, officials there said Monday evening.

The Dallas County medical examiner's office had not ruled on a cause of death Monday afternoon, but the sergeant said his unit was treating the case as a homicide.

Octavia L. Fields, 34, who raised Teshibra since she was in elementary school, was too distraught to talk Monday.

Friends of the family recalled the teen as someone who tried to overcome being abandoned by her parents at a young age.

"Her mother didn't want her," said family friend Karen Thomas of Balch Springs. "She had a sweet personality. She wanted to go to college, but I told her that it would be hard with a baby. We would have helped her."

Sgt. Lewis said there is evidence the girl was alive Monday morning.

He said investigators do not think she lived at the Ruskin Street residence, but she was there often. Family members apparently had tried to persuade her to stop seeing Mr. Meshack because of their age difference, he said.

"There had been a history of them fighting," he said.

E-mail jtrahan@dallasnews.com

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/062403dnmetburned.aaf1c.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Egads ! What is with people ?!

[PetroniDE]

This person should be SHOT....

[Bringbackthedraft]

He won't be shot, just put to sleep like the dog that he is.

[LibKill]

25 year-old man? 15 year-old 'girlfriend'?

That is statutory rape.

[PetroniDE]

That's true: Statutory rape, murder, AND covering it up.

CASTRATE him... Then shoot him.

[joesnuffy]

I think he should go to the U of M law school on a full scholarship...
make the campus really diverse

[Reeses]

This is very similar to the Laci Peterson story however it probably will not get anywhere near as much TV time.

[Dead Corpse]

People suck.

Kill this animal.

[bgierhart]

how about statatory rape, He's 35 and she is 15 (HELLO) hang this Bastard

[bgierhart]

25 not 35 sorry

[ex-Texan]

This @astard is too violent and too stupid to be on the streets. He ought to be shot immediately.

[PetroniDE]

25 years old. Hang, Castrate, and/or Shoot him.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Are you using black humor?

[bgierhart]

At least in Texas if he is convicted to die, they have the balls to get the job done

[Zack Nguyen]

When the brand-new Prenatal Protection law takes effect, this murderer can be tried for the killing of the girl and her baby. Small solcae, I know, but at least justice can be done.

[bgierhart]

justice would be an eye for an eye. Burn him

[Ford Fairlane]

25 year-old man? 15 year-old 'girlfriend'?

That is statutory rape.

Not in Texas, where the age of consent is either 14 or 15 (I cant remember which)

And Arkansas is 13

[martin gibson]

I think he should go to the U of M law school on a full scholarship...make the campus really diverse

Exactly!! A celebration of diversity!!

[Clara Lou]

Double homicide. Prepare the IV cocktail (unless, of course, he's mentally retarded).

[Sloth]

Shannon Meshack was taken into custody after Dallas firefighters responded to a call...

Meshack was later heard to insist, "Man, I thought fire was harmless... Shadrack, Abednego & me never had no problems."