Mourners can't believe vicious act
TYLER, Texas (AP) - January 8, 2008 "You can't sleep. You can't think straight anymore," said Amy
Gage, a friend and neighbor of the victim, Jana Shearer. "Then you
just keep finding out more and more. It's the most difficult thing
anyone can go through."
Shearer's boyfriend, Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, was charged
with capital murder after police said they found her body, an ear
boiling in a pot on a stovetop, and a hunk of flesh with a fork in
it on a plate at the crime scene.
McCuin, wearing a jail-issue red jumpsuit, was not asked to
enter a plea as he appeared before state District Judge Jack Skeen
Jr. on Monday. Skeen continued McCuin's bond at $2 million and
appointed an attorney to represent him.
Authorities said McGuin's comments in a 911 call that alerted
them to the hideous discovery led them to believe he may have
intended to eat his girlfriend's remains, but said it is unclear
whether McCuin consumed any part of her body.
Smith County Sheriff Lt. Larry Wiginton told the Tyler
Morning-Telegraph that McCuin told investigators that God made him
kill Shearer.
"When he said God told him to do it, one of the investigators
looked at him and just said, 'What did you say?"' according to
Wiginton.
The judge sealed the arrest and search warrant affidavits and
issued a gag order in the case, which has shocked this East Texas
town about 110 miles east of Dallas.
Gage said McCuin and Shearer had only been dating a few months.
She remembered Shearer as an unflappably happy friend who had a
knack for making her neighbors laugh.
"We really want to focus on her being a person who loved life,
and not what happened to her," Gage said. "It was such a tragedy.
We have to try to focus on the fact that Jana was a good person."
Officials believe Shearer was taken by McCuin from her home late
Friday night and killed. Authorities said McCuin then drove to his
estranged wife's home, where he stabbed William Veasley, 42. His
condition was unavailable on Monday night.
McCuin was still at his estranged wife's home when deputies
arrived, but he jumped into his car and escaped after a short
chase, said Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith.
McCuin wasn't seen again until Saturday morning, when he arrived
at the home he shared with his mother and called her into the
garage so she could "come see what he had done," Smith said.
His mother and her boyfriend saw the remains of Shearer,
authorities said. McCuin's mother and her boyfriend fled the home
and flagged down a police officer. McCuin dialed 911 after they
left and told an emergency dispatcher he had killed Shearer and was
boiling her body parts, Smith said.
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Associated Press writer Jeff Carlton in Dallas contributed to
this report.