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Lt. Tom Copeland, with the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office, said, “We believe she was kidnapped, based on what we know.”
He declined to discuss if a weapon was used, saying that even a person’s hands could be considered weapons.
Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor said that because of the suspected kidnapping, the case is being treated as a capital murder investigation.
CPS program director Blackwell, 53, was found dead March 15 alongside Hanselman Road. She had been reported missing the previous day after not showing up for work.
An autopsy report indicated she died by of strangulation, officials said.
The door to her home in the Cimarron subdivision was unlocked when friends went to check on her March 14.
O’Connor, whose office has taken the lead on this case, said that he is anxious to receive the results of evidence sent to a Department of Public Safety lab in Corpus Christi for analysis.
“They told me the case was going to expedited,” O’Connor said. “I would hate to see what a non-expedited case would be like.”
He said that with more than 200 pieces of evidence sent for analysis, the lab would send one final report and not reports throughout the analysis.
“I am very anxious for results to the point of getting impatient,”O’Connor said, adding that he knows they are working as fast as possible. “I have communicated with the colonel, and with other DPS personnel as well, and everyone in DPS has been very cooperative…
“This is a voluminous amount of evidence that has to be meticulously gone through.”
He added that DPS does not give time estimated for completion.
While waiting for the results, investigators are still working on the case following the leads that arise.
He said that three new acquaintances, all out of town, have been found and will be questioned.
“Some people might think that we are wasting our time by having a 30-minute conversation with someone,” he said. But that conversation could substantiate something already believed or lead them down a new path.
“The goal is not an arrest as much as a conviction,” O’Connor said.
At the start of the investigation, investigators were looking at more than 10 people who were possibly connected to the case, but that number has now decreased to three.
“Our sworn duty is to enforce the law and see that justice is served,” O’Connor said. “It is not a matter of who we are pursuing as long as justice prevails.”