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“I’m glad I decided to get off Tinder and (walk) to a bar,” she tweeted at 9:44 p.m.
Around
that time, Vandagriff and a man were seen on a surveillance camera
leaving Shots and Crafts in Denton’s Fry Street bar district. That was
the last time the 24-year-old Texas Women’s University student was seen
alive.
She was found the following morning off of a trail in a park in
Grapevine, Tex., several miles away. Her body had been dismembered and
burned, according to an arrest affidavit.
Earlier that morning, a witness saw a man standing near the fire and driving away in a light-colored SUV, the affidavit said.
The
man Vandagriff was with the night before, 30-year-old Charles Dean
Bryant — who is also accused of repeatedly stalking and harassing an
ex-girlfriend — is now facing a capital murder charge. It’s unclear
whether the two had known each other before or whether they met at the
bar that night.
Bryant initially denied going home with Vandagriff, according to
the affidavit. But cellphone data showed that several hours after they
were seen leaving the bar together, Vandagriff’s phone was in the area
where Bryant lives, about 25 miles away in Haslet, Tex.
Police
also found Vandagriff’s purse in a trash can in Bryant’s home, and a
blue plastic kiddie pool similar to the one in which the woman’s body
was wrapped, the affidavit said. Bryant’s roommate later told police
that there used to be two kiddie pools in their back yard, where
detectives also noticed that someone had started digging a hole.
Surveillance video at a nearby Walmart store shows Bryant buying a shovel several hours after he was seen with Vandagriff.
In
the weeks before Vandagriff’s death and even a few days after, Bryant
repeatedly stalked and harassed a student at the University of North
Texas in Denton — an ex-girlfriend who broke up with him almost a month
ago. A campus police officer first received a complaint from the young woman
Aug. 24. She told police that Bryant had been sending her text messages,
and she was concerned that he was angry about the breakup, according to
an arrest affidavit.
A few days later, Bryant showed up at his ex-girlfriend’s place of
work to give her a letter. The following week, the woman called police
again, saying she was in fear for her safety because Bryant was outside
her dorm, the affidavit said. Bryant told police that he wanted to bring
the woman some flowers.
Bryant was later charged with criminal trespassing and stalking. A judge also had issued a protective order against him.
But
on Saturday — three days after Vandagriff was killed — Bryant contacted
his ex-girlfriend again. He’d sent her five emails telling her that he
missed her and asking her to drop the charges, the affidavit said.
Bryant was arrested the following day. He’s being held on a $1 million bond. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney.
A friend of Vandagriff’s recently started a GoFundMe account to help pay for funeral costs. More than $3,000 has been raised so far.
Jackie
Ton wrote that Vandagriff was a nutrition major at Texas Women’s
University in Denton and studied cosmetology at Paul Mitchell Schools.
“Her
spirit was one of a kind. One that will be remembered forever,” Ton
wrote. “That little strawberry red head girl will always be in our
hearts.”
The investigation of her killing is continuing.
A
spokesman for the Grapevine Police Department said detectives are
investigating a tweet that was sent from Vandagriff’s Twitter account at
11:22 p.m. last Thursday — the day after her body was found.
The tweet reads: “Never knew I could feel like this.”
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