Photo: Find Jennifer Marie Sanchez/Facebook
A Texas mom of six who vanished after leaving her apartment in the early hours of Sept. 7 remains missing but is presumed dead after her estranged and allegedly abusive husband was charged with her murder, PEOPLE confirms.
Surveillance video shows 39-year-old Jennifer Marie Sanchez at a bar with husband Joey Sanchez, 44, around 2 a.m. that morning, about 15 to 30 minutes after Jennifer told her son that she was stepping out for a walk, Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva tells PEOPLE.
That was the last time Jennifer was seen. Joey was scheduled to be in court four days later on a charge of domestic violence against her for an incident that occurred on Nov. 1, 2017, police say.
Nothing in the surveillance images from the bar indicates anything unusual between the couple. “The video shows them both walking out together, but it doesn’t show whether she gets into a car with him or anything like that,” Silva says.
According to police, the developing investigation led them to suspect foul play.
“The evidence that was being found was pointing more and more toward a homicide and less toward a missing person,” says Silva.
She declined to reveal what led police to that conclusion, however. “At this point we are not discussing what evidence we have, even though he’s charged, and it’s still an active investigation,” she says.
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Texas Department of Public Safety
A spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to PEOPLE that Joey was charged Sept. 14 with capital murder, but he also declined to share additional details.
At the time Joey was charged with Jennifer’s murder he was already in custody, having been arrested a day earlier on a bond revocation charge connected to the November 2017 incident where he is alleged to have assaulted Jennifer in a bar, says Silva.
His appearance with Jennifer in the surveillance video provided evidence that he had violated a court order requiring him to stay away from her, according to authorities.
Silva says there has been at least one prior allegation made against Joey for domestic assault involving Jennifer, dating to June 2017.
Joey was previously convicted of aggravated sex assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in June 1996 and ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, reports theChronicle.
Joey was scheduled to make a preliminary appearance in court on Monday but it was delayed until Monday. It could not be determined whether he’d entered a plea or retained an attorney who might speak on his behalf.
The murder charge against him leaves Jennifer’s family, which has created aFacebook pagetitled “Find Jennifer Marie Sanchez,” desperate to know what happened and where her body may be.
Police are targeting a search for Jessica’s body in specific areas with help from the volunteer search-and-recovery organizationTexas EquuSearch, but they declined to say where they are looking.
Jennifer’s uncle, Rudy Franco, told KTRK: “We want to bring her home and we also want [Joey’s family] to know that justice is coming and justice isn’t coming alone.”
source: people.com
