Man's burned body found on side road

Area near county line has history of drug-related deaths.

The Bastrop County sheriff’s office is investigating a suspicious death after a burned body was found on the side of the road last week, authorities said Monday.

Donald Ray Davis, 23, of Austin was found dead around 6 a.m. Thursday on the north end of North Pope Bend Road, said Bastrop County Sheriff Maurice Cook. The body was burned, however Cook would not com- ment further on the extent of injuries and said the med- ical examiner would deter- mine the cause and manner of death in an autopsy.

There was no vehicle at the scene, officials said.

Cook said there was no reason to think the public is in any danger. “We are not making any comments right now,” he said.

It is not the first time a burned body has turned up in the area near the Bastrop and Travis county line.

In 2016, authorities investigated several homicides that occurred under similar circumstances, many related to drugs.

In September that year, the charred remains of four men — three from Bastrop County — were found inside a torched home on Linden Road in Del Valle. Matthew Aaron Barber, 26, Jacob Derr, 25, Brian Lee Satterfield, 41, and David Scott Braswell, 53, all had gunshot wounds, and the fire in the home appeared to have been intentionally set. Authorities at the time said the sale of illegal nar- cotics might have played a role in their deaths.

Not long after that, investigators found the decomposing bodies of Salomon Segura Perez, 25, and Rene Rodriguez, 40, on the side of the road on Pearce Lane, roughly a mile away from the burned home where the four men were found.

The next month 27-yearold Aaron Lee Rogers was found fatally shot in the trunk of a car that had been set on fire on Buck Lane, in the same area. A day after, 28-year-old Amber Taylor was found shot on the side of the road on Wolf Lane and FM 535. Authorities said her murder could have been drug-related since she was a known methamphetamine user.

All of the crimes are unsolved except for Rogers’ death, officials said. Leon “Big Moe” Castillo, 29, of Del Valle was arrested and charged with murder in December 2016, records show.