Remains ID’D as teen missing since August

The remains of an 18-year-old male — missing for more than three months — were found in Southwest Bexar County and identified this week by authorities.

Anthony Xavier Luna was last seen getting into a black vehicle and leaving Southwest High School on Aug. 27, Sheriff Javier Salazar said. Luna’s family reported him missing on Sept. 11. The sheriff did not address the 15 days between when Luna was last seen and when he was reported missing.

On Saturday, a rancher was preparing his land for cattle in the 11000 block of Kearney Road when he smelled a foul odor. He then found what were later determined to be Luna’s remains, deputies said.

Salazar said Luna’s lower extremities were found first and that his body had been scattered by animals. Investigators mapped out a crime scene of about 100 square yards.

A cadaver dog with the Texas Game Warden helped find more of Luna’s remains Monday.

The sheriff said investigators found several indicators that the teen’s death may be a homicide, though he stopped short of categorizing it as such and did not elaborate on the evidence.

He said the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to determine Luna’s manner of death.

Family members told deputies that Luna was in the engineering program at Southwest High. He was not living a “high-risk” lifestyle, opting mostly to stay home and play video games, Salazar said.

Luna also planned to join the Marine Corps.

When he left Southwest on the day he went missing, he appeared to know the people he was getting in the car with, the sheriff said. He also did not appear to be under duress, witnesses told investigators.

“Whether he knew what they were up to remains to be seen,” Salazar said.

There is also evidence that at some point, Luna was in the vicinity of Loop 410 and U.S. 90, near Gunsmoke Drive. But investigators could not ascertain whether he was alive when he was there.

Salazar said there may be at least two suspects involved.

“To do what was done to him with only one person” would have been difficult, he said.

Salazar said Luna’s remains were in a marshy ground that was heavily wooded with “chest-high” undergrowth.

The property is sectioned off by a barbed wire fence.

“I don’t think someone found this (location) while they had the victim,” Salazar said in speculation. “It’s almost like they knew the property was there already.”

The stretch of Kearney Road is only wide enough for one car to pass at a time.

The remains were 50 yards from the road by a game trail accessible to deer, coyote and other wildlife.

“It would’ve been difficult to navigate at night without a light,” Salazar said.

Investigators ask anyone with tips or knowledge of details in the case to call their office at 210-3356070.