Slain mom’s will named guardian for one girl
Round Rock woman wanted husband to care for 7-year-old.
A woman found slain in her Round Rock home in December after her two daughters were kidnapped left a will that named her husband as the legal guardian of her youngest child, according to the will.
The will of Tonya Bates, filed with the Williamson county clerk on Monday, names Josef Scheffler as her husband and the legal guardian of 7-year-old Luliviolette Bandera-Megret, known as Lulu.
Lulu and her 14-year-old sister, Lilianais Griffith, were recovered unharmed in Colorado on Jan. 3 and are currently in temporary foster care. Terry Miles, 44, was charged with kidnapping the girls and is a person of interest in their mother’s death. He was Bates’ roommate.
Scheffler is not Lulu’s biological father, according to Bates’ will. His relationship with Bates was previously unclear. The two girls referred to him both as their mother’s boyfriend and their stepfather, according to a court report detailing how the girls were doing while in foster care.
Scheffler filed a petition in January seeking custody of Lulu. After it was declined, Scheffler sought and was denied visitation rights with the girl at a court hearing that same month. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services also filed a motion in January seeking to exclude him from the custody case.
A spokeswoman for the state agency declined to comment Wednesday about Bates’ will or why the agency was seeking to exclude Scheffler from the custody case.
“I do think it is unfortunate that the one person who Lulu’s mother said she wanted Lulu to be with if anything happened to her is not being allowed to have any sort of contact with her,” said Ian Pittman, one of Scheffler’s attorneys.
Bates, who was found dead from blunt force trauma at her Round Rock home on Dec. 31, said in her will that Scheffler had helped her raise her 7-year-old daughter since Lulu was 2 months old. The will also said that Lulu’s biological father, Leonardo Bandera, had refused to recognize her as his daughter on her birth certificate.
“Josef Gabriel Scheffler has immense love and attachment towards Luliviolette Bandera-Megret and she calls him Daddy and is unaware of her biological father at this time,” the will says.
Bates signed her will on Jan. 29, 2015. She and Scheffler did not have a marriage license but were considered to be informally married, Pittman said. The couple had