Man arrested in Venezuela in 2008 slaying
Tierra Adams was 25 years old and pregnant when she was last seen alive in late January 2008.
The woman from northwest Houston was due to give birth to a little girl in just weeks — on Valentine’s Day.
Two months later, a motorist on a road in Walker County saw that wildlife was interested in something not too far away — the buzzards were circling and the feral hogs clawing. Their interest turned out to be the remains of Adams, whose body was buried beneath 10 inches of dirt in a muddy wooded field.
Seven years later, authorities have arrested the man they said killed her. Neriah Roberts, who is being held in the Walker County Jail on murder charges.
At the time of her disappearance, Adams’ family suspected Roberts, who they described as her boyfriend of two years and the father of her baby, was the killer.
At the beginning of the investigation, Roberts told authorities he and Adams argued over her smoking while pregnant. They were in his car, he said, but he put her out about 1 a.m. on Jan. 29 near West Houston and Rosslyn in northwest Harris County.
Adam’s decomposed body was found on March 26 by a man who worked for a rural water system and was familiar with the area.
A tattoo, “Tierra,” placed across the woman’s stomach would help to identify her.
Shortly after that, a person told authorities that he had helped Roberts at the site of the field, when his vehicle was stuck in the mud, Sgt. Danny Billingsley of the Walker County Sheriff ’s Department said Wednesday.
Roberts was soon charged with murder. At some point, he fled to his native Dominican Republic.
He was traveling in Venezuela when he was arrested, Billingsley said.
According to Billingsley, Roberts fled the United
States before officials could get a DNA sample from him to determine the paternity of the unborn child. The sergeant said Roberts has not been charged in that death, though investigators said in 2008 that they planned to seek the charges.
“He denies it being his child,” Billingsley said Wednesday.
Relatives of Adams could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Adams’ stepfather, Wilson Itive, said in 2008 that he thought Roberts killed Adams because he was seeing a new woman.
Adams spent most of her pregnancy, about eight months, in a state jail, having been sent there on drug charges.
She and Roberts reunited two days after she was released in late January.