A 23-year-old man bludgeoned his mother to death inside their home in west Fort Worth, Texas. Moments later, he met responding officers at the front door, streaked with blood, and told them he had been “doing witchcraft to kill my mom.”
Officers were dispatched to the home after an anonymous 911 caller reported a Snapchat image in the early hours of April 18 that showed, in the caller’s words, “a woman covered in something red, possibly blood,” CBS News Texas reported.
The photograph had been posted to a group chat only minutes earlier, triggering what police classified as a welfare check, according to The Dallas Morning News.
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According to an arrest warrant, the officers knocked on the front door and were greeted by the accused, Alexander Taylor Valdez. He held a Bible and had blood on his face, neck, chest, torso, hands and feet. Without prompting he announced, “It was an exorcism,” as he walked outside and sat on the front porch.
When an officer asked why he was bloody, Valdez answered, “I was doing witchcraft to kill my mom.” Asked who else was inside the house, he replied, “There is a dead body in there, it’s my mom,” the warrant states.
Inside the master bedroom, police found 58-year-old Teresita Sayson lying motionless on the floor. She was covered in blood and had sustained blunt-force injuries to her face and upper body.
A dog was also dead in the room.
Detectives collected a shattered jewelry box nearby; the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that the box was broken, coated in blood and contained hair “lodged in it.”
Investigators allege Valdez used the box as the murder weapon, striking his mother repeatedly. The warrant states that the blood and strands of hair recovered from the box were consistent with the victim, according to detectives at the scene.
The affidavit also says Valdez photographed the scene and sent the image to several people in a private Snapchat group chat.
The recipient who contacted 911 recognized the bedroom and realized the victim was Sayson. The Star-Telegram added that Valdez circulated a second image depicting the family dog.
Valdez was arrested without incident at the scene. He was taken to the police homicide office, where he declined to provide a formal interview and asked for an attorney. Later that morning, officers booked him into the Tarrant County jail on a single count of murder.
Jail records showed a bond set at $750,000 and no lawyer listed for the defendant.
The warrant gives no explanation for why Valdez believed his mother required an exorcism or why he invoked witchcraft.
Detectives are reviewing Valdez’s phone and social media data to establish a precise timeline leading up to the assault. Investigators are also interviewing every recipient of the Snapchat message to verify when the images were taken and distributed.
