AUSTIN, Texas — A homeless 17-year-old has been arrested and will be charged with murder Friday in the killing of a University of Texas dance major whose body was recovered in the heart of the bustling campus.
Investigators said Meechaiel Criner wasn’t a university student and wasn’t believed to have been in Austin long. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said Criner could face additional charges in the slaying of 18-year-old Oregon-native Haruka Weiser.
“We are very certain that the subject we have in custody … is responsible for the death of this beautiful young woman,” Acevedo said at a campus news conference.
Weiser — described by a former dance teacher as having a “dancer’s soul” — was last seen leaving the campus drama building Sunday night. Her body was found Tuesday in a creek near the alumni center and UT’s iconic football stadium, an area that hums with activity day and night.
The slaying shook a campus that’s home to about 50,000 students. University President Greg Fenves called Weiser’s slaying “horrifying and incomprehensible” and described it as an attack on the entire school community.
“It was unsettling,” said 20-year-old Jasmine Chavez of Houston. “I feel better now that they’ve caught the guy.”
Police released surveillance video that showed a man they said was a suspect walking a women’s bicycle. Firefighters recognized the man on the video as Criner, whom they had spoken to in connection with a trash fire near the UT campus on Monday.
