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Body Found in West Odessa
UPDATE: Body Found in West Odessa 1/26/13
Matt Rist
CBS 7 News
January 26, 2013
mrist@cbs7.com
UPDATE: 10:00 PM
PECOS FAMILY WONDERS IF BODY FOUND COULD BE MISSING SON
"All his friends called him Soto. They called him by his last name, that's him, that's my baby,” said Isabel Hernandez, mother of missing Timothy Soto.
It started with a phone call in September, Isabel’s son had been arguing with his girlfriend.
"He called me and told me he couldn't do anything anymore, that he liked us and loved his daughter,” Isabel said.
Four months later, another dreaded phone call.
"A detective called me and told me they found his car, the tags matched and that there was a body inside,” Hernandez said.
The Odess Police Department has not confirmed the car's owner publicly. They told us this morning that the case is still under investigation.
"I wish things were different. I just wish he would walk through that door...that's all,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez said Soto is a great athlete, brother and father to a one-year-old daughter.
UPDATE: 11:30 AM
WEST ODESSA--One Pecos family might have found their missing son after months of searching for answers, but Odessa Police could not confirm.
The mother of 19-year-old Timothy Soto, who went missing in September, says Odessa Police contacted her to tell her the license plate on the red Camaro found yesterday with a body inside in West Odessa matches that of her sons missing car.
“The only thing I know is that it’s confirmed that it’s his car,” said Isabel Hernandez, Soto’s mother. “It matched his plates.”
However, Odessa Police told us Saturday morning that they could not release the name of the car’s owner – saying that the investigation is preliminary.
“We are not speculating until we get something confirmed,” said Odessa Police Department Lieutenant D. Tarbet.
The body was found yesterday in a field near I-20 just east of Westcliff. DPS was contacted to work the accident, and further investigation concluded that an “attempt to locate” on this vehicle was issued by Odessa Police Department back in September of 2012.
Eyewitnesses who discovered the car say the body appeared to be male, but officials have not confirmed whether the body is male or female.
Hernandez says authorities have taken her son’s dental records and a DNA-swab from her along with the body to Fort Worth, where an autopsy will take place. OPD did confirm that the body was sent for autopsy, but could not say whether any dental records or DNA was taken from Hernandez.
“I can’t tell you what I’m feeling, I don’t know how to explain,” Hernandez told us this morning..
Soto was working for The City of Monahans and living in Odessa at the time of his disappearance. His mother told us he was an avid sportsman and played football since third grade. He graduated from Monahans High School.
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UPDATE 5:20 PM**
Ector County Sheriff’s Office
Press Release
Ector County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a call of a vehicle found in a field located approximately ¼ mile east of Westcliff off I-20 off the north service road.
The vehicle appeared to have been there for some time, and is believed to have left the roadway ending up in the pasture. A body was found inside the vehicle.
DPS was contacted to work the accident, and further investigation concluded that an “attempt to locate” on this vehicle was issued by Odessa Police Department back in September of 2012.
The Ector County Sheriff’s Office turned this over to the Odessa Police Department and they will be working this as an open investigation.
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UPDATE 3:40 PM**
Investigators say the body found in the vehicle is a victim of a fatal crash that they believed happened two months ago.
DPS troopers say a red Camaro was traveling at a high rate of speed when the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a field. That's according to the DPS Reenactment Team who are on the scene investigating.
Witness say the body found inside the vehicle is male.
DPS is investigating.
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Breaking news out of Ector County.
Investigators are on the scene of a body found in a vehicle.
The scene is located along I-20, between Moss and FM 866.
The vehicle was located in a field.
No word yet whether the body is male or female.
Stay with CBS 7 and CBS7.com for the latest on this developing story.