75-Year-Old Man Accused of Killing Missing Woman

Kathleen Garza's body is still missing, police say

A 75-year-old man was arrested Monday night on murder charges in connection with the disappearance of a 49-year-old mother.

Kathleen Garza went to the market last week and never returned home, her family said. Her body still has not been found.

Leroy Tellgren, of Carrollton, was jailed on capital murder charges at about 7:30 p.m. Monday, police said. He is being held on a $1 million bond.

Garza's husband, Raul, said Tellgren was a father figure to his wife, and the two often met for coffee to chat. But he said he had no idea why Tellgren would kill her.

"I don't know," he said. "It just blows my mind why anyone would hurt her."

He said his wife had gone to meet Tellgren for coffee on Thursday, the day she disappeared.

Garza said he phoned Tellgren to ask about his wife's whereabouts after she failed to return home, and that he denied knowing where she was.

"This is, of course, to me, just the first step in the whole thing," Garza said. "Good that this guy is behind bars. And great that (he has) $1 million bail. That's awesome. But that's the first step. We still want to find Kathy."

When detectives questioned Tellgren on Friday, he admitted being with her but claimed they had gone their separate ways, police said.

Investigators would not talk about what led to Tellgren's arrest or what he may have done with Garza's body.

"We have some leads, but we'll pursue them before we talk about them," Coppell police Chief Roy Osborne said.

Garza said his wife, a former teacher, met Tellgren about five years ago while both worked for the Coppell school district.

It wasn't immediately clear what Tellgren did for the district, but Garza said he may have been a volunteer and not a full-time employee.

A spokesperson for the Coppell school district could not be reached Monday night.

Investigators still aren't sure how Garza was killed or where her body is, but decided that there was enough evidence to charge Tellgren with murder, Osborne said.

Police seized Tellgren's pickup truck but would not say if they found any evidence inside.

"Unfortunately, this is one of those times that a police chief dreads," Osborne said. "You never like to talk about bad things in your community."

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