Tyler

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

While detectives continue to gather evidence in the violent beating death of a Whitehouse woman, a judge has amended a gag order to release a key piece of information that could aid in the investigation.

Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith released the information Wednesday to the Tyler Morning Telegraph concerning the pickup driven by Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, who is accused of beating to death 21-year-old Jana Shearer and then mutilating her body.

Smith said, in previous newspaper articles, McCuin is also suspected of possible cannibalism in a case he called tragic and horrific and which has captured worldwide attention.

This attention caused 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr., to issue a "restrictive and protective order," in the case Monday, to safeguard a fair trial for McCuin and protect the state's case against the suspect.

However, after the newspaper asked for information, which it believed could assist law enforcement in investigating the crime, Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham filed a motion asking for an exception.

"It is the belief of the State of Texas that by releasing this information to the public, law enforcement would have the best opportunity to develop leads as to facts about this offense which are currently unknown to investigators," the motion states.

Skeen granted the motion Wednesday allowing the information to be released.

Smith said investigators are asking anyone who might have seen McCuin's 1998 silver Chevrolet extended cab pickup bearing Texas license plate 21LLD4 Friday night or Saturday morning to call his office.

"We want anyone who may have seen this pickup to call us," he said.

Smith, who cannot talk about the case since the gag order was placed into effect, told the newspaper earlier that detectives had not located the murder scene.

Citizens around the Antioch area of Smith County, which is located between Farm-to-Market Road 756 and U.S. Highway 69 and south of FM 346, told the newspaper this week that scores of sheriff's deputies have searched the area looking for clues. One man said deputies searched the area on all-terrain-vehicles and on foot.

Sheriff Smith said Sunday that it was believed the Antioch area is where the actual homicide took place and his criminal investigators had fielded hundreds of calls from tipsters.

Officials contend that McCuin abducted Shearer from her Whitehouse apartment, put her body in the back seat of his extended cab pickup, drove to his estranged wife's home on County Road 413, where he stabbed her boyfriend multiple times, ran from police, broke into a Tyler business and then finally went to his mother's home where he asked her to come look at what he had done.

When McCuin's mother and her husband approached the truck, they saw Shearer's body.

The couple fled the home and contacted police about the same time McCuin himself called the Smith County Sheriff's office and told the dispatcher he had killed his girlfriend and was cooking parts of her.

McCuin has told investigators that "God told him to do it," but will not give details as to where the slaying occurred.

Sheriff's officials said they need the public's help in determining a solid timeline and to find the crime scene where Shearer was killed.

Anyone with information is asked to call 903-566-6600.

(Tyler Morning Telegraph)