AUSTIN, Texas – A man has been charged in the 2003 strangling of a woman whose body was found on a rural road in West Texas, authorities said Friday.
Andy Castillo, of Lubbock, is charged with murder in the death of 21-year-old Cynthia Joann Palacio, also of Lubbock, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
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A recent alert from a DNA database led the Texas Rangers and Lubbock County sheriff's office to focus their attention on Castillo, the DPS said.
Castillo, 57, was in the McLennan County Jail in Waco on unrelated charges of criminal solicitation to commit child sexual assault when he was served with the arrest warrant in the Palacio case, the agency said.
Palacio's partially clothed body was found in July 2003 in southeastern Lubbock County.
The case had been linked to the April 2004 killing of 21-year-old Linda Trevino Carbajal, but that case remains under investigation, the agency said. Carbajal was found strangled and with blunt force injuries on a rural road in northern Lubbock County.
Palacio was survived by her daughter, who was 2 years old when her mother was killed, the agency said.
Castillo was being held Friday in McLennan County Jail on more than $1 million in bond. Jail records didn’t list an attorney for him.