HALTOM CITY, Texas – A judge ruled Thursday that two 14-year-old boys charged with capital murder will remain in custody for allegedly killing a mother of three who was delivering an Uber Eats order to an apartment building in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Ryan Graham, 31, was delivering food Saturday to a Haltom City apartment complex and was fatally stabbed in her neck during a robbery, police said Thursday. The defendants were arrested Wednesday, and their names are withheld because they're juveniles.
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The defendants appeared separately for a virtual detention hearing Thursday in Tarrant County Juvenile Court. Officials said during the hearing that a confidential informant tipped authorities of the defendants' connection to the murder and their plans to skip town.
Tarrant County Judge Alex Kim said the defendants indicated in an interrogation that they attacked Graham because they were trying to steal her car. When they couldn't find the keys, one of them stabbed her in the neck.
“At this point, I’m very concerned about the safety of the community if I was to release you,” Kim said to one of the defendants during the hearing.
Haltom City investigators said they found evidence linking the two juveniles to the killing, and they were arrested in a Fort Worth apartment building. They were taken to the Tarrant County Juvenile Justice Center in Fort Worth.
A resident of the building where the murder occurred told police that he found Graham on Saturday around 9:30 p.m. in the building’s breezeway in the front of his home. Graham did not reach the customer’s door before she was killed, and she died on the scene.
Graham, who was from Fort Worth, was delivering food for Uber Eats as a side job. A GoFundMe page raising money for her funeral expenses has exceeded the $30,000 goal, reaching more than $55,000 as of Thursday late afternoon.
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