BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas - Is a killer still walking among them?
People in Brazoria County are frightened, because deputies have yet to make an arrest after a woman's murder last year. Now, the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help to solve the crime.
"It makes it real, it makes it very real," said Amberlie Carpenter, the victim's daughter. "You just never think that's going to be you."
It's a headline you never want to read, your mother dead.
"Somebody robbed me, literally robbed me of my mother," said Carpenter.
On May 30th, 2017 at 11:53 p.m. on County Road 924, Brazoria County Deputies found Peggy Sue Carpenter, 48, strangled to death in her own bed. Near the tiny town of Sweeny, is a murder mystery yet to be solved.
"There's lots of good folks that live down here and they're scared," said Detective Jarrad Norris, who showed us a crime scene picture to point out where Carpenter's mobile home used to stand. "The door wasn't ripped open or anything like that, no major signs of forced entry."
Norris told KHOU he believes Carpenter knew her attacker. The murder happened the day after Memorial Day. And since it was a holiday weekend, she had quite a few people over. Making it harder for investigators to rule people out."
"Normally, if it's a homicide it's going to be attached to sex, drugs or money... this one could be all three," said Norris.
Deputies have questioned several people, including Carpenter's former boyfriend. They've sent off finger nail scrapings for DNA testing, hoping for a match.
"Nobody can tell me that there's not someone who knows something," said Carpenter.
In this quiet country community, where most people keep to themselves, this family wants to remind folks there could be a killer still among them.
"For this person, for this monster to still be out there living everyday as if it's normal, is not fair, it's not right, that person needs to come forward," said Tammy Jones, the victim's sister.
KHOU looked into how long families like this one are waiting for DNA test results to come back from the Texas DPS Crime Lab. We requested records for the last 3 years and found the average turn around time was 212 days. The longest wait time was more than 3 years. A DPS spokesman blamed a lack of funding from state lawmakers for the slow process. When KHOU, asked how much longer Carpenter's case could take, they couldn't give us a specific time frame.
If you have information on the case, please call Brazoria County Crime Stoppers 1-800-460-2222.