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Fitness Instructor Allegedly Burned And Dismembered Student After Kinky Sex
Charles Bryant admits to mutilating Jacqueline Vandagriff's body but claims he didn't mean to kill her.
A Texas fitness instructor has confessed to dismembering and burning a college student's body after claiming she died during kinky sex gone wrong.
Charles Bryant, 31, faces first-degree murder charges for the gory death of 24-year-old Jacqueline Vandagriff, a student at Texas Woman's University. His trial began this week.
"Jackie had just started a new path at TWU," Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Lucas Allen said in his opening statements Monday in a Fort Worth courtroom, according to WFAA-TV in Dallas. "It was a good path until an evil destructive figure, Charles Bryant, stepped into her path."
Bryant and Vandagriff met at a Denton bar in September 2016. Just hours later, Vandagriff was dead. Bryant's 2016 indictment claims he killed Vandagriff using zip tie, a knife or machete, and another unknown object, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. A zip tie with hair fibers and a hacksaw “with potential hair on the blade” were among the dozens of items seized from Bryant’s Fort Worth home, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Vandagriff's burnt, dismembered body was found in a children’s pool in a park, according to the Dallas Morning News. Police said they found Vandagriff’s purse in Bryant’s trash.
Bryant’s attorney Glynis McGinty has argued Bryant and Vandagriff had consensual rough sex in Bryant's car. McGinty said Bryant accidentally killed the college student and then panicked and tried to cover up her death.
According to her Facebook profile, Vandagriff was a licensed esthetician who also worked as a restaurant server. She was studying nutrition in school.
Surveillance footage shows a smiling Vandagriff chatting with Bryant at a few bars around town. Hours later, surveillance video from a Wal-Mart captured Bryant buying a shovel.
Just one week before the deadly encounter, Bryant was arrested twice for allegedly stalking his teenage ex, according to court records. He has not been charged in connection with that incident.
While investigating Vandagriff’s killing, police also allegedly discovered child porn on Bryant’s phone, though charges have not been filed for that either.
[Photo: Grapevine Police Department]
