Suspect arrested in 1986 murder of Texas teenager after DNA breakthrough

A man has been arrested in the 1986 murder of 16-year-old Deanna Ogg in Montgomery County, Texas, nearly four decades after she was murdered, according to the sheriff’s office.

The arrest was announced Wednesday by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, which said Bobby Charles Taylor Sr. has been charged with murder in Ogg’s death. The investigation was carried out with help from the Texas Rangers and the FBI.

Ogg disappeared on September 27, 1986, after walking from her home in Porter, a community north of Houston, to a convenience store at FM 1314 and Sorters Road, according to the sheriff’s office.

Her body was found later that evening in a heavily wooded area off a logging road in the 17000 block of Old Houston Road, about seven miles from where she was last seen. Investigators said forensic evidence showed she had been sexually assaulted, beaten and stabbed to death.

A person had previously been convicted of a crime related to Ogg’s death, but was later exonerated after DNA technology became available and proved their innocence. A DNA sample collected from the original crime scene remained in CODIS, the national DNA database, for years without producing a match.

Investigators said the case began moving again in 2021, when Ogg’s case was found eligible for the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a program funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to help agencies resolve unsolved sexual assaults and sexually related homicides.

Using grant funds from the program, investigators turned to forensic genetic genealogy testing by Bode Technology. That work identified Taylor as the primary suspect in Ogg’s killing.

After Taylor was identified, investigators learned he was a fugitive in an unrelated felony case and was believed to be hiding in Mexico. The sheriff’s office and Texas Rangers worked with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office to secure bond-jumping charges, while the FBI helped locate him.

Taylor turned himself in to FBI agents in Mexico City on April 24 on the unrelated felony charge, according. He has since been extradited to Texas, where he was formally charged with Ogg’s murder.