BREAKING NEWS: Man charged for murder in Zoe Campos case

Posted: Nov 17, 2018 / 12:52 AM CST

Updated: Nov 19, 2018 / 08:49 AM CST

Carlos Andrew Rodriquez, 25, was charged with murder for the death of Zoe Campos.

UPDATED STORY LINK: Warrant describes Rodriquez’ confession to killing Zoe Campos

Campos was 18 years old on November 17, 2013, when she disappeared. Her car was spotted a few days after her disappearance with someone other than Campos driving it.

Police recovered the car at a Central Lubbock apartment complex and examined it for evidence. Her last cell phone ping was at Lowrey Field, and Campos had texted her mom to say she would pick up her up from work. Campos never arrived.

For five years, the case ran cold.

On Friday, police escorted an inmate from the Lubbock County Detention Center to a home in the 1900 block of 70th Street. Presumably, that inmate was Rodriquez but at the time of this report, police had not yet confirmed it. After getting direction from the inmate, police were able to dig in a specific part of the back yard and find human remains Friday evening.

Previous jail records indicated that Rodriquez at one time lived at the house. Based on a tip, police began to search around the home starting last week.

Rodriquez was arrested on November 16, 2017, for stalking and had been locked up since that time. In the stalking case, he was sentenced to four years in prison. The sentence came down in October after he accepted a guilty plea. He had not been transferred from the jail to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

In the stalking case against Rodriquez, a police report said he threatened a woman and her family.

“One of the texts makes mention of the fact that he will kill her if she doesn’t respond to him,” a police report said.

The victim in the stalking case had, in 2015, been charged with hindering police when they were trying to arrest Rodriquez in a completely different case. The hindering charge was later dropped.

Police also searched a field Wednesday on horseback to the southeast of 66th Street and Interstate 27. Police have not said if evidence was recovered in the empty field.

The home, the empty field, and the mom’s place of work are all within a mile of Lowrey Field. After her disappearance, volunteer searches for Campos took place in the neighborhood around Lowrey Field.

Specifics of the arrest warrant were not yet available. EverythingLubbock.com will provide updates when possible.