Megan Curl

An apartment fire is a cover for an unsolved murder.

Smiling Megan Curl with short dark hair

Megan Curl
A police sketch of a caucasian man with long hair, glasses, and mustache

A police sketch of the suspect

CASE DETAILS

On March 26, 2000, the Lufkin, Texas Fire Department arrived at the scene of an apartment fire. As firefighters extinguished the blaze, they discovered a chilling scene. Tied to the posts of the bed was the charred body of a woman. Lieutenant David Young was immediately called in to investigate:

“She had been suffocated with a plastic bag and her throat had been cut very deeply, two different cuts, one on each side. And then the bed had been set afire. This crime was absolutely the meanest thing I’ve ever seen one person do to another.”

A police sketch of a caucasian man wearing a cowboy hat and sporting a mustache

He’s not a suspect, but may have clues

Dental records identified the victim as Megan Curl, a 26-year-old woman who had been a Lufkin resident for five years. In the first grade, Megan had been diagnosed with mild retardation, requiring that she attend special education classes. According to her mother, Sherry McClung, Megan’s life was never easy:

“She wasn’t always accepted. People would make fun of her, put her down. And she’d always come back with a kind word for them.”

When Megan was in high school, her family settled in Lufkin, 175 miles southeast of Dallas. When she was 18, Megan got married and moved to Arkansas with her new husband, but the marriage was abusive and the two separated. According to Sherry McClung, Megan returned to Lufkin and insisted on getting her own apartment:

“Because Megan was so trusting and was so outgoing, she tended to be an easy target for some of these men. Men absolutely could tell that Megan wanted to please, that Megan wanted somebody to care for her, and that she was lonely. And I think that that is a part of what happened here.”

On the night of her murder, Megan went to a local nightclub. According to Lieutenant Young, it was there that she was seen talking to a man:

“That man did buy her one or two drinks. No one at the club knew who this man was, and no one reported ever seeing him there before or since. She went to another club, called the Sports Shack, just a little ways down the road from the Electric Cowboy club. She talked to some people there and caught a ride with an employee of the Sports Shack home.”

A man looking up at a second story apartment thats engulfed in flames

Flames ripped through Megan’s apartment

Megan arrived home just after 1:30 AM. A close friend who lived in the same apartment complex waited up for Megan to hear the details of her night out. Megan’s friend requested that her identity not be revealed:

“Well we were standing out there talking and all of a sudden, there’s this guy in his car, and he was speeding really fast, and he just did a dead stop. I went back into the apartment. And then when I went back out, the car was still there, but neither one of them was there. They were gone.”

Her friend was concerned and went up to Megan’s apartment to check on her. When Megan answered the door, the friend noticed that the driver from earlier was with Megan:

“She said, ‘I was right. It was my friend from the club.’ And I looked down to him, and he just nodded his head slowly and didn’t say a word. And I didn’t speak to him at all, either. I said, ‘Well, are you sure you’re ok?’ And she said, ‘Yes, I’m fine.’”

Megan's neighbor sitting on the stoop of her apartments watching a car drive away

Megan’s neighbor was worried

It was the last time she would see Megan alive. According to Lieutenant Young, Megan’s body was found with the remnants of a nightgown on:

“Most of it had burned off. In interviewing men from her past, we learned that her normal sleeping attire would be something along the lines of shorts and a t-shirt. But if she were going to be romantically involved, she would sometimes wear a negligee or a nightgown. We feel, because of that, she knew this person and was preparing for an intimate evening with him.”

For Megan’s mother, the very thought that her daughter was killed by someone she trusted only added to her grief:

“I believe that Megan knew who the murderer was because she got in the car with this person. Megan would have gotten in the car with a person that she knew. There was not a forced entry.”

Investigators questioned several men with whom Megan Curl was known to have had relationships. However, each man was able to account for his whereabouts on the night of the murder. Police consider the unidentified man in Megan’s apartment as the prime suspect in her murder. The man is white, with blond hair and a light mustache. On the night of her murder, he wore gold-rimmed glasses.

Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season twelve with Robert Stack and in season one with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.

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28 Comments

  1. Ashley Lynn

    I really believe that her ex husband had another inmate he was friends with in prison kill her ..I mean it kinda makes perfect sense .He was released one week prior to her murder and because she testified against him before he was released his parole was revoked and he was already abusive and i imagine her doing that made him so angry he mightve been friends with a possible killer that offered to do it for him .And i can tell u that once he set fire to her bed he was long gone out of Lufkin and possibly out of Texas ..He could be back in prison now but it was someone her ex abusive husband knew for sure ..Because the manor of which she died was an angry killing ..Tim Purvis her ex mightve told this guy to leave her unrecognizable due to anger he had towards her…

    Reply

  2. Georgina

    I think the woman who witnessed this mysterious man should be looked at! The whole story that was told sounded sketchy.. Why would she be so worried she had a man over . Sounds like a made up events. Usually when people die it usually closer to home. Investigators need to look closer to home. And find out all about this friendship and how close were they and was there any jealousy. My guts not buying the story. I have this gift and when I get it it is usually right. My daughter didn’t believe me , she thought I was crazy til I had a feeling my grandma died and at the same moments my grandpa died, I told her and said never mind I know I sound crazy then next day my family showed up in Seattle where I was living told me my grandma died and as soon as we buried her my grandma my grandpa died. She doesn’t think I am crazy anymore because I can feel things I don’t understand. They need to look at the people near her.

    Reply

  3. Barbara G Wells

    The man with glasses is Gary Wallace he the one whom kill Megan and the cowboy hat is Keith Easta these two men are best friend. Their was a big hit on Meagan from Deanna Ramirez. Deanna and Megan was fighting in 2000.

    Reply

  4. Mari

    Does it seem like maybe she was making a love interests upset. Maybe she thought or at least threatened a pregnancy on a man who was married. Or it could be that she was just threatening or evening just playing around with an idea like this not realizing how a threat like that could sound to a man trying to keep his image up. It really seems like we need to know what emotional intelligence she had. And only her exs and friends who saw her around that time could really help. Any link or articles about interviews that went more in dept about her personality and what exactly made her so vulnerable.

    Reply

  5. Barbara G Wells

    Both these men are in jail but there more people are involved!! Im fighting for justice!!! Same people murder my dad, my granddaughter and all these bad thing they doing to me. The F I and Detective are in my life.

    Reply

  6. Heather Gonzalez

    I know who killed her. I’m 100% sure of it. I know who killed Megan Curl..

    Reply

  7. Heather

    The picture of the suspect resembles the other sketch with glasses..HELLO!!! It’s the same man. There is only one killer. ONE!

    Reply

  8. Tack Linn

    It seems to me that the composite of the unidentified man in the cowboy hat resembles the composite of “Jason” from the Jonathan Francia case

    Reply

    • Jennifer Rapaport

      I just looked this up to say the same thing. I saw these episodes on the same day on Pluto and thought that “Jason” looked like Matthew Macounaghy and joked about it with my husband and the. This story came on later and it seemed like the same guy!

      Reply

  9. carlos p montenegro

    I pray for her

    Reply

  10. Chanita

    Apparently The Killer have landed Himself in hot Hot Water with The Authorities He Did Not Have Enough Respect for That WomanThat Is A Sick Human Being!

    Reply

  11. Blue bird

    CMPD!

    Reply

  12. LUIS FREEH

    ONLY THE “SHERIFF” COULD TELL U WHAT “GOLD RIMMED GLASSES” IS CUZ HE THE ONE CLAIMING “KKK” AND MAKIN ALL THE FRAMS KKK.

    Reply

  13. Concerned Citizen

    There is a striking resemblance between the leutinent (the man who spoke the most about the case on camera) and the suspect (with glasses) in the sketch. Unbelievable. Right in front of your face.

    Reply

  14. Cory

    This breaks my heart she was an Angel. Just wanted someone to love her. I was in special ed as a kid and was an outcast as well. Would be awesome to be her friend

    Reply

  15. Big daddy

    So who was it?…did they ever catch him?

    Reply

  16. anonymous

    The guy is responsible for the 1991 yogurt shop murders. This resembles it.

    Reply

  17. Bernard Short

    I remember watching that story 15 years ago back on television plus I later bought the Unsolved Mysteries Bizarre Murders dvd which had the segment even though in Megan’s younger years she was an outcast but I remember watching her story over the years & still haven’t gotten any updates about any one arrested around that time because some one did witnessed the man’s face & was able to tell investigators about what this fella looks like but over the years I’ve seen no more updates ever since.

    Reply

  18. Marcela Ruby

    I would have said the same thing but when this happened Glen Leroy Rogers was already in Prison in Florida- Death Row 1999

    Reply

  19. Anonymous

    Glen Rogers!!

    Reply

  20. my name is Debbi Washington

    I believe that this young precious woman could have been killed by a known serial killer. The destcription of her body describers not only the way he murdered woman by stabbing gashing method. but also how he set ablaze one of his victims an old man who let him stay with him was found dead in his house that had been set on fire to cover up the murder with a message in writing on the wall saying I have to get out of here or something tothat affect. I believe that it should not have taken this long to catch this guy. He is in prison on death row in California I believe I can’t remember his name but he claims to have killed about seventy people mostly women and in a brutal fashion like. He claimed to have killed women in texas although the police did not believe he killed so many his brother did a documentary called my brother the serial killer he has blond hari blue eyes blond mustache and was very good lookin and is known as an extremely good charmer. So he would have been able to charme the pants off of anyone. I would check into this if I were you his name can be found on the internet because he claimed to have been the culprit of Nicole brown simpsons and ron goldman murder for ojay because ojay did not want to get his hands dirtyl There is a picture of him along with Nicole brown and ojay. He told his brother that he was going to take Nicole brown down because her an ojay had money. And if you look at the method in the way Nicole brown was killed her throat gashed to the point of almost decapitation it is worth looking into this man was sick from the time he was a child and everytime he meets a woman he ends up brutally killing her and trying to cover it up plus he is extremely strong. please look into it talk to him at least what do you stand to lose. I investigated my nephew’s death so I can pretty much tell somethings. I believe hie may be the killer of your daughter because if she was so nice as you describe he had to be a serial madman to have done her like that. good luck Debbie Washington God Bless you and the invstigator who will try and look into this cuy.

    Reply

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