A convicted murderer on the run since escaping a prison bus after stabbing its driver on May 12 may be driving the truck linked to the deaths of five people, Texas prison system officials said late Thursday.
In a statement, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice says investigators were searching near Centerville, Texas, for Gonzalo Lopez when they received a call from someone concerned after not hearing from an elderly relative.
Officers went to the home along Texas Route 7 west of Centerville and found the bodies of two adults and three children. Gone was a white 1999 Chevrolet Silverado with the Texas license plate DPV4520. Lopez was believed to be driving the truck and may be armed, prison system officials said.
No other information was immediately released by prison officials or the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Lopez, 46, has been the subject of an intensive search since his escape from the prison bus near Centerville. He was being transported in a caged area of the bus from a prison in Gatesville, more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the place where he escaped, to one in Huntsville for a medical appointment when he escaped in Leon County, a rural area between Dallas and Houston, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has said.
Centerville is the county seat of Leon County, which has roughly 16,000 residents and is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of the state’s Huntsville prison headquarters.
The department has said Lopez somehow freed himself from his hand and leg restraints, cut through the expanded metal of the cage and crawled from the bottom. He then attacked the driver, who stopped the bus and got into an altercation with Lopez, and they both eventually got off the bus.
A second officer at the rear of the bus then exited and approached Lopez, who got back on the bus and started driving down the road, the department said.
The officers fired at Lopez and disabled the bus by shooting the rear tire, the department said. The bus then traveled a short distance before leaving the roadway, where Lopez got out and ran into the woods.
Lopez was serving a life prison sentence for a 2006 conviction of murdering a man along the Texas-Mexico border. TDCJ Inspector General Cris Love had said anyone found to be helping or harboring Lopez will face not only arrest and prosecution, but he believes is also “putting themselves in danger.”
“Lopez has a complete disregard for human life and will do what it takes to avoid capture,” Love said. “We will take this investigation wherever it leads us until Lopez is back in custody.”
At some point during the escape, Lopez stabbed the driver, whose wounds weren’t life-threatening, the department said.
A $50,000 reward for information leading to Lopez’s capture is offered.
