A Texas woman has been taken into custody on suspicion of murder and theft in connection with her missing Houston landlord.
Pamela Ann Merritt, 43, is accused of the murder of Colin Kerdachi, 78, whose body was discovered hidden beneath a staircase months after his disappearance. The investigation, marked by a series of revelations, has caught the attention of both law enforcement and the community.
Kerdachi was first reported missing in February 2021 during a severe winter storm that caused power outages throughout the city.
The case took a peculiar turn when Joe Guy, a tenant of Kerdachi’s, reported seeing Merritt inside the home shortly after the landlord’s disappearance. Guy alleged that Merritt confessed to killing Kerdachi. Despite undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at the time, Merritt managed to evade law enforcement’s scrutiny.
Later in the year, a new tenant, Tabitha Pope, alerted the police to concerning signs in the building, including pools of blood and a knife. This discovery set off a sequence of events that led to Merritt and her boyfriend, Michael Brown, becoming prime suspects. Pope managed to extract information from the couple, eventually eliciting a confession about the whereabouts of Kerdachi’s body.
Upon locating the remains in December 2021, authorities found that Kerdachi had been brutally stabbed multiple times. However, Merritt insisted with peculiar claims that the remains were of a dog and suggested that Kerdachi had staged his death and fled to Africa.
A warrant for Merritt’s arrest was issued on May 30, 2023. Her evasive tactics continued until recently when she was apprehended without incident. She is now in custody at Harris County Jail, facing serious charges of murder and theft, with a bond set at $500,000.