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Several Agencies Involved in Dig on Farm Field

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(March 11, 2008)

JIM WELLS COUNTY--Law officers are digging for clues to help explain a suspicious death from 16 years ago in which a body was found in Jim Wells County. It's not being called a homicide just yet, but they're treating the case as if it were as they try to find out what happened to a 19 year old woman from Victoria.

Authorities said skeletal remains were found in the brush of a farm field three years ago. They identified the woman as April Ann Repka and they said she went missing in the summer of 1991.

Between Alice and Ben Bolt, just off Farm-to-Market Road 625, several officers are looking for evidence in a cold case investigation. They're looking into the death of Repka whose skeletal remains were found here three years ago and identified last year. The Victoria woman was reported missing by her family in 1991 and never seen again.

Some area property owners didn't know about the discovery made in their own backyard.

"I just heard about it," said Travis Burris, who owns property in the area. "That they were escavating human remains of a body that they have been out here a couple of years."

The FBI, Texas Rangers and crime investigators from the Jim Wells and Victoria County Sheriff's Department were digging in the area where the human remains were found. You could see them with shovels and metal detectors as they kept reporters far away from the scene. Investigators were hoping to find something to help determine what happened to Repka.

"Whatever she had on that day that she did go missing and gather as much evidence as we can," said Sgt. Gino Martinez, who works for the Jim Wells County Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff investigators aren't sure if Repka died here or somewhere else in the Coastal Bend. After a day of digging, they wouldn't say what they found, but told us it would help out their investigation.

"Anything we can find that we can use to help solve this crime will assist us in finding out what happened to her," said Investigator Anthony Daniel of the Victoria County Sheriff's Department.

Investigators will be processing the evidence collected from the scene, then decide if this death was a homicide.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com