Do you know who murdered Teressa McCoy?
On the day after Christmas in 2017, a chilling discovery was made in the parking lot of a Louisville, Kentucky, auto parts store. Inside a new Yukon SUV, 27-year-old Teressa McCoy, a white female and mother of two, was found shot to death, still secured in her seatbelt. The vehicle had been left in the lot on Strawberry Lane the previous evening.
McCoy's death was intertwined with the disappearance of her friend, 27-year-old Austin Gamez. The two had plans to meet on December 26, the day Gamez went missing, to look at a house Teressa was interested in buying. Gamez's mother last had contact with him via text message at 5:04 p.m. that day. It is believed that sometime between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., Gamez picked up McCoy in the rental SUV. He had also reportedly visited the home of a friend, Larry Sauer, to purchase pills.
The investigation into the double homicide led police to Sauer and his next-door neighbor, Thomas Lanham. In December 2019, nearly two years after the murders, both men were charged in connection with the deaths of McCoy and Gamez. The arrests were the result of evidence gathered from search warrants, phone records, and video records.
Despite the initial breakthrough, the path to justice took a frustrating turn. The charges against both Sauer and Lanham were later dropped. Prosecutors dismissed the cases after it was determined that the DNA evidence did not conclusively tie them to the crimes. Although the charges were dropped, the case remains an active investigation. In March 2023, the FBI and Louisville Metro Police conducted a search, including digging, at a home on Ottawa Avenue connected to the case, signaling that authorities have not given up on finding answers for the families of Teressa McCoy and Austin Gamez.
