Dale Devon Scheanette: The Arlington “Bathtub Killer”
Overview
Dale Devon Scheanette was an American serial rapist and murderer who terrorized women in the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas during the late 1990s. He became known as the “Bathtub Killer” because his two confirmed murder victims were sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape, strangled and left facedown in partially filled bathtubs inside their Arlington apartments. Both murders occurred in 1996 at the same apartment complex, and the similarities between the crime scenes immediately suggested that one offender was responsible.
Scheanette was born on May 7, 1973, in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. He later moved to Texas and worked in several manual-labor positions, including as a machine operator, warehouse worker, forklift operator and laborer. Before investigators identified him as a murder suspect, he had no significant violent criminal record. His ability to avoid identification allowed him to continue attacking women for several years after the two Arlington murders.
The Murder of Christine Huyen Vu
On September 17, 1996, Christine Huyen Vu was found dead in the bathroom of her apartment in Arlington, Texas. Vu was an elementary school teacher who taught third grade. Her boyfriend discovered her body lying facedown in a partially filled bathtub and contacted the police.
Vu’s wrists, ankles and neck had been restrained with duct tape. Investigators determined that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Drowning also contributed to her death. The apartment showed no obvious signs of forced entry, and valuables had not been taken, leading detectives to dismiss robbery as the primary motive.
At the time of the murder, Scheanette and his wife lived in the same apartment complex. This gave him familiarity with the property and may have allowed him to move through the area without immediately attracting attention. Biological evidence was recovered, but investigators initially had no identified suspect whose DNA or fingerprints could be compared with the evidence.
The Murder of Wendie Rochelle Prescott
Three months later, on December 24, 1996, 22-year-old Wendie Rochelle Prescott was murdered in another apartment at the same Arlington complex. Prescott worked as a teacher’s aide at Emma Nash Elementary School in Mansfield and was attending college with the goal of becoming a teacher.
Prescott had planned to go Christmas shopping with her sister but failed to arrive. Concerned relatives went to her apartment that evening. Her uncle entered the residence and discovered her body facedown in a partially filled bathtub. Like Vu, Prescott had been sexually assaulted, restrained with duct tape and strangled.
Investigators observed striking similarities between the two murders. Both women worked in elementary education, lived at the same apartment complex and were attacked inside their homes. Both were bound in a similar manner and left in bathtubs. Detectives also found comparable injuries to the victims’ foreheads. The matching details convinced authorities that the murders were connected.
A fingerprint recovered from a television stand in Prescott’s apartment became an important piece of evidence. However, the print did not match anyone then contained in law-enforcement databases. DNA evidence was also preserved, but without a known suspect, the case remained unsolved for several years.
Confirmed Murder Victims
- Christine Huyen Vu — Killed on September 17, 1996, inside her apartment in Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas. Vu was an elementary school teacher who was sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape, strangled and left in a partially filled bathtub.
- Wendie Rochelle Prescott — Killed on December 24, 1996, inside her apartment in Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas. Prescott was a 22-year-old elementary school teacher’s aide who was sexually assaulted, restrained, strangled and left facedown in her bathtub.
Later Sexual Assaults
Although the murders stopped after December 1996, Scheanette continued committing violent attacks. DNA evidence eventually connected him to at least five sexual assaults committed between 1998 and 1999 in Lancaster, Arlington and Grand Prairie. His victims survived, but their accounts demonstrated that he remained a dangerous and methodical predator.
- September 21, 1998 — Lancaster, Texas: Scheanette broke into a woman’s apartment and sexually assaulted her.
- October 2, 1998 — Texas: A female Dallas police officer returned home and encountered Scheanette inside her residence. He took her service weapon, used it to threaten her and sexually assaulted her.
- December 18, 1998 — Lancaster, Texas: Scheanette concealed his face, forced his way into a first-floor apartment and sexually assaulted the woman living there.
- February 22, 1999 — Arlington, Texas: A University of Texas at Arlington student was attacked and sexually assaulted inside a sorority house.
- October 26, 1999 — Grand Prairie, Texas: Scheanette entered the apartment of a 22-year-old woman through a sliding glass door and sexually assaulted her.
The attacks occurred in separate communities and initially appeared to be unrelated. Once investigators obtained Scheanette’s DNA, however, comparisons with evidence from the unsolved cases revealed a pattern connecting him to the women’s assaults and the Arlington murders.
The Fingerprint Breakthrough
The investigation changed after Scheanette became involved in an unrelated property crime. In March 1999, he was arrested following a burglary at a car-audio business in DeSoto, Texas. His fingerprints were collected and entered into the national identification system.
Arlington detectives had continued submitting the unidentified fingerprint from Prescott’s apartment for comparison. In 2000, the FBI’s fingerprint system matched it to Scheanette. Detectives then obtained biological samples from him through a search warrant. Laboratory testing connected his DNA to evidence recovered from the murders of Vu and Prescott.
The DNA comparison also linked Scheanette to several previously unsolved sexual assaults. What had initially appeared to be separate attacks across different Texas cities was revealed to be the work of the same offender. Scheanette was arrested as a murder suspect on September 5, 2000.
Charges and Trial
On November 17, 2000, a Tarrant County grand jury indicted Scheanette on two counts of capital murder and additional sexual-assault charges. Prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty. Although he was charged in connection with both Arlington murders, the state first prosecuted him for the killing of Wendie Prescott.
Scheanette’s capital-murder trial began in January 2003. Prosecutors presented fingerprint evidence from Prescott’s apartment, DNA evidence recovered after the attack and testimony concerning the other crimes linked to him. The prosecution argued that the evidence established not only his responsibility for Prescott’s murder but also a continuing pattern of violent sexual offenses.
On January 8, 2003, the jury found Scheanette guilty of capital murder in the death of Wendie Prescott. During the punishment phase, prosecutors introduced evidence connecting him to Christine Vu’s murder and the surviving sexual-assault victims. The jury determined that he presented a continuing danger and sentenced him to death.
Because Scheanette received a death sentence for Prescott’s murder, prosecutors did not conduct a separate trial for the murder of Christine Vu. He was therefore never convicted in a second murder trial, although fingerprint and DNA evidence connected him to Vu’s killing.
Appeals and Execution
Scheanette pursued appeals through the Texas and federal court systems. His attorneys challenged portions of the trial and death sentence, but the courts upheld his conviction. Requests to stop the execution were unsuccessful.
On February 10, 2009, Dale Devon Scheanette was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas. He was 35 years old. Relatives of Christine Vu and Wendie Prescott attended the execution. Scheanette did not confess to the murders in his final statement and instead claimed that no criminal case was free from error. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.
Impact of the Crimes
The murders created intense fear within the Arlington apartment community. Residents knew that the victims had been attacked inside their own homes, yet there was no immediately identifiable intruder. The fact that both women worked in elementary education and lived near one another made the crimes appear especially targeted, although investigators never established that their occupations were the reason they were selected.
The case also demonstrated the growing importance of fingerprint databases and forensic DNA testing. Detectives preserved evidence and repeatedly submitted the unidentified fingerprint for comparison. The eventual entry of Scheanette’s prints into the national system transformed an unrelated arrest into the break investigators had sought for nearly four years.
Scheanette is generally classified as a serial killer because he murdered two victims during separate incidents and continued committing violent sexual crimes over an extended period. His confirmed record consists of the murders of Christine Huyen Vu and Wendie Rochelle Prescott, along with at least five sexual assaults in which the victims survived. His capture ended a series of attacks that had remained disconnected and unsolved until forensic evidence exposed the same offender behind them.
