Nearly 40 years after a 16-year-old girl disappeared while walking to a convenience store near her home in Texas, investigators say modern DNA technology has finally identified her killer.
Authorities announced Wednesday that Bobby Charles Taylor Sr., 60, has been charged with capital murder in the 1986 rape and killing of Deanna Ogg in Montgomery County, Texas.
Investigators say advanced forensic genetic genealogy testing tied Taylor to the decades-old case after years of dead ends – and after another man was wrongly convicted before later being exonerated through DNA evidence.
Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle described the DNA evidence as overwhelming.
“I’m told that the level of confidence is one in an octillion,” Doolittle said at a press conference. “That’s an insane number … so it’d be unreasonable to think that it’s not him. We truly believe it is.”
Ogg vanished on September 27, 1986. That evening, she left her home in Porter, north of Houston, and walked toward a convenience store near FM 1314 and Sorters Road, hoping to get a ride to a family gathering, investigators said.
Hours later, the New Caney High School student’s body was discovered in a heavily wooded area off Old Houston Road in Conroe, about seven miles from where she was last seen. Authorities said Ogg had been sexually assaulted, beaten and stabbed to death.
Roy Criner was arrested and convicted in the case in 1990, and spent 10 years in prison before DNA evidence cleared him in 2000 when updated DNA testing proved he was not responsible, authorities said.
For decades, investigators preserved DNA evidence collected from the crime scene and entered it into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, but no match was ever found.
The breakthrough came after the case was accepted into the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) program in 2020.
Previously exhausted evidence was resubmitted in 2021 for advanced DNA testing and genealogy analysis through Bode Technology. That testing ultimately identified Taylor as a suspect in 2024.
Authorities later learned Taylor was allegedly hiding in Mexico while wanted on an unrelated felony charge.
After locating him with the coordinated efforts of Texas Rangers, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, Taylor surrendered to FBI agents in Mexico City on April 24, 2026, and was extradited to Texas the following day.
He was formally charged with capital murder on May 4 and remains jailed in Montgomery County.
If convicted, he could face the death penalty or life in prison.
Deanna’s mother, now 82, read a statement during the press conference, describing her daughter as a vibrant teenager who loved music, fashion and her family, KHOU reported.
The family also expressed compassion for Taylor’s relatives, who are now just beginning their grieving process.
Despite the arrest, investigators say the case remains active as they examine Taylor’s past for possible additional victims, and ask anyone with information to contact the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Squad.
“Investigators say they aren’t done yet,” the department said in a statement.
“They want to know if there are other victims out there. If you knew Bobby Charles Taylor in the 80s, or worked with him, or have any connection at all, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office wants to hear from you.”
