Officers recover body at Cade Lake
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MICHAEL McFARLANE
Burleson County sheriff’s deputies and the Texas Rangers recovered the body of a missing man on Tuesday, July 9, at Cade Lake, and a 35-year-old Cade Lake man was arrested on a murder charge. Michael Leonard McFarlane was charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence and remained in Burleson County custody late Tuesday, said DPS Sgt. Jimmy Morgan.
McFarlane was being held on $400,000 bond on the murder charge and $25,000 bond on the tampering charge, set by Burleson County Pct. 4 Justice of the Peace Robert Urbanosky. Morgan said McFarlane is charged in the murder of Zachary Edward Evan Rockwell, 36, formerly of Arkansas. Morgan said Rockwell was staying in Burleson County, and his father in Arkansas, who last saw him on May 27, had reported him missing to sheriff’s deputies on Sunday morning, July 7.
The father said he had not heard from Rockwell and was concerned, Morgan said. Sheriff’s investigators, with the assistance of the Texas Rangers, were investigating the disappearance on Monday when they discovered new information that led investigators to the body at 11 a.m. in a grave at a residence in the 1300 block of Tiger Lane, Morgan said. The body was sent ARREST FROM PAGE ONE to the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office in Austin to be positively identified and to determine a cause of death, Morgan said. Investigators were continuing work on the case late Tuesday and had no further information, he said.
Morgan said he could not comment at this time on the details of the arrest, on a possible motive, on how Rockwell was killed or whether a murder weapon had been recovered at the scene. Morgan said Burleson County Sheriff Thomas Norsworthy and deputies, Texas Rangers and DPS troopers investigated at the scene on Tuesday.