Transcript of Austin Police Department press conference 12/20/2019 (after suspect arrest)
Chief Brian Manley: Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming out for an update on the investigation into the missing mother and child from here in Austin. I appreciate your patience in waiting for this briefing today. I want to introduce a few of the folks that are here with me that will be speaking at this press conference today. Special agent in charge of the FBI Christopher Combs, I have Margaret Moore the Travis County district attorney, with us representing DPS is Todd Snyder who is the Regional Director, and then Austin Police Department detective Brad Herries.
I want to identify at the beginning of this press conference that we will go against our standard practice of taking questions at the end of this press conference because this is still a very active and ongoing investigation we have multiple teams as investigators that are different jurisdictions as we speak in this room today that are still investigating this case. So we are going to give you all of the information that we can share at this point. We understand there is a tremendous amount of interest in this case. But we're going to give you all the information that we can, and we commit to you that we will give you updates as we can without impacting the integrity of this investigation. It is heartbreaking circumstances that bring us here today as you all are well aware that there has been a lot that has developed in the overnight hours. This all began back on December 12th when 33 year old Heidi Broussard and infant daughter two week old baby Margot Casey[sic] were last seen as they dropped off their sibling and their son at school and we have been investigating their disappearance since that time. On Tuesday APD detective Herries gave a very thorough briefing to the media on what had been developed at that point through the investigation, and there's a lot that has happened since that time, most notably the events that took place out in the Houston and Harris County area overnight and into the early morning hours today.
Detective Herries will give you a briefing here momentarily updating the specifics of what took place. But what we will confirm at this point is that we did recover an infant female child that we do believe at this time is Margot, however we are awaiting the results of DNA testing to confirm that identity, and that testing may take us between 48 and 72 hours to get that confirmation. Additionally we recovered the body of an adult female. We do believe that this is Ms. Broussard, however again we are awaiting the results of the autopsy to confirm her identity.
We do have one person that has been arrested and charged. The charges that have been filed at this point are two charges of kidnapping and one charge of tampering with a corpse. We are not confirming the identity of the suspect at this time. I do understand that there are pictures being circulated and names being circulated in the media, however we're not going to confirm again to protect the integrity of this ongoing investigation. There may be additional charges that are filed in this case as the investigation carries on and that will be determined as we develop more information and uncover more evidence.
This was a tremendous undertaking by the many different divisions that I will recognize before detective Herries comes up and gives a briefing several units from the Office of Police Department participated in this investigation to include our homicide division, our missing persons division, our Special Investigations Unit, and our Robbery Unit, our Violent Crimes Task Force, our organized crime division, the Texas DPS Rangers were involved, the Travis County District Attorney's Office, the FBI, the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team, their CARD squad was here, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Travis County search and rescue, and Child Protective Services all pulled together to work on this case. Again everyone hoping for an outcome different than the one that appears
that we had and that is with the loss of life, and although we are grateful that it appears as though we have safely recovered baby Margot again we do believe that that Ms. Broussard lost her lives in this incident. Detective Herries will now come up and give you a briefing on the events that have taken place in this investigation over the past 24 hours.
Det. Brad Herries: Good afternoon my name is Brad Herries. I'm a detective with the Austin Police Department cold case homicide and missing persons unit. I'm going to go through a brief timeline of the events that have happened in the past seven or eight days. This is this is not all-inclusive. On Thursday December 12th, 2019 Heidi Broussard, a 33 year old white female, and her two-week-old baby Margot were last seen dropping off Heidi's six-year-old child at his school at Cowan Elementary. Heidi and Margot are believed to have returned to their residence in the area of William Cannon and South First at approximately 7:30 in the morning on December 12th. The complainant arrived home and found that Heidi, his girlfriend, and Margot, his daughter, were not home. As the day progressed, the complainant went to pick up their six-year-old child from after school activities and found that Margot was not there. The complaint became alarmed and contacted the Austin Police Department along with friends and family trying to find the location of his girlfriend and daughter. The Austin Police Department was contacted at approximately 9:00, I'm sorry, 7:31 p.m. on December 12th. Officers on scene began an investigation. They searched for them both there in the complex, conducted preliminary investigations, and contacted me that evening on December 12th, 2019. At that time a BOLO was issued that's a "be on the lookout" within our department. Both were entered into national and statewide databases as missing, and their information was dispersed throughout the community using a reverse 911 system that reached over 4,000 people in that area. Their images and descriptions were released to the media later in the morning of December 12th, excuse me, of December 13th, 2019. We utilized various resources and legal processes in the attempt to locate Heidi and Margot. This has been an ongoing process with numerous warrants that have been been approved and executed in the search for them. We have spoken with family, with friends, with co-workers, with neighbors, we have canvassed the areas that we know them to have been in, and we have done video canvasses of any areas that we have believed them to have been in. We conducted video surveillance in association with some of our federal and state wide partners, we have done extensive video collection, online and social media research, interviews, phone calls, and these investigations have gone across Texas and gone across out of state lines. NCMEC, one of our partners, released a nationwide flyer with images depicting Margo and Heidi. As we progress through this investigation local, state, and federal partners followed tips and leads that were provided by the public. We received numerous calls to our tip lines, notifications online, various tips of people who thought they had seen Heidi or Margo, had information related to their location, and those tips were vetted and explored and investigated fully. As the week progressed, this current week, a lead was generated that created a location of interest in the Houston area, in Harris County. Federal, state, and local resources deployed to that area of Harris County and began to investigate a resident there. Ultimately those investigators encountered an individual outside of that resident who was detained on Thursday December 19th, 2019. As the evening progressed a search warrant was issued for property on at that residence, both vehicles and the residence. Those search warrants were signed and were carried out by the Austin Police Department, Department of Public Safety, and with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as we conducted those searches. During that search we located a baby who is currently safe, currently healthy, currently in the care of Child Protective Services. That child's visual appearance is consistent with that of baby Margot. As the search continued, officers located a deceased adult female on the property. And as Chief Manley said earlier, early indications would lead us to believe that that is Heidi. The property in Houston continues to be an active scene, we are investigating multiple locations between Austin and Houston and in the surrounding areas. With the assistance of the FBI, state-level partners with
DPS, the Texas Rangers, and the Harris County Sheriff's Office. The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office is conducting an autopsy today of the deceased adult female to determine the cause of death, determine the manner of death, and as those as that information is released to us investigators we will continue our investigation of this event. As Chief Manley said, an arrest has been made in this case. The charges are two counts of kidnapping one count of tampering with the corpse. The total bond for the three charges is six hundred thousand dollars. That person is is in custody as we speak. As I said, this is an ongoing and active investigation. If you if you have any information related to the disappearance of Heidi Broussard and her two week now three week old daughter Margot, we ask that you contact the Austin Police Department at 512-974-5250. Yes, last name H-E-R-R-I-E-S first name Brad B-R-A-D and I'm a detective.
Christopher Combs: Good afternoon everyone. My name is Christopher Combs, I'm the FBI Special Agent in Charge. It's been a horrible week here in Austin and we had all prayed that we would be able to find Heidi alive. Unfortunately as the chief expressed, we don't believe that's the case. We are very thankful, though, that through the combined efforts here we were able to recover baby Margot, and the baby seems to be in very good health. I know everybody asks how do we do these things, how are we able to do that, some of that we can't discuss openly right now because it's ongoing. But I just wanted to stress that these recoveries happen because of dogged police work where the Austin Police Department, their missing persons unit, has done an incredible job in combination with the Texas Rangers, and with the assets that the FBI was able to bring to bear. It really is through that partnership of those agencies with a lot of other help, from a lot of other agencies that we were able to recover that baby which really is one of the greatest things I think we could do is to save a child. One of the things we brought to bear in this particular case is something called the FBI's child abduction rapid deployment team. These are national teams that the FBI has around the country that we deploy at the request of our state and local partners whenever a child is abducted. We were able to bring that team here to Austin and work next to the detectives and the Rangers to bring this case to closure. And to recover that child. The CARD teams were developed back in 2006 and through this investigation they've deployed 167 times. What that team really brings to bear is is that expertise of being through so many of these abductions, knowing how they work ...
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Travis County DA Margaret Moore: ...Margaret Moore M-O-O-R-E. Like Special Agent in Charge Combs, I wish we had completely good news today but I am proud of the efforts that have taken place here I think you think it's a demonstration of the dedication of law enforcement, the DA's office, that we spend, once the call came in we were working on it 24/7. I want to commend the dedicated lawyers in my office, two of them are standing here with me today. We established a major major crimes hotline when I took office and these attorneys take on this responsibility in addition to their regular duties so they are on call 24/7 and we got this call, they've been working and day in and day out with law enforcement to assist in getting the papers that were needed to conduct the searches and their pieces the investigation we will continue to be involved in this investigation of course as we evaluate what if any additional charges need to be brought. I always am feel very privileged to work with these dedicated individuals and I'm also pleased to be able to tell the citizens of this county how collaborative and thorough law enforcement is as we work on these major cases. I also would like to thank the Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg her office extended us every courtesy and assistance that we needed down there so expect that to continue. Thank you for being here.
Chief Brian Manley: And as we wrap up the press conference today I just want to express the heartfelt condolences of everyone you see standing here with me, our community, our department that we did not have two rescues but only one it appears. And our hearts and our minds are with Heidi and her family today and as we go forward. I appreciate you respecting that we cannot take questions because we've given you everything we can at this point. and we are committed to providing you with additional information at which time we can, when it will not impact the further and ongoing investigations. I will say though that special agent-in-charge Christopher Combs will do individual interviews if you have questions regarding the CARD team and their operations, but I will reiterate that it is only about the CARD team and their operations, and no questions regarding the investigation or the occurrences will be handled if you choose to do one of those individuals, so thank you thank you all again for coming out for covering this, and we are committed to giving you information when we can. Thank you.
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