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Nearly five years after kindergarten teacher Katherine "Kathy" Lynn Stobaugh vanished, Texas Rangers arrested her husband at his home Thursday on a charge of murder, in a move to close a case that brought national attention to a small community north of Sanger.
The arrest came shortly after a Denton County grand jury indictment was filed Thursday accusing Charles Stobaugh, 54, of killing his wife "by manner and means unknown."He is being held at Denton County Jail on a $100,000 bond. Stobaugh's attorney said he did not know of the indictment.Jamie Beck, first assistant criminal district attorney, said she cannot go into details because the case is pending. "All I can tell you is that new evidence isn't what brought the investigation to go forward," she said.Katherine Stobaugh, a mother of two, went missing in 2004. Charles Stobaugh has said that he does not know what happened to his wife but declined several times to take a lie detector test. His 105-acre ranch was searched for clues by Texas Rangers and sheriff's deputies, as was 62 acres of cleared farmland adjacent to his property.Her body was never found.On Thursday, her family listened in disbelief as a judge read the indictment because so much time has passed since her disappearance, said Chris Munday, Stobaugh's brother.The case got a second look in August after Denton County prosecutor Cary Piel finished another murder case, Beck said. He asked Texas Ranger Tracy Murphree after the trial if he had any cold cases, and Murphree mentioned the Stobaugh investigation, Beck said.Piel is not allowed to talk to the media, Beck said, and Murphree could not be reached for comment Thursday."They've been working on it for the last several months and finally felt like they had enough to present it to a grand jury," Beck said.Munday, of Mansfield, said authorities contacted him a couple of months ago for what he assumed was another question and interview session. Instead, they told him they were taking the case to the grand jury. The indictment left him with mixed emotions."Happy and sad — happy something is getting done about it," he said. "Sad we have to do it ... that my sister is no longer with us."But equally important is making sure whoever committed the crime will pay, he said.He said that his sister lived in a controlling and abusive marriage and that her family had become estranged from her because of it. But after she separated from Charles Stobaugh, things started to change, he said."We started to get close like we were before," he said. "I miss talking to her like we were and just getting to know each other" again.The case stretches back to Dec. 29, 2004, when Stobaugh, 43, was last seen at her estranged husband's home north of Sanger. She had already filed for divorce from Stobaugh, who was the last person to see her. She had also requested a temporary restraining order against him.The year before, in December, she had graduated with honors from Texas Woman's University and later began teaching.According to a Web site the family set up after she disappeared, Stobaugh was last seen wearing a white shirt, gray flannel pants and a black hooded jacket. She drove a cream-beige color 2000 Lincoln Town Car. It was found with the keys in it parked in her estranged husband's driveway.Her teenage daughter reported her missing. A reward for information about the case eventually grew to $61,000.From the beginning, law enforcement authorities suspected foul play, and Charles Stobaugh remained the only suspect, authorities have said.Soon Katherine Stobaugh's relatives took to searching for her on their own. They combed through a local cemetery and a dry creek bed for clues as to whether she was alive or dead. They conducted more than 20 such searches.In 2007, the case was featured on the NBC news program Dateline, and the family had hopes that the show would produce tips on the case. But more than two years passed before Thursday's indictment.Munday said it is very important to the family that they recover Stobaugh's remains."We're realistic knowing that we may never know where she's at," he said. "He's got all the answers. If he never tells us, we'll never know."DARREN BARBEE, 817-390-7126, GENE TRAINOR, 817-390-7419
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