Boyfriend of Zuzu Verk accused of ‘concealing human corpse,’ police say

The boyfriend of a missing woman was arrested Saturday morning after human remains were found in a shallow grave near where Zuzu Verk, a 22-year-old college student from north Fort Worth, went missing on Oct. 12.

Robert Fabian, 25, the last person believed to have seen her, was arrested on a warrant around 9 a.m. The warrant accuses him of “tampering with or fabricating physical evidence by concealing a human corpse,” police said in a news release.

The arrest comes one day after human remains were found in northwest Alpine.

Verk is a graduate of Timber Creek High School in the Keller school district, and was attending Sul Ross State University in Alpine at the time of her disappearance.

Alpine Police Chief Russell Scown told a Midland-Odessa TV station that evidence found at the scene appears to be consistent with a match to Verk but the remains have not been officially identified yet.

Alpine police are assisting the Brewster County Sheriff’s Office at the site where the remains were found in a shallow grave, just off a road.

The remains will be sent to the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth on Monday for identification and there will likely not be any updates until then, police said.

Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson said the remains were scattered around the area, requiring officials to do an extensive search, CBS 7 reported. He said the shallow grave was well hidden and that they were lucky to have found the remains as personnel do not normally work in that area.

The area where the remains were discovered had been searched before, Dodson told CBS 7, but that vegetation was greener and thicker at the time.

Texas Rangers are assisting with the ongoing investigation, and police said evidence collection could take several days.

This story was originally published February 4, 2017 at 10:04 AM with the headline "Boyfriend of Zuzu Verk accused of ‘concealing human corpse,’ police say."