Woman, child found dead in southwest Fort Worth

Amber Bentley had just dropped her kids off at school Tuesday morning when she noticed the wrecked Toyota and pushed her OnStar button to alert police.

“There’s always deer in that field,” said Bentley, referring to the property near Dirks and Bryant Irvin roads in southwest Fort Worth. “I was looking for the deer and I saw the car … It was against a tree and the hood was smashed in and the driver’s side door was open. I was hollering asking if everybody was OK, hoping if somebody was in there that they could at least respond.”

It was about 8:20 a.m. and because she still had a child with her, she was unable to get closer and investigate further. After Fort Worth police arrived she watched as one of the officers searched around the car. She soon left, unaware whether anyone had been found.

Later Tuesday, after picking up her daughter from school, she saw the swarm of police and media near the site. When she heard that a woman and child had been found dead not far from where the car had crashed, she broke into tears.

“That’s heartbreaking,” said Bentley, 29. “I have four kids. I couldn’t imagine.”

Police did not discover the bodies on their initial search of the property southwest of where Bryan Irvin Road intersects Dirks Road, less than a mile east of Mira Vista Golf Club.

Instead, a man who had gone to the property about 11 a.m. to repair a broken fence — some cattle had gotten through — found the woman on top of a child about 200 yards from the wrecked car, authorities said.

Natosha Tucker, a police spokeswoman, said homicide and traffic investigators are looking into whether the deceased came from the wrecked car.

It was not clear whether the damage to the fence was caused by the Toyota. Bentley said she saw tire tracks near where the barbed wire was broken.

Police said no identification was found on the bodies, which were removed from the field about 4:45 p.m.

This story was originally published January 13, 2015 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Woman, child found dead in southwest Fort Worth."