Suspect in 2019 Arlington murder arrested after DNA sample matched, police say
A suspect has been arrested in the 2019 killing of a missing 19-year-old, after DNA evidence linked the man to the crime, Arlington police said Wednesday.
The suspect, 22-year-old Darnell Jones II, faces a murder charge, police said in a news release.
Police found Jones in Chicago and he was taken into custody on Sunday, May 25, police said.
The victim, Evan Lacey, was last seen by his family on the morning of Dec. 17, 2019, when he left his home in Arlington. Four days later, on Dec. 21, police found Lacey’s car abandoned in Fort Worth with an extensive amount of blood inside, the release stated.
On Jan. 3, 2020, a utility crew working in the 7100 block of Webb Ferrell Road found Lacey’s body dumped in a wooded area, police said.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office determined his death was caused by a gunshot wound to the head.
Detectives reviewed cell phone records and found that two calls were made between Lacey’s phone and another number on the day he went missing. That number was later linked to Jones, police said.
The cell phone records also showed that the two phones were consistently together on Dec. 17 and 18 at a location about 1.3 miles from where Lacey’s body was found, police said.
“Additionally, following heavy media coverage of the murder, detectives received multiple tips indicating that Jones may have been involved,” according to the release.
The lab results for testing of multiple DNA samples collected from the car showed a mixture of DNA from Lacey and an unidentified man, police said.
Police said although detectives had obtained a DNA swab from Jones, who was a person of interest, the lab at that time said the unknown man’s profile wasn’t developed enough for comparison.
In March, detectives met with a lab that believed it could separate out the DNA mixture from the samples in this case and provide a profile for the unknown man that would be sufficient for comparison, police said.
The lab isolated a profile from the car samples that was a match to Jones in April, police said.
“Our detectives hit many roadblocks throughout this investigation, but they never gave up,” Chief of Police Al Jones said in the release. “I’m proud of the outstanding police work they did and the proactive measures they took to identify the new technologies that ultimately helped us solve this case. It’s my hope that this news provides Mr. Lacey’s family with some relief and some semblance of closure that I know they’ve desperately waited for.”
Jones is awaiting extradition to Tarrant County and has declined to speak with detectives, police said.
This story was originally published May 28, 2025 at 4:55 PM.