Drowning reported as accident in 2013 was murder, police say. Fort Worth man charged.
A Fort Worth man was charged with murder on Wednesday in the 2013 drowning death of an 18-year-old woman, according to police and Tarrant County criminal court records.
Justin Michael Azocar, 31, was booked into the Fort Worth Jail on Monday after an investigation led to his arrest in the death of Sarah McKinney.
Fort Worth police declined to provide details of the investigation and the death.
Initially, McKinney’s death was ruled an accidental drowning after her body was found in the West Fork of the Trinity River in Fort Worth on July 30, 2013. The ruling was made by officials at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
A Tarrant County Regional Water District employee spotted her body floating face down near the river bank by Panther Island Pavilion in the 400 block of North Taylor Street.
But a criminal complaint filed with the murder charge on Wednesday indicated that Azocar, who was 24 years old at the time, pushed McKinney into the water, causing her to die.
Azocar’s first court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 17 in Criminal District Court No. 213 in Fort Worth.
Azocar was arrested twice before McKinney’s death, and he was charged with two other crimes after her body was found in 2013, according to criminal court records.
He was sentenced to 10 months in jail in December 2010 for burglary of a building, and 10 months in March 2012 for another burglary of a building charge. Both of the cases occurred in Fort Worth.
Azocar served 14 days in jail in 2013 for possession of marijuana and he was sentenced in May 2015 to four years in prison for aggravated assault with bodily injury, according to court records.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 1:56 PM.
