Fort Worth mother finds slain son’s decomposed body after returning home from trip
Fort Worth police officers found the body of a 38-year-old man on the kitchen floor of a mobile home on Aug. 12, and by Sept. 14, a suspect was in jail.
Officers arrived at a residence in the 6800 block of Randol Mill Road about 11 p.m. on Aug. 12, and discovered the body of Joseph Anthony Stefano, according to a police report.
Authorities arrested Dennard Bullard, who is also 38. Bullard is facing a murder charge, according to jail records. Bond has not been set.
Bullard was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents on Sept. 14 after the issuance of a probable cause arrest warrant when he crossed back over and was booked into the San Diego County jail, said Christina Watson, the investigating officer.
It has since been learned that Bullard crossed into Mexico a few days after the murder, prior to the victim’s body being found, Watson said.
Stefano’s mother called 911 to tell them there was a dead body in her house. Due the condition of the body, Stefano’s mother, Lisa, could not be sure it was her son, according to the warrant.
“I had no idea that was my son,” Lisa Stefano told the Star-Telegram. “It looked to me like it was a 300-pound Black man because my son had been sitting in there decaying for a week. It did not look like my son, who was maybe 160 pounds.”
Lisa Stefano said a representative with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office called and said her son had been positively identified through his fingerprints.
The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide, reporting that Stefano had been shot several times in the head. Investigators believe Stefano was shot multiple times on Aug. 6, according to the warrant.
Lisa Stefano left her residence at the Summit Mobile Home Park in Fort Worth that she shared with Bullard and her son on Aug. 5. When the mother returned on Aug. 12, the door to the house was locked and she had to climb through a broken window to get inside, the warrant said.
“I was out of town for a funeral and was not there,” Lisa Stefano said. “It was apparently an extremely violent confrontation. My sisters had to pack up the house. I couldn’t handle it. I don’t ever want to live at that home again.”
The mother told police officers that she had received a call on Aug. 6 from a neighbor who said a window was broken and water was running under the house. Lisa Stefano said she would get a friend to check on the home, the warrant said.
The mother said she later spoke to Bullard over the phone who said he would turn off the water but he would not say what caused the windows to be broken, the affidavit said.
The body was draped by a sheet and wearing bloody clothes, and blood was found in several surfaces and on clothing in different areas of the home when Lisa Stefano got inside the residence, the affidavit said.
The location of the blood stains, the amount of blood and the damage in the residence indicted a violent struggle had taken place inside, the police concluded. There were also signs that the suspect may have been injured, the affidavit said.
“Bullard seemed like a decent guy or I never would have let him live there,” Lisa Stefano said of the suspect. “He took care of my four dogs and he kept the house clean. I had no idea he had the potential for that amount of violence.”
Police found several spent .38-caliber cartridges and two Taurus handgun boxes with the identifying labels torn off. Police also discovered three 40-caliber shell casings and two warranty cards for Taurus firearms.
One neighbor who saw the broken glass and running water pouring out underneath the mobile home knocked on the door for several minutes but got no answer, the affidavit said.
The neighbor left the area momentarily and saw the mother’s friend speaking with Bullard when she returned. The neighbor asked Bullard about the broken windows and he said there had been a fight day or two before, but he assured her that it had been nothing, the affidavit said.
Bullard only opened the door a little, blocking the neighbor’s view of the inside of the mobile home, the affidavit said. The neighbor also told police that Bullard seemed agitated during the encounter, according to the affidavit.
Lisa Stefano told officers that Bullard had lived with her and her son for the past five years, and had previously been arrested for assaulting her son, the arrest warrant said. Lisa Stefano said neither she nor her son owned a gun, the warrant said.
Officers checked beneath the house and found a PVC pipe with a hole in it and were also able to retrieve a projectile from the ground beneath the pipe.
Lisa Stefano told police that when she left on Aug. 5, both Bullard and her son were in good health and that none of the damage visible in the residence existed.
Bullard and her son were not involved in any long-standing feuds or disagreements, but were not getting along well, Lisa Stefano said. And as far as she knew, Bullard had no friends or family in Mexico, she said.
“If he did, I don’t think he would have ever come back,” Lisa Stefano said.
