Texas man on trial in 2017 killing of Fort Worth woman who had just stopped at store
A murder trial is underway this week for a Sansom Park man accused of stabbing a woman to death and leaving her body in her truck in 2017.
Tarrant County prosecutors are presenting the case against 34-year-old Victor Torres, who is charged with murder in the death of 36-year-old Tijuana Terry of Fort Worth on March 31, 2017.
The trial is in Criminal District Court No. 2 in Fort Worth.
Torres was arrested months after Terry was stabbed to death on the city’s north side.
Tijuana drove to a convenience store on Azle Avenue on March 31, 2017, and never returned home.
Store surveillance video obtained by her family shows Terry driving the truck and arriving at the store. Within seconds, the video shows, a man jumps into the passenger side of the truck and the truck leaves about 10:45 a.m. At the time, family members said the man was interviewed by police, but he was not arrested.
Tijuana Terry was pronounced dead at 11:33 a.m. in the 4900 block of Azle Avenue in the truck, which was found in a grassy area near the street.
She was stabbed more than 10 times while she fought off her attacker, her family has said.
“An animal did that to my daughter,” Sharon Terry told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in a 2017 interview from her home as she sat with friends and family members. “She’s had her troubles, but she didn’t deserve to die that way.”
At the time, Fort Worth police did not release information on a motive for the homicide.
Cousin Lisa Terry of Fort Worth said in a 2017 interview that she talked to Tijuana Terry the day before she died.
“She wasn’t nervous and didn’t mention about having any problems with anyone,” Lisa Terry said. “She would have told me.”
This story was originally published September 21, 2022 at 1:03 PM.
