Suspect Arrested in Case of Murdered Dallas Teen, Police Say

Dallas police are following new clues in the case of an 18-year-old girl who was killed on her way to church.

Antonio Lamar Cochran, 34, of Texarkana, Texas, is booked into Dallas County Jail on October 24 on a charge of capital murder in connection with the abduction and slaying of an 18-year-old. He was charged with capital murder and is being held on $2.5 million bail.

Police now have a description of a man who was last seen with Zoe Hastings, whose van was fished out of a creek not far from her home.

“The family of Zoe Hastings is extremely grateful to the Dallas Police Department for their swift action in making this arrest”, said family spokeswoman Shonn Brown.

Witnesses said they saw a man speaking to a woman who matched her description before getting into a minivan and driving away.

According to Major Max Geron, the witness said Hastings and the man exchanged words and the man then got into the driver’s seat of the van, while the woman moved to the passenger side. Once given to detectives assigned to the case, it took less than eight hours to find and arrest Cochran in an apartment in northeast Dallas Saturday morning.

Results of DNA testing on evidence collected at the crime scene came in late Friday night, Dallas police Maj. Police said they still are not sure why he targeted her. “I could just tell that she had died”. The minivan was located in a nearby creek.

Cochran was accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in 2014, but was acquitted by a jury in Bowie County, Texas, earlier this year, TXKtoday.com reported. A manager at a Hooters in Texarkana confirmed that he had worked there as a cook, but she said he hadn’t been employed there for at least three months.

Cochran said that he did have sex with the girl but that it was consensual.

Hastings was a 2015 graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. We also want to thank each and every person in the community who has supported us and the DPD in their efforts. “Because of the way that you came together, the police were able to act quickly and swiftly in arresting this suspect”.