CORYELL COUNTY, Texas — A 36-year-old woman who was wanted in the murder of a missing Waco woman was arrested at a home in Hamilton by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, according to a Monday news release.
Erin Baily Finchum was wanted on warrants for murder and tampering/fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair related to the murder of Elizabeth Ann Romero in May, the news release said. The warrants were issued by the Coryell County Sheriff's Office (CCSO).
Authorities say Finchum's arrest is the latest arrest in this case. The first two happened in May and involved a mother and daughter.
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Romero was first reported missing by her family in Waco on April 8. Waco PD said when investigators pinged her cell phone, it showed her last known location was in Gatesville on April 2.
According to an arrest affidavit first reported about in September, CCSO received a tip on May 2 that Romero was killed. The person who gave the tip said Romero's body was "dumped off a bridge" from a blue pickup truck.
Jessica Colleen Robinson was later arrested and is accused of shooting Romero in April at a home on Moccasin Bend Road in Gatesville, according to the affidavit.
Jessica Robinson was arrested May 19 on a theft charge in which she was accused of stealing lumber on March 31. The affidavit says Romero was involved in that theft. It says they used a truck owned by Jessica Robinson's mother, Betsy Ayers Robinson.
Betsy Robinson was interviewed by investigators May 19. She admitted her daughter shot Romero at Betsy Robinson home on Moccasin Bend Road, according to the affidavit. She said she did not know where the body was dumped.
According to the affidavit, Finchum was also interviewed May 19. She told investigators she was also there when Jessica Robinson shot Romero. Finchum said Jessica Robinson shot Romero twice in the upper chest with a revolver while she was sitting on a couch.
Betsy Robinson told investigators her daughter and Finchum believed Romero owed them money from the sale of the stolen lumber, according to the affidavit. She said Romero was forced to "strip down like an inmate so she (Jessica Robinson) could search her person and property for the money she received from the lumber sale."
Betsy Robinson said she was in the house when her daughter shot Romero, the affidavit states. Betsy Robinson said she told Finchum and her daughter to "get a trash bag to prevent blood from going everywhere."
According to the affidavit, Betsy Robinson asked a man named Cody Gene Ayers to take the couch out of the house and burn it. Ayers admitted to cutting the couch up with a reciprocating saw and taking it to a burn pit.
Jessica Robinson was charged with Capital Murder. Betsy Robinson was charged with Murder. Both remain in the Coryell County Jail.
Ayers was arrested in August and charged with tampering with evidence. He is out on bond.
