Texas school teacher Wendy Duan met alleged killer Charvas Thompson on dating app just week before murder
HOUSTON, TEXAS: A week prior to her murder on January 7, a Texas elementary school teacher Wendy Duan, 28 allegedly met her killer Charvas Thompson on a dating app. Duan was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in the backyard of her house.
On Wednesday, January 11, 2023, over 260 miles from the scene of the fatal shooting in Louisiana, the 26-year-old man Duan had been dating on "Meet Me" was detained in connection with the murder. Police responded to reports of a shooting at 9.50 pm January 7 in the 1100 block of Oxford Mills Lane in Sugar Land, Texas, when they found Wendy Duan, 28, dead in her backyard.
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Duan was a third-grade arts language teacher at Alief Independent School District. Duan's mother told KHOU11 that they met on the dating app 'MeetMe.' "She showed me the picture. I don't know his name," said Duan's mother, she further added, "She asked do you like him?' I said 'no,'" Duan's distraught mother, who did not want to be identified, recalled the moment when she learned about Thompson.
She warned Duan about the risks of meeting a stranger online but she never imagined her daughter would die like this. "It's unbelievable. The guy is very evil. He took her life away. I hope this guy gets the full legal punishment," she said.
Her mother recalls Duan as a dedicated teacher who would put her students first. "Every Thursday she asks me to go to the dollar store to buy gifts for kids," she said as per the outlet. Thompson is in the process of being extradited back to Texas. An arrest warrant was issued on Sunday charging Thompson with murder and setting his bond at $500,000, the Daily Mail reported.
"I still can't believe that I won ESL teacher of the year lol The whole time I kept telling people that there was no way that I would win, especially going against other teachers who have been teaching way longer than I have. Thanks to the people who believed in me and voted for me!," Wendy wrote on her Facebook last year in December.
The Alief Independent School District wrote in a statement: "We are deeply saddened to learn about the tragic passing of Alief ISD employee Wendy Duan. She was a third-grade reading and writing teacher at Boone Elementary. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family during this difficult time. She is a 2017 Graduate of the University of Houston and was on the Dean's List in the College of Education from Fall 2015-2017 and is the HAABE (Houston Area Association of Bilingual Educators) 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year." Wendy's Instagram bio read, "Live life to the fullest. We are only getting older."