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Florida man shot dead Fort Hood soldier in his Jeep, burnt vehicle after dumping body on roadside

Brandon Michael Olivares has been charged in the death of Pfc. Brandon Scott Rosecrans, whose body was found on May 18 in Harker Heights
PUBLISHED AUG 9, 2020
Brandon Michael Olivares, Brandon Rosecrans (Bell County Jail, Fort Hood)
Brandon Michael Olivares, Brandon Rosecrans (Bell County Jail, Fort Hood)

HARKER HEIGHTS, TEXAS: A 28-year old man has been charged with murder months after the body of Fort Hood Pfc. Brandon Scott Rosecrans, 27, was found on the side of the road in Harker Heights. According to Harker Heights police, an arrest warrant was issued last week for Brandon Michael Olivares in connection with the shooting death of the soldier. The arrest warrant affidavit was released Friday, August 7. On May 18 the corpse of the slain soldier was discovered along Fuller Lane on the southern edge of Harker Heights.

Olivares was served with the murder warrant on Wednesday at the Bell County Jail where he is being held since early June on an unrelated weapons charge. According to jail records, he was charged with third-degree felony possession of a firearm and a parole violation. He is being held on bonds totaling $1.1 million.

Investigators believed that Rosecrans was shot four times at close range most probably while he was asleep in the passenger seat of his 2016 Jeep Renegade, which was found ablaze nearly three miles away near the 2500 block of Jubilation Drive. They also beleive that shortly before the soldier's death, Olivares and Rosecrans were driving in Rosecran's Jeep when Olivares shot him and left his body on the secluded road. 

No motives behind the murder have been ascertained yet. “The arrest just gave us even more questions,” Thomas Berg, Rosecrans’ father, said, according to the Statesman. “We do know there are other warrants that will follow.”

Home security cameras played a major role in the investigation that led to the suspect's arrest. In one of the surveillance videos, the Jeep was seen entering a neighborhood near where Rosecrans’ body was found at around 7:15 a.m. on the day the body was found and leaving about six minutes later, the affidavit says. Another footage showed the vehicle arriving in a neighborhood near the wooded area where the vehicle was evidently set on fire. Some of the videos also showed Olivares walking away from the area where the jeep was set on fire on May 18. 

Inside the jeep, items that investigaters believe belong to the soldier were found such as clothing, shoes and audio equipment, along with what appeared to be a bullet hole in the rear passenger side door.

So far during interrogation sessions with investigators, Olivares has denied shooting Rosecrans. Instead, he claimed that his girlfriend and another man had driven to San Antonio to purchase “illegal narcotics" on the night of May 17 and morning of May 18, despite authorities using cellphone data to establish that Rosecrans and Olivares were together during the mentioned time frame. Also, there were no narcotics recovered after the discovery of Rosecrans’ body and the burning Jeep.

The other man’s girlfriend, however, told investigators that Olivares and his girlfriend turned up at her home and said the suspect told her “he has just killed a man and the man he killed, Rosecrans, was being ‘too greedy.’”

 A memorial ceremony was held Thursday for Rosecrans at the Operation Iraqi Freedom Chapel by Fort Hood’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division’s unit. The soldier's family as well as friends and fellow soldier's family as well as friends and fellow soldiers were in attendance. ''The best way we can honor his memory, in my mind, is to work together every day to build our legacy,” said Capt. Jordan Holmlund. “We can do that by continuing to ensure that this organization takes care of its Soldiers, mentors them, and makes them proud to serve this country.”

There have been a string of at least seven suspicious deaths and disappearances of soldiers stationed at Fort Hood in the last five months.

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