One Display Home From Murder

This story takes place in McKinney, Texas, about 30 miles north of Dallas. On July 8, 2006, a married couple had an appointment with a realtor to see a display home in a new upscale housing development. When they arrived and walked into the display home, they were surprised that she wasn’t there to greet them. And it was obvious that the living room was in disarray. As they walked in further, they found a trail of blood leading into the kitchen. There they found the body of realtor Sarah Walker, with multiple stab wounds, laying in a pool of her own blood. When police arrived they noticed there had been a massive struggle – furniture & plants knocked over all about the living room. Sarah had fought her attacker as much as she could. And there was a LOT of blood. Sarah was 40 years old, recently divorced from her 2nd husband, and had 2 children at the time of her murder. She beautiful, vivacious and very successful in her career. Investigators found video of Sarah just 2 hours before she was attacked making a transaction at a bank. They noted that in the video she was wearing an expensive ring and Rolex watch. Neither were found on her body. So first thoughts were they motive was robbery. But then her autopsy revealed that while Sarah had not been sexually assaulted, she had been beaten, stabbed more than 30 times AND had a bite mark on her neck, making the crime much more savage and personal. DNA was collected from under Sarah’s fingernails. Based on the estimated time of death, police knew that just 30 min prior to her murder, Sarah had been on the phone with her cousin. She had abruptly ended the call saying “sorry, I have to go, someone just walked in.” So they surmised that her killer had posed as a potential home buyer. Crime scene investigators believed Sarah was killed in the living room, then dragged into the kitchen. There was evidence that the killer may have cut themselves during the struggle. There were perfectly round drops of blood next to the body in the kitchen leading to the sink, where it was apparent the killer had tried to clean up. There was blood on the deadbolt on the door and on some closed blinds. The blood from the droplets as well as the material recovered from under Sarah’s fingernails created the same male DNA profile. But it was not a match to anyone in the system. The last person to see Sarah alive was her ex-husband, Randy Tate. She had dropped off their son at his house that morning before she went to work. Since it was a divorce he had instigated and that Sarah had not wanted, he was naturally a suspect. He had an alibi that he was playing golf that day. He started out very cooperative, but became less and less so in time. He was not comfortable given a DNA sample. Eventually he did and it was not a match to the killer’s profile. He was ruled out as a suspect. Investigators also discovered that Sarah had started using the dating site MillionaireMatch.com She hadn’t dated many people since her divorce, but this opened the door for all kinds of potential suspects. And disgruntled ones that she may have rejected. They interviewed every single man Sarah had spoken to from the website and each provided a DNA sample. None were a match. After several weeks police were running out of leads and the case on it’s way to becoming another cold case when they got a break. A call from a potential witness. Nelson Villavincenzio (Viya vi sen zio) told police that on the morning of the murder, his wife, a fellow realtor, had gotten a call from a man named Chan Lee asking to see the display home across the street where Sarah was working. She agreed to meet him, but had a bad feeling. So she had called the hotel he told her he was staying at and found out that no one by that name was staying at the hotel. But she her livelihood was selling houses, so she still went to meet him, but asked her husband, Nelson to come with. When they arrived at the display home, a white mustang pulled up and an Asian male wearing a sleeveless tshirt, jeans and sneakers got out of the car. They asked if he was Chan Lee. The man did not make eye contact with them, kinda shook his head and got back in the car and left. He and his wife went into the display home and thru the window Nelson saw Sarah arrive across the street. After a while, the decided “chan lee” was a no show and left. As they walked out to their car, they noticed the white mustang was parked next to Sarah’s car. For a moment, they thought about stopping in to say hello to Sarah, but it was 1pm and they were hungry and wanted to go grab lunch. Sarah’s body was discovered by the couple about 20 minutes later. Police had Nelson sit with a forensic hypnotist to try to help him remember as many details from that day and get the most accurate description of “Chan Lee”. Nelson described the Asian man he saw as being in his late 20’s, 5’7”, muscular with a buzzed haircut. A composite sketch was created and it was released to the media. Immediately, another female real estate agent reached out to police to say she regconized the man as someone she had rented a home to. And one time, he came to her own house saying his car broke down and demanded to use her phone. When she wouldn’t let him in, he got irate and went into her backyard and started banging on her backdoor. She had called the police and he was arrested. The man was 25 yr old Kosoul Chanthakoummane (Ko sool Chonta com on). He was born in the US but his parents were natives of Loas, which is in Asia between Thailand and Vietnam. Investigators discovered that Kosoul drove a white mustang, worked as a delivery truck driver and had a long history of violent offenses. While living with his parents in North Carolina, at 15 he attacked a classmate and was sent to juvenille detention for several months. Shortly after he got out, he stole a car. Then he was convicted of an armed robbery he committed at the age of 16 where he also kidnapped 2 elderly women. When he got out on parole, he was allowed to move to Texas to live with his sister, as she had agreed to help him clean up his act. That was only 6 months before Sarah’s murder. When detectives interviewed Kosoul, he denied knowing anything about Sarah’s murder or having any involvement. It was noticed that his left had had several freshly healed scars on his fingers. Looking at pictures on his cell phone, police found a picture of Kosoul pretending he was going to take a big bite out of his dog – a little while fluffy thing. Police took dental impressions of Kosoul’s teeth. They were a match to the bite mark on Sarah’s neck. And his DNA was a match to the profile of the killer. Prosecutors suspected Kosoul preyed on female realtors because they often work alone. The believed that his original target was Nelson Villavincenzio’s (Viya vi sen zio) wife, but he spooked when she showed up with her husband. He then drove away, circled the block, and came back to try the model across the street and found Sarah Walker inside, alone. His motive was simply murder. His defense attorney’s only hope was to downplay the murder as a burglary gone wrong. With 33 stab wounds, and a bite wound. In October 2006, Kosoul Chanthakoummane (Ko sool Chonta com on) was tried and convicted of capital murder. He was given the death sentence. But of course, he appealed. In 2019, 13 years after his conviction, Kosoul’s lawyer argued for a new trial because his trial lawyer told jurors he was guilty against his wishes. After all these years, he still maintained he was completely innocent. A new trial was denied. Finally in August of 2022, Kosoul was executed by lethal injection, 16 years after Sarah’s murder. He committed the murder at age 25, and he was executed at the age of 41. By this point he had spent about as much of his life in jail as he had out of jail. None of Sarah’s friends or family attended the execution, but he reported made a statement to them saying “I pray my death will bring them peace.” As he was injected, he looked over to his mother who was in attendance, and mouthed “Mom, I love you.” Sources: USA Today .com Kfmx .com Texas Tribune .org Forensic Files S13 E2 “house hunters”