Christina Morris was last seen alive walking into a Plano, Texas parking garage with Enrique Arochi, a former high school classmate, in the early hours of August 30, 2014. No one has ever been charged with killing her. Arochi was convicted of aggravated kidnapping in September 2016 and sentenced to life in prison, and prosecutors built their case on the conclusion that he abducted her from that garage and she never came back.1Justia. Enrique Arochi v. The State of Texas Her skeletal remains were found nearly four years later in a rural area about 35 miles from where she vanished, and their condition made a cause of death difficult to determine.2NBC News. Remains Found in Wooded Area Identified as Christina Morris, Missing Since 2014
The Last Time She Was Seen
Christina, 23, had spent the evening of August 29, 2014, with friends at The Shops at Legacy, a shopping and entertainment complex in Plano. At about 3:55 a.m. on August 30, surveillance cameras recorded her walking into a parking garage next to Enrique Arochi. Her car stayed in the garage, untouched. Arochi’s gray 2010 Chevrolet Camaro left minutes later.1Justia. Enrique Arochi v. The State of Texas
Family reported her missing. Volunteers and law enforcement searched wooded areas and bodies of water across the region and turned up nothing.
What Investigators Found on Arochi
When a detective first interviewed Arochi on September 2, 2014, the physical signs did not match his account. Arochi had bruising on the inside of his right forearm, scratches and abrasions running up his arm, and injuries to the knuckles of both hands. Coworkers had seen more the day after Christina disappeared: he came to work limping and scraped up, and one coworker believed there was a bite mark on the inside of his forearm. His girlfriend had noticed cuts on his right hand that evening.1Justia. Enrique Arochi v. The State of Texas
The Camaro told its own story. A fresh dent sat on the right front fender. Arochi said he had punched the car in frustration, but an accident reconstruction expert testified that a fist could not have made a crease that deep and that the damage was consistent with a soft impact such as a body, buttocks, hips, or head. By the time police photographed the car again in December, the shape of the dent had changed, suggesting someone had tried to repair it.1Justia. Enrique Arochi v. The State of Texas
Arochi’s story kept changing. He gave police multiple accounts of the night, and details about where he and Christina went in the garage, what they discussed, and when they separated shifted between versions. Investigators described a pattern of intentional deception. He was first charged with interfering with the investigation in November 2014.3KHOU 11. Man Last Seen With Missing Texas Woman Arrested
The DNA in the Trunk
The case broke open with DNA recovered from the Camaro. A forensic analyst at the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification tested material from the trunk mat and the edge of the trunk opening. It matched Christina Morris. The analyst testified that the odds of the DNA belonging to someone else were 1 in 1.7 quintillion when compared to other Caucasian individuals.1Justia. Enrique Arochi v. The State of Texas
Prosecutors argued that Arochi had gone to significant lengths to clean the car. A Plano detective who placed a tracking device on the Camaro shortly after Christina vanished testified that the undercarriage was “absurdly clean.” Police also recovered empty bottles of cleaning products and black gorilla tape from Arochi’s trash. Blood-detection tests on the trunk came back negative, which prosecutors attributed to meticulous cleaning.4NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. DNA Evidence Focus of Day 7 of Enrique Arochi Kidnapping Trial
Cell phone location data added another piece. Records showed that both Arochi’s and Christina’s phones pinged in the same area north of The Shops at Legacy roughly an hour after they entered the parking garage, placing them together well past the point Arochi claimed they had separated.
Arrest, Trial, and Life Sentence
On December 13, 2014, Plano police arrested Arochi and charged him with aggravated kidnapping.5WFAA. TIMELINE: Christina Morris Case His trial opened in Collin County in September 2016. Prosecutors relied almost entirely on circumstantial evidence: the surveillance footage of Christina walking into the garage with Arochi and his car leaving without her, the DNA in the trunk, the injuries on his body, the damage to the Camaro that an expert linked to a body impact, and the shifting statements he gave investigators.
The jury deliberated for 17 hours before finding Arochi guilty of aggravated kidnapping on September 21, 2016. The court sentenced him to life in prison with no eligibility for parole until he has served at least 30 years.6NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Enrique Arochi Sentenced to Life in Prison for Christina Morris Kidnapping The Texas Fifth Court of Appeals later affirmed the conviction, finding a rational jury could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that he kidnapped her.1Justia. Enrique Arochi v. The State of Texas
Why No One Was Charged With Murder
Christina’s remains were not found until March 2018, when construction workers clearing brush in a rural area of Anna, Texas, about 35 miles northeast of The Shops at Legacy, discovered them. The Collin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed through forensic analysis that they belonged to her.2NBC News. Remains Found in Wooded Area Identified as Christina Morris, Missing Since 2014
The remains were skeletal, and investigators said at the time that determining a cause of death would be difficult given their condition. No murder charges have been filed against Arochi or anyone else. His aggravated kidnapping sentence already keeps him in prison for decades, and no one has publicly been identified as responsible for her death.