Dallas detectives working the Zoe Hastings murder case have announced that DNA was used to swiftly bring the suspect into custody over the weekend.
Hastings, 18, did not previously know the 34-year-old black man who abducted and killed her, they also confirmed.
“Sexual predator” Antonio Lamar Cochran was captured on surveillance video approaching his victim at a Walgreen’s store not far from where her van and dead body was later discovered in a streambed.
Traffic cams also showed him entering Zoe Hasting’s vehicle on the driver’s side then colliding with a curb as he was exiting the parking lot with her in the passenger seat.
Little other details about how the devout young Christian was slain have been offered by police, except to say that her body displayed “obvious” signs of homicidal violence.
Repeat-offender Cochran reportedly told his arresting officer that the two had “consensual” sex -- something which not only seems unlikely but fails to explain why the teen was murdered.
He faces capital charges for her killing and is being held at the Dallas County Jail on $2.5-million bond.
