Posted on January 7, 2008

Cannibalism Suspect: ‘God Told Me to Do It’

Kenneth Dean, Tyler (Texas) Morning Telegraph, January 7, 2008

Sheriff officials say the man accused of murdering his girlfriend, mutilating her body and possibly participating in cannibalism is telling investigators that “God told me to do it.”

Smith County Sheriff Lt. Larry Wiginton told the Tyler Paper this morning that Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, is now saying he was instructed by God to kill 21-year-old Jana Shearer over the weekend and then mutilate her body and cook parts of her flesh.

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Sheriff J. B. Smith told the newspaper on Sunday that investigators found Shearer’s body with chunks of flesh cut out, one ear boiling in a pot of water on the stove and a plate of human flesh with a fork on the kitchen table in the brick home at 423 Princess Place in Tyler.

Officials said that McCuin killed the woman by beating her in the head with a blunt object after abducting her from her Whitehouse apartment, put her body in the back seat of his extended cab pickup, drove to his estranged wife’s home where he stabbed her boyfriend multi-ple times, ran from police, broke into a Tyler business and then finally went to his mother’s home where he asked her to come look what he had done.

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Wiginton said investigators are still working the case and that they need help in locating where the actual murder took place.

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Wiginton said that when questioned, McCuin claims he remembers going to several places, but when asked if he killed Ms. Shearer or stabbed his estranged wife’s boyfriend, McCuin says he suffered blackouts and doesn’t remember.


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Sheriff J.B. Smith told the Tyler Morning Telegraph that 25-year-old Christopher Lee McCuin sits in his solitary jail cell with a nonchalant attitude expressing no remorse for the “horrible acts” he is accused of carrying out against Jana Shearer, 21.

Smith said investigators found Shearer’s body with chunks of flesh cut out, one ear boiling in a pot of water on the stove and a plate of human flesh with a fork on the kitchen table in the brick home at 423 Princess Place in Tyler.

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McCuin remains in the Smith County jail on capital murder charges and a $2 million bond.

Night of Crime

Sheriff’s officials say McCuin went to Shearer’s home in Whitehouse Friday night and the two talked, but no one saw her alive again.

“She let him in the house and the two talked for awhile and then they went outside,” Smith said. “That’s the last time anyone saw her, and we feel she was taken against her will because she was not wearing any shoes, she didn’t have her purse or her cell phone.”

Smith said sometime after abducting the woman, McCuin is believed to have killed her by beating her in the head with a blunt object multiple times. They believe she was killed in the southern part of the county, but they have not located the murder scene.

“This was a very violent murder and he beat her many, many times,” he said. “We believe he then placed her in the backseat of the pickup, but we’re not sure.”

Smith said McCuin then drove to his estranged wife’s home on County Road 413 between 3 and 3:30 a.m., broke in and fought with William Veasley, 42, who was stabbed several times in the shoulder area.

McCuin was still at the home on CR 413 when deputies arrived, but jumped in his truck and drove off, which triggered a short police chase.

“The deputies took out after him, but quickly lost him,” Smith said. “We don’t know if the body was in the truck at that time or not.”

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It is believed McCuin then broke into Tyler Custom Openings on Loop 323, but detectives do not know if he took anything or why he went there. It would be several hours before McCuin arrived at his mother’s home in the usually quiet Wellington Place subdivision located off Texas Highway 64 west near Tyler Pounds Regional Airport.

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At 9:58 a.m. McCuin called the Smith County 911 dispatcher and in a “matter of fact” way said he had killed his girlfriend and was boiling parts of her.

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In Custody

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Smith said toxicology tests were being done to see if McCuin was under the influence of narcotics.

He said McCuin is being checked every 10 minutes, but has shown no indications of suicidal behavior.

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