Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 2, 2015 20:44:54 GMT -5
Unsolved: The 2007 Murder of Linda Muegge
FREDERICKSBURG, Tex. – Gillespie County Crime Stoppers have doubled the reward in the unsolved 2007 murder of Linda Muegge. During the month of July, $10,000 is offered for any information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who killed her.
Shannon Ramsey will never forget the call from police telling her someone had murdered her sister. “I remember dropping the phone and hitting the pavement.” On May 14, 2007, the volunteer fire department arrived at 506 Franklin Street around 8 p.m. They were able to extinguish the fire, but the one-story home was a total loss.
The medical examiner revealed Linda Muegge, 55, “had sustained trauma reflective of homicide prior to the structure fire.” According to Ramsey, the killer, or killers, stabbed Muegge in the head and neck and set fire to her home. “I just couldn’t conceive of anybody who knew her doing that to her. ... You lose everything. She was my sister, my best friend.”
At the crime scene, police discovered a knife in the living room. They also found Muegge’s handbag and a large sum of cash, leading investigators to conclude robbery was not the motive. Witnesses reported seeing a teenage boy on a bicycle in the vicinity at the time of the fire, but nothing came of the lead.
There were no immediate suspects, but investigators were intrigued by two bizarre incidents that occurred prior to the murder. The first happened in 2003 when Muegge reported that a suspicious man named Frank had followed her home. “Linda rarely got freaked out by something, but that guy freaked her out,” Ramsey revealed. “Enough that she called me.” Unfortunately, police were never able to locate or identify the man. Then, in 2006, someone shot two of Muegge’s sheep with a .22 rifle. “They were shot in the pen, which is not that far from the back of the house,” Ramsey said.
After talking with family members and consulting other law enforcement agencies, the evidence seemed to point to Fred Muegge, Linda’s ex-husband. However, Ramsey is undecided: “Some days I think he might have, and other days I know in my heart he didn’t.” According to Fred Muegge, he was taking a yoga class 80 miles away in Austin the night of the fire and credit card receipts confirmed someone used his card at the location, but no one was able to confirm Fred was the one who swiped the card. “He was not 100 percent cleared,” said Terry Weed, with the Fredericksburg Police. Additionally, according to investigators, Fred Muegge failed two polygraph tests and his DNA was discovered at the scene. Fred Muegge died in December 2013 and many who knew him insisted he was incapable of killing his former wife or anyone else.
Weed is convinced whomever killed Linda Muegge went to her home with the intention of committing murder. “I think the person that did it, that was their mission,” Weed insisted. “It was his mission that night … was to go over there and murder her.”
Muegge owned a catering business and raised horses, goats and sheep. She was also a gardener and linguist and taught school for a while. “She was just a unique individual with a finely-tuned sense of right and wrong,” Ramsey recalled. “She was a photographer, she was a dancer, she had a spot secured in the Houston City Ballet when she was 19.” Some of Linda’s jewelry was recovered from the fire and Ramsey often wears her sister’s earrings. The two were so close that Ramsey and her husband built a house on the spot where Linda Muegge’s house once stood. In the kitchen, her sister’s last menu hangs on the wall. “Coffee crusted brisket with horseradish mashed potatoes and Southern style green beans,” she read.
More than eight years later, police have neither a suspect nor a viable lead and the family is hoping someone will come forward. “I really hope, as awful as it sounds, the increased dollar amount will bring someone out of the woodwork,” Ramsey said. “My mother, it’s been very difficult ... She wants to know who killed her daughter ... She just turned 91 and I really hope we find her an answer soon.”
If you have any information, call Gillespie County Crime Stoppers at 830-997-8477. You can remain anonymous. According to the Fredericksburg police chief, there have been just three murders in the city and this is the only one that hasn’t been solved.
Source: Shannon Murray, KVUE News, July 1, 2015, and Dawn Denny, KXAN News.
