In a sickening case, a twisted Texas man brutally murdered his friendly landlord neighbor — and then stole everything he owned, including his identity and home!
Photographer and hairstylist Christopher Brian Colbert, 43, is believed to have befriended victim Ronald Shumway, 57, before slaying the bus driver and later assuming his identity to sell his victim’s house to fund his fiendish getaway!
“It’s a horrible situation,” exclaimed Ronald’s distraught half-brother Mark. “A man was murdered, buried in his own backyard, had his property stolen and probably his bank accounts drained!”
Ronald was last seen April 24, 2015 — the same day his boss received a surprising email announcing his resignation.
On May 17, a real estate broker was contacted by a man who identified himself as Ronald, saying he wanted to sell his home. Just six days later, “Ronald” sent another email indicating he wanted to “sell quickly” and dropped the home price by $15,000.
At the June closing, an escrow officer asked the seller for identification, but he said he had forgotten his driver’s license, which he later faxed over with Colbert’s face attached to it.
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“It’s unfathomable that a sale of a property happened in this manner,” said Mark.
In September, the new owners began smelling “a strong odor” behind the house and dug up a cement slab. They broke it open and made the horrific discovery of a badly decomposed body inside a black plastic bag. DNA testing revealed the rotting corpse was Ronald.
Colbert is also accused of spending $40,000 on Ronald’s debit card.
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Ronald’s shaken neighbors now wait anxiously for the killer to be brought to justice.
“It’s a little unnerving that this happened in my backyard,” added Gregory Damman, who lives nearby. “I would hope detectives figure it out and catch this guy!”
