TEXARKANA, Texas–A man arrested last week in the September 2017 murder of his girlfriend allegedly confessed to strangling her while being driven to the hospital by an Atlanta, Texas, police officer.
Russell Soule, 33, allegedly asked police to take him to a local emergency room for an “evaluation” on March 5, according to a probable cause affidavit. Soule allegedly told the officer driving him that he had killed his girlfriend. Soule allegedly told a detective with the Atlanta police in an interview at the hospital that during an argument he had strangled Lindsey Torres in the bathtub of the apartment they shared in the Wake Village, Texas, community in Bowie County.
Det. Chris Cobb of the Wake Village Police Dept., traveled to Atlanta to meet with Soule at the Atlanta Police Dept. where he was being held on a charge of resisting arrest. Soule allegedly declined to be interviewed by Det. Cobb without a lawyer.
Investigators were suspicious after Torres’ death Sept. 15, 2017. Soule had called 911 and reported that he found her unresponsive in the bathtub, which was full of water, according to the affidavit.
At autopsy, the medical examiner noted the presence of burst blood vessels in Torres’ eyes, which is indicative of strangling, however, the cause of her death was determined to be drowning with the manner of death ruled undetermined. Medical examiners typically enter a finding as to whether a person’s manner of death is from natural causes, an accident, suicide, undetermined, or homicide, which involves death at the hands of another person.
Because the medical examiner ruled Torres’ manner of death undetermined in 2017, Soule was not charged.
Given Soule’s statements to law enforcement in Atlanta, he has been charged with murder in Bowie County and is currently being held in the Bowie County jail in downtown Texarkana with bail set at $1 million.
If convicted of murder in Torres’ death, Soule faces five to 99 years or life in a Texas prison.
